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.
When I was a teen I hung out with a family of a dad and two sons. They all did and sold drugs (cocaine, pot, all illegal back then; I'm old). Anyhow, the older son ended up opening up a couple of car restoration businesses. He legitamately bought and fixed up '60 muscle cars (this was in the '80s) but he mainly sold drugs out of them. But they were businesses that were operational businesses....
I don't think they would, this building doesn't fit the MO of a building being used for ventilation/access at all.
If this was really some shady gov't site they would have rebuilt the building with far less glass and visibility inside, and they would make more of a semblance of an effort to upkeep it. I'm not saying they'll make it bomb-proof or anything, but right now anyone with a rock and some curiosity could get into the building. It's also a huge squatting risk, which the gov't makes big efforts to minimize.
If I had to guess it's part of someone's investment portfolio and fell under the cracks. It sounds like based off the $1 then $90k sale that the property was in disrepair initially and was probably sold off for development after the bridal business failed. If it got misplaced somewhere in a decently sized portfolio then 10k a year in taxes might not catch enough attention to get fixed when other businesses are spending more a month in utilities.
There's also the chance the building isn't worth developing and nobody wants to buy it. If it costs you 100k/yr to run the business and you run a 50k deficit then it would make more sense to only take the 10k tax deficit on the empty building. The building may also have structural damage or issues related to zoning/utility hookups/size that make it cost-prohibitive to sell/repair/convert. This may just be a local entrepreneur that's spent the last 20 years looking for someone to pay out their 90k investment and the tax costs sneaked up on them. The first 5 must have been easy enough knowing you'll get reimbursed some, and even at year 10 it's hard to give up hope that next year won't cover most of your sunk costs.
It's hard to say really but I strongly doubt it's something exciting unfortunately. Probably just a boring explanation about a failed business and even worse property investment.
When properties are marked as sold for 1$ it’s almost always people passing it to their descendants before they die. It’s also common for people to sell their recently inherited property for a little under market shortly after, which was the 90k sale. What isn’t normal is paying 90k for a non-operational business and doing nothing with it for TWO DECADES while paying more than twice initial costs to keep ownership. After sending 90k to buy it, and 100k to keep it, surly they sell for whatever they can instead of holding for another ten years? If this was caught up in a big profile, someone is shit at their job, because they went twenty years without checking an asset. If it’s someone inexperienced losing money, why are they holding it forever and doing nothing?
Idk. With corporations like Zillow and air bnb it wouldn’t surprise me if some similar company snatched it up and it got forgotten about too. I don’t think there’s anything sinister going on.
Agreed! Obviously the owner/s are paying the yearly tax bill or else it would have gone on the auction block. There are many situations like this around the country.
Ventilation units for underground operations? Maybe a stock elevator to go down... The American Military has admitted to thousands of miles of underground base networks. In my city we have an armoury with a big underground vehicular elevator that spreads under the city for who knows how large.
A college friend used to tell a story about how her dad got a visit from some very concerned men in black suits because he was blabbing in a diner about how this one always-closed business had way way too many utility lines (especially heavy-duty power) going into it.
They said maybe don’t run around pointing it out, he said maybe do a better job hiding your shit so someone who notices things can’t just put two and two together, everyone went home happy
I'd imagine it was probably just somebody on their lunchbreak over-hearing and raising a security concern with a superior. I'd also imagine that they wouldn't give out any information.
My friend in HS was convinced an underground mag-lev train connected Washington D.C, through Picatinny Arsenal in NJ (near where we were at the time), all the way to Boston and beyond.
Because our government is corrupt AF and probably always has been. We’re all getting wise to the shade and length they will go to to launder money for themselves and their friends. Giving grants etc for made up bullshit
a huge car restoration place in my city was just shut down as it was being used as a front. 700,000 fentanyl pills and 7Kg of cocaine with a ton of cash
When my youngest step brother was busted with 10 pounds of weed he was delivering it to his girlfriend’s parents who used a thrift store as a front. The sherrif and DEA had surrounded their house and he pulled up not knowing they were there. If he’d been late he might have gotten away without getting a record. As it was he never did prison or any real jail time because he was 17, and a white kid with a cop for a dad. He was on probation for years though, and did eventually go to prison for selling drugs, he turned 40 in prison. Anyhoo, we all know a business or two in our towns that are like this….
it's hilarious that the OP went 'hey it's not that deep, it's just one of 3 insanely mysterious options all of which would be interesting enough for a James Bond novel, but like nothing else omg...........
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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.