Photo: Annamarya Scaccia/West Philly Local
After years of uneven and stalled construction, the eyesore of a site at 4809 Chester Avenue was recently put up for sale and it’s going for a whopping $549,000.
The three-story residential project has a long and sordid history. The nearly 5,000 sq-ft lot, which was bought empty by Antonie Gardiner’s company Bizness as Usual Inc. in 2004, received 15 code violations since 2007—all of which were resolved, according to a March 13 Philadelphia Inquirer article. The piece also reports that, from 2003 forward, Gardiner owed $5,324 in delinquent taxes, penalties, and interest, and has set up a payment arrangement on the property with a city collection agency. And that’s not all—the Southwest Cedar Park site is allegedly one of Gardiner’s 58 delinquent properties, states The Inquirer.
The unfinished Chester Avenue project is being sold as-is by the owner, according to an online listing by Fred R. Levine Real Estate, the agent on the property. The post catalogs the building as a three-story single-family detached home with six bedrooms, four full and two partial bathrooms, a garage, parking space, basement, electric heat, and a brick exterior.
When West Philly Local visited the site on Wednesday, the unsecured property was still overwhelmed by a muddy and uneven front yard, cut through by equipment tracks and peppered with murky puddles, debris, and litter. The entryway is also boarded up by two sections of large wood planks, with a small “SALE” plaque by Fred R. Levine Real Estate tacked to the right side.
-Annamarya Scaccia
June 28th, 2013 at 11:50 am
“Bizness as Usual Inc”
Indeed…
June 28th, 2013 at 12:19 pm
Everyone who lives near here PLEASE make a complaint to L and I regarding all the dirt and debris blocking the sidewalk and taking up parking spaces. http://www.phila.gov/li/Pages/ReportaProblem.aspx
June 28th, 2013 at 2:05 pm
Done! Thanks for this link.
July 2nd, 2013 at 9:56 am
I just did this, as well!
June 28th, 2013 at 1:06 pm
This [edited] has allowed a $300/year tax bill balloon into $5,023.09 in liens. For reasons I cannot determine, the holder of the liens, GRB Collection Agency, has no interest in forcing it to sheriff’s sale at this time. What a mess.
June 28th, 2013 at 2:00 pm
How did this thing ever get approval to be built anyway? It looks so out of place next to the Victorian twin. For two years I have had to push my kid’s stroller through or around this mud-caked, trash-filled mess.
June 28th, 2013 at 2:31 pm
$550K?! Talk about wishful thinking…
June 28th, 2013 at 4:03 pm
“brick exterior”? Not quite yet!
Too bad he wasn’t growing marijuana on the property. Then the city would have taken the violations seriously and descended on that place with all their might.
June 28th, 2013 at 10:00 pm
That’s kind of an optimistic listing. I assume the inside looks as splendid as the outside.
Personally, I wouldn’t offer them more than the value of the lot, minus any demo costs.