- facing sheriff’s sale, greylock’s future uncertain - chestnut hill local philadelphia pa -
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10/30/16, 8:35 PM- Facing sheriff’s sale, Greylock’s future uncertain - Chestnut Hill Local Philadelphia PA -
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Facing sheriff’s sale, Greylock’s future uncertainPosted on August 17, 2016 (http://www.chestnuthilllocal.com/2016/08/17/facing-sheriffs-sale-greylocks-future-uncertain/),updated on August 17, 2016 (http://www.chestnuthilllocal.com/2016/08/17/facing-sheriffs-sale-greylocks-future-uncertain/)by Contributor (http://www.chestnuthilllocal.com/author/contributor/)
Greylock Mansion (Photo by Pete Mazzaccaro)
by MegAnne Liebsch
After years of abandonment, Chestnut Hill’s historic Greylock Mansion, at 208 W. Chestnut HillAve., is going up for sheriff’s sale on Sept. 13 for $98,000. The mansion’s owner, GreylockHoldings LLC, has defaulted on the mortgage and is delinquent on three years of taxes, totalingnearly $90,000 as of 2016.
After being vacant and vandalized for nearly a decade, Greylock has an opportunity to be savedfrom falling into disrepair. There’s just one small catch for some potential buyers: As a historicalproperty, Greylock has conservation easements protecting it from most development.
There are two main easements on the property. The first protects the grounds of the mansion,preventing any development of the green space and controlling water runoff into theWissahickon Watershed. The second easement protects the façade of the mansion and thecarriage house, citing them as significant buildings in Chestnut Hill’s Historic Register.
“Those easements are written in blood, in my opinion,” said Brad Bank, a resident of WestChestnut Hill Avenue and a member of the Chestnut Hill Historical Society. “CHHS and the Friendsof the Wissahickon have a responsibility to vigorously defend the easements.”
Wyndmoor resident Jack Bellis was originally interested in buying the property at the sheriff’ssale, but the easements were a deterrent for him.
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Greylock Mansion on the map. The red pin is on the home’s
carriage house. The mansion is below.
“I believe the easements make it so unappealing that it might not sell at all or it might crumble todust before people buy it,” Bellis said.
Bellis explained that he wanted to buy the mansion with a few of his friends as partners to splitthe cost of the restoration, utilities and $36,000 a year in taxes. His plan was to turn the inside ofthe mansion into as many as nine condominiums. With the easements and the expensiveupkeep, however, Bellis said he and his partners may not be able to buy Greylock.
Though the easements allow for up to 12 units to be built in the mansion and carriage house, thesite only has 11 possible parking spaces, and the conservation easements protect against addingany more impervious blacktops—a stipulation the neighbors of the mansion are particularly keenon seeing upheld.
For many of the easement stipulations, the phrase is “with CHHS approval.” In other words, adeveloper or future owner can propose a number of changes to the property that would complywith some of the easements, but the CHHS still holds the power to veto their proposal.
Bank explained that CHHS often allows developers to propose amendments to easements onproperties around Chestnut Hill, but they rarely agree to them. Their attitude of “anything ispossible” can be misleading to developers and homeowners. Bank said he wants CHHS to betougher with people upfront and say that they will only hear proposals that abide by theeasements.
“Our policy on amending conservation easements only permits us to amend the easements if itenhances the conservation value,” said CHHS’s Board Vice-President of easements KarrenDeSeve.
CHHS Executive Director Lori Salganicoff added, “It is unusual for us to amend an easement, butwe have done that in the past to accommodate appropriate change where conservation benefits.We are open to scenarios that would improve the conservation benefit and usefulness of theproperty.”
Salganicoff hopes to balance the views and interests of both potential developers and concernedpreservationists.
“We need to be really clear as early as possible with what would be appropriate [for the site],” shesaid. “At the same time, we need to allow for creative thinking.”
Built by Pittsburgh Steel magnate Henry Laughlin in 1909, Greylock is situated on more than fiveacres of land. The three-story mansion was designed by William J. Carpenter and constructedwith stone quarried on the property. Eventually, the property was sold to an order of nuns, andthe mansion became a nursing home for more than 50 years.
Greylock was then bought by USABancShares (also known as Nova Bank) to be used as acorporate headquarters. The company negotiated with the Chestnut Hill Historical Society (CHHS)to use it for non-residential purposes (specifically corporate offices) as long as conservationeasements were in place to protect the façade and integrity of the mansion grounds. Theeasements also gave BancShares a monumental tax break.
In 2006, due to stock market losses at BancShares, the property was transferred to an investorand lawyer for BancShares, Thomas Maiorino under the name of Greylock Holdings LLC. Greylockhas since defaulted on the mortgage and is delinquent on three years of taxes, forcing themansion to go to sheriff’s sale after being on the market for two years.
