The city will foreclose on a contaminated industrial property with significant tax liens in hopes of cleaning it up.

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.City Council approved a series of resolutions at its Nov. 21 regular meeting to begin foreclosure proceedings on 767 Leesville Ave. (Block 279, Lot 10):

• (AR-248-23) authorizes the city attorney to foreclose;
• (AR-251-23) directs the Planning Board to investigate whether the property should be designated an area in need of redevelopment; and,
• (AR-252-23) retains retaining counsel to perform the In Rem Foreclosure (Keith A. Bonchi of Goldenberg, Mackler, Sayegh, Mintz, Pfeffer, Bonchi & Gill submitted a Nov. 3 proposal).

The property is contaminated and has liens on it, according to William George, public relations coordinator for the city. New funding is available through the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Brownfields Development Area Program, he said. “This is one of the sites the city would like to see cleaned up and have a taxable use,” he said.

The 2-acre industrial site near the Woodbridge border is assessed for $635,900, which generates a property tax bill of about $46,617, according to property records. A 2011 tax sale certificate of $42,116 and subsequent taxes of $1.116 million, according to the resolution.

Property records indicate the owner is Industrial Corner Corp. (ICC), with an Amherst, Mass., address. Signage on the building still indicates Summit Finishing, Inc.

The property has been the subject of litigation for years. ICC filed suit against two insurance providers for breach of policy agreements for not funding remediation of the site. ICC has owned the property since about 1971, leasing it to Meridian Industrial Knight Finishing, Ltd., and a successor entity, Summit Finishing, Inc., until 2008, according to court documents. In 1974, a storage tank spill resulted in soil and groundwater contamination from perchloroethylene, a solvent used in cleaning metal and dry-clean fabric.

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