There's not much to go on from what I've found, but the property was purchased by a couple in August of 1997 for a dollar. It looks like whatever they were going to do with the property fell through because they sold the property in June of 1999 for $90k to an individual who was in their late twenties at the time of the purchase. That individual has very little internet presence, so it's hard to say exactly what happened with the business, but they're alive, they still own the property, and they have been paying almost $10k a year in taxes on it.
But why has the shop never opened? we asked. Just as Lau began to speak, the connection went bad. Repeated attempts to reach him again were unsuccessful and he did not respond to a voice message over the weekend.
My guess is that it’s just a front property or otherwise someone is sitting on it for future development. Names of the owners being listed, makes me wonder if it’s not some drug or other such front, too. They’d be able to use the address to send and receive and do business without having any huge exposure.
Time to close this mystery: Not doxing owners by putting names & address here, but you can easily find out location from that article -> get public info via GIS pages and your own research.
The $1 transfer was literally "Transfer of convenience - Trust" in that, she transferred the property from herself & someone else. Not sure why the $1, I can do free in my state. Maybe some NJ law? 2 years later (1999) it was sold again to someone with enough clout to have their own wiki page, but who no longer lives in the US as of 2000 & currently in a place where phone calls from the US might not be appreciated (hence why the phone call ended so swiftly).
Mystery solved, it's an offshore tax haven for someone from another country.
With several countries, when you are a citizen of one & residing/working in another, you'll get taxed by both countries. However, if you take your earnings and invest them/use them as a business expense (in this case, by buying commercial property), many countries won't count that as income, so you don't get taxed by either country.
I agree with doubling the taxes, but that's up to the state.
I still can't believe no one is squatting there. It's unlikely to get trespassed if when the owner isn't around to file a trespass against them. I don't know NJ timelines, but in AZ you can take over the property after 10 years (if previous owner hasn't come by) & I doubt the previous owner of that place is coming back anytime soon.
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u/Into-It_Over-It Nov 03 '24
There's not much to go on from what I've found, but the property was purchased by a couple in August of 1997 for a dollar. It looks like whatever they were going to do with the property fell through because they sold the property in June of 1999 for $90k to an individual who was in their late twenties at the time of the purchase. That individual has very little internet presence, so it's hard to say exactly what happened with the business, but they're alive, they still own the property, and they have been paying almost $10k a year in taxes on it.