Kirkland Avenue AGREEMENT Joe Blumenthal
June 3, 2009
Joe Blumenthal
J-Bar, Inc.
c/o Downtown Sounds
21 Pleasant St
Northampton, MA 01060
Sent as FAX to Tim Washburn 413-586-2156
RE: Kirkland Avenue Alley and Alcove
Dear Joe:
I want to follow up on our conversation on Tuesday in our search to at least partially clean up the title
issues and tax title issues for Kirkland Avenue, both the alley between the parking lot and Pleasant
Street and the alcove shared by your property, 129 Pleasant Street, and the Woolworths Building.
As you know, there are several outstanding issues:
1. A lack of absolute clarity to the title to the alley and alcove, although you are claiming half of the
alcove based on the derelict fee statute;
2. An outstanding tax title (back property taxes, interest, and penalties totaling over $45,000 last time I
checked) on the alley and alcove;
3. Our regulatory limits to granting permits on properties in tax title;
4. The cumbersome process to have a court adjudicate property ownership, validity of tax title claims,
and splitting tax title.
Therefore, we propose the following steps as a complete package to at least partially address these
issues.
1. You pay $10,000 to the city as a partial payment toward the Kirkland Avenue tax title by June 10,
2009. Only land court can formally split up a tax title bill, but at least you would be paying the
portion of the bill that, at a minimum, is attributable to you.
2. We would take your survey that shows title to the half of the alcove and we would use that as a
basis for revising the Assessors maps and adding this land to your parcel. We can’t make any
representation as to your title to this property, but we will accept the survey absent any evidence to
the contrary.
3. New taxes (starting in FY2010) would be allocated based on new assessors map lines, and your bill
would not be co-mingled with other properties.
4. By June 10, 2009, you would provide the city with a quit claim deed to the half of Kirkland Avenue
(the alley) abutting your property (including the portion of the alcove that your survey shows you
own), on the theory that if you are right about the alcove you own the same half of the alley
abutting your property and your half of the alcove. You would retain an easement to existing fire
escapes or protruding structures on your building over the alley and we would note that any
easements of record, including without limits rights-of-way, remain in place.
5. We would pay $4,400 as a partial payment toward the Kirkland Avenue tax title by July 30, 2009,
again based on the portion of the bill that seems attributable to this land.
6. You and the City Treasurer enter into a Payment Agreement, which the City Treasurer has separately
provided to you. (We have calculated that if this agreement was applied to all of the other sections
of Kirkland Avenue the same payment arrangement that would pay off the tax title). We cannot
make any representations as to what other private parties would do and cannot legally release the
tax title until it is paid off, the Department of Revenue declares it void, or Land Court apportions the
tax bill between different properties.
If this is agreeable, please sign the acceptance of terms below ON TWO COPIES no later than June 8,
2009 and return to me.
Thank you for helping us resolve this matter.
Sincerely,
Wayne Feiden, FACIP
Director of Planning and Development
Terms Agreed to:
Joseph Blumenthal date