The mansion currently is owned by the FDIC as part of TARP, which allows the government topurchase toxic assets from financial institutions to protect investments and financial stability.
This spring, BancShares’ CEO and chairman were found guilty of defrauding the TARP program of$13.5 million. Through a series of circular transactions with a third party, the two made it seemlike the bank had the $15 million in investment funding to qualify for TARP. The FDIC estimatesthat the bank’s failure has cost it $91.2 million, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal.
In most cases, properties that go up for sheriff’s sale due to mortgage foreclosure are boughtback by the bank. Bellis, however, said he’s not sure that the FDIC will want this mansion either.
Since 2006, the property has been mostly vacant and vandalized. Plumbing and electrical wireshave been torn up and taken, so the building will need renovation to restore those utilities. Dueto lack of upkeep, the roof leaks and ivy has grown into the mortar of the house.
In buying Greylock, the FDIC would betaking on a full restoration of the house,costing hundreds of thousands of dollars,and then it would face putting the propertyup for sale again after two unsuccessfulyears on the market.
With living space tight in Chestnut Hill,Greylock would be a prime location fordevelopers to create more housing. Bank isconcerned that interested buyers won’tread the easements or take them seriously.
In 2011, Green Wood Charter attempted tobuy the property as a new location for theschool. The CHHS unanimously deniedproposals to amend some of theeasements to accommodate the school’suse of the property.
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Many of Greylock’s neighbors foughtagainst Green Wood’s proposal because it would go against the traffic zoning that prevents morethan 75 visitors on the property a day. Neighbors were concerned about the increased foot-trafficthat a school would create in a residential neighborhood.
Bank said he hoped that the sheriff’s sale will be different. He hopes this time that only peoplewho wish to preserve the easements will buy the house.
“As someone who restores houses, I would love to see somebody restore it,” Bank said.
Bellis, on the other hand, said the easements are holding the property back from beingpreserved. He is worried that Greylock will be demolished just like Whitemarsh Hall, an opulentChestnut Hill mansion built by Edward Stotesbury and worth upwards of $12 million. Whitemarshwas demolished in 1980 because of its exorbitant upkeep and lack of solid ownership. All thatremains of this grand six-story house are some columns and sculptures.
Though Bellis noted that the easements are well-intentioned, the combination of the interests ofthe tax-burdened BancShares and Greylock Holdings, the CHHS and the mansion’s neighbors’traffic zoning requests have led to a situation where the property may fall into disrepair.
Bank admits that he is also worried about the fate of the Mansion. “It’s hard to sell a propertythat can’t be developed,” he said.
Salganicoff explained that CHHS doesn’t want to lead anyone down the wrong path when itcomes to amending the easements, but they want to encourage creativity in finding a way topreserve the site and make it useful. “We want to be realistic and engaged with this, but our job isto defend and protect the site,” she said.
Salganicoff added, “The ultimate goal is conservation of the site, preservation of the watershedand appropriate reuse of this treasure.”
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• Reply •
Chester Longbridge • 2 months ago
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Make no doubt about it, the Chestnut Hill Historic Society is the cause of this property being lost.
We looked a buying this property a few years ago. The historic and conservation easement onGREYLOCK is 60 pages long. Yes, I said 60 pages long. Anyone who is interested in this propertybetter read the fine print. If they do they will run from this property. The owner has very little say in whatcan be done to the property because the historic easement rules are so restrictive. In the event of a firethe CHHS gets a portion of the insurance proceeds before the owner gets a dime. The old drafty woodwindows cannot be replaced. The list goes on ad nauseam.
There is absolutely no incentive for anyone to buy and restore this house. You are at the completemercy of the CHHS. The CHHS has a long and sordid history of trading historical easements for cashfrom wealthy donors and then giving the cash back to them in the form of an easement purchase. Seethe article http://articles.philly.com/200... about how Richard Snowden and his wealthy family havefunneled millions of dollars through the CHHS and other organizations to receive the tax deductions,only to have the charitable organizations, including the CHHS, return the money to the donor or one oftheir companies or family members to use toward the purchase of the property. Scandalous!
The worst part of this situation is the historic easement was placed on this property too late, afternearly every original piece of the building had been striped or modified. In 1945 Greylock became
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Jack Bellis • 2 months ago> Chester Longbridge
Mr. Longbridge,Thanks for adding these details. Great stuff. I hesitated to pile on too much myself.
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• Reply •
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Thanks for adding these details. Great stuff. I hesitated to pile on too much myself.
I can verify what you described about the building to be accurate.
