Lansdale hears from specialist on vacant property registry

In the long-running conversation on how to tackle and fill vacant properties around town, council’s code committee is hearing from an expert.

“A lot of communities struggle with identifying a heartbeat at a foreclosure — when the grass gets tall, and you can’t find a heartbeat, that’s when we come in,” said Kevin Sidella of Hera Property Registry.

Sidella spoke to the committee recently on how to track down owners of vacant properties, the first step in sparking action.

Vacancy talk

The vacancy discussion was spurred by the closures of the downtown Rite Aid and Wells Fargo branches in summer 2023, the longtime Wilson’s Hardware that closed in 2022, and the former National Auto store at Main and Wood Streets that’s been empty since 2017. The code committee has discussed a possible vacancy tax or fee meant to spur owners of vacancies to submit plans or sell.

Council has seen an updated color-coded map listing various vacancies and info on those properties, ahead of a vote that August to update the borough’s codebook to add a new “downtown core” area with new development options. The code committee has reviewed how third-party companies could help enforce such an ordinance, and collect a part of the fees or fines it would establish.

    401 West Main Street in Lansdale, the long-vacant former National Auto building, is highlighted on an online map of vacant properties. (Screenshot of Lansdale.org map)
  

During the December code committee meeting, Sidella summarized the work his firm does in roughly 200 municipalities around the country, and from a Harrisburg office for about 40 in Pennsylvania: at no cost to the municipality, the company builds a database of all vacant properties in a town, then works with municipal staff to find contacts that can be reached to try to spur development.

“If you get a call about 123 Main Street being a problem, we look it up in our database, see if it’s registered; if it is, you’ll have a property manager, email address, someone you can communicate with, rather than 1-800-bank-of-whatever,” he said.

“We register about 10,000 properties a month nationwide, so there’s no property that’s been foreclosed within your borough by an entity we haven’t dealt with. We know who they are, we know how to get them registered,” Sidella said.

Setting rules

The code committee has already started talks on a vacant property ordinance that could set rules for such a firm to make those inquiries, and Sidella said he could share drafts of similar codes used by towns where Hera operates to help Lansdale finalize their version.

“If we did this for you, the only way we would make money is: we would keep $125 of every registration that we collect on your behalf. That’s how we make money. So the banks are paying us, the vacant property owners, not your municipality. This is a free service to you,” he said.

Director of Community Development Jason Van Dame asked if that $125 charge was annual or one time only, and Sidella said his draft suggests a registry requirement twice per year.

“The properties that are privately held, they’re treated by the individuals and institutions like kids would treat baseball cards: thousands of them are swapped overnight. It’s hard for a municipality to stay on top of it,” he said.

Dealing with foreclosures

Councilman Mike Yetter asked about differences in how the company handles foreclosed versus vacant properties, and Sidella said his firm usually obtains foreclose data from county courthouses, while info on vacancies usually comes from the town.

“The vacants: we need your help on that. We need no help on the foreclosures; on the vacant side, we need a little help playing Sherlock Holmes: usually utility data, shutoffs, things that can be shared with us,” he said.

“On the vacant side, if we get your help, a hugely successful program gets 50 percent of those registered. Sometimes there’s just not a person living, but we’ll get you a good portion of them,” Sidella said.

Mayor Garry Herbert said he’s long advocated such a program to decrease the number of vacancies over time, and asked Sidella how the company tracks success.

“Well, we’re essentially putting ourselves out of business,” Sidella said: “These economic forces are much beyond any registry you’re going to do in this borough. Whether or not foreclosures go up, that’s market based, economic-based, it really is almost regional-based,” he said.

“Finding an avenue to get these properties in front of people who might be willing to invest, our resource can be used for that. I don’t have any control over what people do with the data we create: it’s yours,” Sidella said.

Attracting new owners

Borough staff or outside consultants could then use that info to market those properties, the consultant said, and Herbert asked if the company had seen success in towns of similar size to Lansdale. Sidella said so far, he’s found 25 foreclosed properties within the town’s borders over the past 12 months, and an average backlog in the state of roughly three years to process those. The registry company can try to tackle both commercial and residential properties, he added: “the success rate can be different for both,” but the same tactics would apply.

His suggestion: a trial period of six months or a year with the firm, then either side can withdraw from their contract with 30 days notice, and the firm would give the data to the town.

Most municipalities put that money toward grant programs or other economic development incentives, and/or beautification projects in that town, he added. Herbert asked what their biggest challenge is, and Sidella said dealing with international banks can be difficult: “We can get them, but it takes a little longer.”

“Vacant, privately held (properties) are the biggest problem, by far. Sometimes there’s not a living person to go to, someone inherited it, they live in another state, they might pay the taxes out of nostalgia: they’re just hard to find. Those can be difficult,” he said.

Phil Janke said he owns several properties in town, and wasn’t sure how successful the registry would be. “I’m not sure how this gets them rented, or gets tenants in the properties. It provides a source of contact, but I don’t know if it’s worth it for me to invest that time, energy, effort to that end.”

He then said he’s waited up to two years to find the right tenant for his properties, and asked if the new code or registry would add any expenses for owners of properties that are occupied. Sidella answered that could be addressed in the town’s code.

“We’re not after the good actors, we’re after the bad actors, and I think we could find a way to put that into the ordinance: ‘actively marketed,’ being exempt from having the requirement to register,” Sidella said.

Sidella added that he commonly sees cases when a home or business goes into foreclosure, and doesn’t contact the municipality or leave contact info.

“The person doesn’t call the borough before they leave and say ‘Hey, it’s been nice, just letting you know the place is going to be empty,’ — they just leave. And the grass continues to grow, and you never know if a squatter’s going to get in there, or if somebody’s going to break in,” he said.

“When the foreclosure is filed, which is a legal action, that’s what springs us into our process. We’re contacting the foreclosing entity, the bank, and getting them to pay a fee and assign a property manager, so there’s someone who’s paid by the hour to go out and maintain it,” Sidella said.

“The opportunity to increase housing supply, and give residents the opportunity to continue to move into this borough, and occupy buildings that already exist, rather than build new ones — that’s very appealing. And it’s something we do need,” Herbert said.

    A sign with leasing info for a vacant commercial storefront is seen on Madison Street in Lansdale in Nov. 2024.
 By Dan Sokil | The Reporter   

Resident Bruce Schwartz asked what proportion the company usually sees between residential versus commercial vacancies, and Sidella said most of their registrations are residential, and the ordinance or codes could be written to exclude either.

“This would be for those properties that we have an issue with: we try to contact the people that we have on record, and they’re no longer there,” Van Dame said.

“It’s very difficult for us sometimes to get in touch with the banks that take possession of these properties. To me, the benefit in a registry is for specifically that: properties that are foreclosed, and walked away from,” he said.

Van Dame said he would take the input from Hera and the code committee discussions, and work with the town’s solicitor to create a draft ordinance, list of exemptions, and possible contract for the code committee to discuss further. Code committee chairwoman Rafia Razzak added that she hoped full council would share their input before any vote to adopt the code and contract.

Lansdale’s borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on Jan. 15 and the code committee next meets at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 5, both at the borough municipal building, 1 Vine Street. For more information visit www.Lansdale.org

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