Only a couple of corrections about the easement details: 1) the documents state, albeit invague passive language that it is DESIRED to remove the ugly brick addition and generallythose other modern things. Even the fire escape facing CH Ave is undesired, but that could besubject to fire codes. And 2) on the matter of 60 pages, you are too kind by approximately half.The original 2001 easement (with vBank/V Bank/USABancshares.com), as I viewed it at CityHall is 64 bar-coded pages. The 2004 amendment (Greylock Holding) is 13 bar-coded pages.The full document set is longer, however since the easement binds you to the MaintenanceStandards requirements which are 6 pages and I'm pretty sure not on file with the city. Theentire package provided by the CHHS is 132 pages, which in some ways is helpful and in otherways very unhelpful because it includes a lot of summarizing info and headings that are notlegally applicable.
Great point about the fire insurance... and as you read, they also can recover any expenses tomake you comply. So they could spend hundreds of thousands on lawyers—hmmm, could
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• Reply •
Chester Longbridge • 2 months ago> Jack Bellis
Mr Bellis
Thank you for your corroboration of the facts. You are correct that in the easement theCHHS desires to see the non-original and historically inaccurate elements removed fromthe structures but you still need their permission to do it. And you are also correct aboutthe owner being liable for the legal fees for the CHHS to pursue the owner. You have toadmire their foresight in requiring anyone who brings legal action against them orcrosses them to pay their legal fees to defend themselves against your actions.
The thing I don't understand is the CHHS attitude which was quite accurately describedby Brad Bank in the article above: Those easements are written in blood, in my opinion,”said Brad Bank, a resident of West Chestnut Hill Avenue and a member of the ChestnutHill Historical Society. “CHHS and the Friends of the Wissahickon have a responsibilityto vigorously defend the easements.”
The arrogance and ignorance of how their actions are translating into the demise of this,and quite possibly other historical buildings they "protect" is disturbing. These appear tobe educated and intelligent people who can't connect the dots. It reminds me of an oldsaying I once heard regarding a description of a stockbroker. A stockbroker is someonewho helps you invest your money until it is all gone. An analogous situation here. TheCHHS is helping to protect and preserve these buildings until there is nothing left toprotect. I believe the Whitemarsh Hall example was posted here and sadly, probablyforetells the future of Greylock.△ ▽
• Reply •
Jack Bellis • 2 months ago
I see one minor point to improve the information in the article. It says "have led to a situation where theproperty may fall into disrepair." The property has already fallen into considerable disrepair (two failedroof sections, all major mechanical systems vandalized, failed, and now inoperable) and the onlyquestion is whether the extent of it mathematically removes every last potential buyer from its prospectpool... in other words the point of no return. A good analogy is the SS United States ship moored onthe Delaware.△ ▽
• Reply •
Jesse Crandall • 2 months ago
There is more to this stately mansion than the discussion of easements, delinquent taxes and what todo about the future. In reporting the small peice history attached to GREYLOCK, there was a failure tomention the participation of the archdiocese of Philadelphia in its historical tainted past. As I know it,GREYLOCK was used by priests as a place of social gathering whereby young boys were delivered tothe door, brought inside and left there to be picked up at a later time or date....For purposes of privacyyou can conclude what occurred after the door was shut & locked.....You may not want to know thisand or read about it, but the truth & reality of our past is important for those who didnt have a voicewhen their innocence was stolen from them....△ ▽
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• Reply •
Jack Bellis • 2 months ago> Jesse Crandall
Never one to shy away from a challenge, since I started this mess, I'll bite.
"The one true road out of the wilderness of pain is forgiveness." — Mother Teresa△ ▽
• Reply •
kris soffa • 2 months ago
I'm grateful to the FOW and CHHS and all the earnest people working to preserve this site now and forgenerations to come. I see a way opening for the best possible outcome for everyone involved.△ ▽
• Reply •
Paul • 2 months ago> kris soffa
It won't be long before you're thanking them for forcing the mansion to go to ruin by deterringall buyers.△ ▽
• Reply •
Kathy • 2 months ago
I'm a little astounded that there's no one who'd want a grand single family home on 5 acres inChestnut Hill, even if it needs a million or two of work. I don't know this specific building, but the ideathat the only solution is to develop the property into condos seems ludicrous in this location.△ ▽
• Reply •
Jack Bellis • 2 months ago> Kathy
Kathy, no one wants it because the pluses don't outweigh the considerable minuses for theonly owners whose interests are within the contractual stipulations of the easements. In plainerEnglish, first-and-foremost the house is uglier than any rich person would want (seriously); ithas higher taxes than most intermediate-wealth speculators can justify; cannot be used foreven modest income producing business; is too big for even the most lavish egos who wouldwant to renovate it; and marries the owner to an oppressive list of 50+ behavioral constraints,foremost among them from a rich person's point of view: not being able to put in large, modernwindows. There are only a few formulas that work. 1△ ▽
• Reply •
James Goodwin • 2 months ago
Bankruptcy court can clear the easements and allow people to bid on it. Whether they keep thebuilding as is by renovating it or demoing it and building exactly what they want to build would be upto them. To keep the easements would only serve to deter people from wanting to invest in eitherpreserving the building or building more houses on the 5 acres of land.△ ▽
• Reply •
robert the bruce • 2 months ago> James Goodwin
Yeah, I don't see how a court can clear the easements. It certainly seems that those easementshave prevented any feasible use of the property. Who granted and took the write-offs for thoseeasements ?△ ▽
• Reply •
Jack Bellis • 2 months ago> robert the bruce
Who? The useful answer is "financially distressed people who probably had little interestin arguing the fine print that would affect—they reasoned—only future owners once theygot their checks." The literal answer is "vBank/ V Bank/ Nova Bank/ USABancshares"signed the first easement in scribbled names, one of which is legible and is also, asMegAnne states, their investor and lawyer, who then took over the ownership and in turnsinged the second easement document.△ ▽
Chester Longbridge • 2 months ago> Jack Bellis
Nova Bank gave the easement on Greylock to Chestnut Hill Historical Society in2004 for a hefty tax deduction. At that time CHHS could place any value on thehistoric easement they wanted. The IRS has since cracked down on this scam.On Friday, October 26, 2012, the Pennsylvania Department of Banking andSecurities closed NOVA Bank, Berwyn, PA and the Federal Deposit InsuranceCorporation (FDIC) was named Receiver. They were charged with defrauding
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• Reply •
TARP of $13,500,000. See the article http://www.bizjournals.com/phi....
Try to find the principals behind Nova Bank or USABankshares. It is an unendingstring of paper companies concealing the true ownership. Why all the secrecy?
Sounds like another dirty deal involving CHHS.△ ▽
• Reply •
Jack Bellis • 2 months ago> Chester Longbridge
Mr. Longbridge,Do you have any details on the actual tax deduction amounts claimed because ofany of the easements? This is one of the last remaining unexposed details of thewhole affair. It's a fascinating matter. It would make sense that one deducts theamount by which the property resale value was reduced. In retrospect, withGreylock decimated (reduced to a tenth or less) they might not have claimedenough.△ ▽
• Reply •
Chester Longbridge • 2 months ago> Jack Bellis
Mr Bellis
Thank you for your post. I too have tried to research this but Nova Bank,previously USABancshares is in receivership by the FDIC. I have heard figuresbantered about estimating that the facade easement used to be worth 15% ofthe transfer price of the property. When the USABankshares attorney, ThomasMaiorino purchased the house in 2004 the transfer price was $1,600,000. Fifteenpercent of that would be just shy of a quarter of a million dollars. Not bad for apiece of paper dooming this property to at best an uncertain future.
I found an article online that indicated USABancshares anticipated getting $3Mfor Greylock but I can't find any specific information verifying that amount. If thatwere true then USABancshares would probably have received a tax credit for$450K (based on the 15% estimate) and then Nova Bank got another $250K.
It could very well be substantially more than this. At that time the facadeeasements were valued at anything they wanted. In 1990 Snowden donated$275,000 to CHHS for the purchase of the easement on Hollowood the daybefore he purchased it. He only paid $516,250 for the property so in this case theeasement exceeded 50% of the transfer price. He went to closing with $241,250and CHHS picked up the balance with their easement purchase check.
I have seen other articles recently that indicate that some of these easementsactually have a negative value. The IRS has cracked down on the appraisers andhas actually banned or disqualified some appraisers from the process.△ ▽
• Reply •
robert the bruce • 2 months ago> Chester Longbridge
The consideration, that is value, of the easement should be documented in the132 pages held by CHHS. As you pointed out, CHHS has bought easementsvalued at more than half the market value (Hollowood).△ ▽
• Reply •
Jack Bellis • 2 months ago> robert the bruce
Page 2 of the full package, the Recording Information Summary (RIS) shows inbox "3. Deed Consideration/Mortgage Amount... $1.00". The RIS for theamendment, page 72, has no amount box.△ ▽
• Reply •
robert the bruce • 2 months ago> Jack Bellis
Probably means CHHS gave $1, but a tax deduction would be based on loss ofmarket value as determined by an appraiser.△ ▽
Jack Bellis • 2 months ago> James Goodwin
Mr. Goodwin,Can you explain more about the certitude with which you state that "bankruptcy court can clear
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• Reply •
Can you explain more about the certitude with which you state that "bankruptcy court can clearthe easements?" I am not a real estate insider or an attorney, but I'm not aware of a bankruptcycourt being involved. (A bank, not an individual, went under; the FDIC took its assets; amongthe assets was Greylock, a house no one wants, that no one is feasibly allowed to improve tothe point of being valuable.) Is that an action that an uninvolved party can initiate? Are youmaking a blanket statement that you know to pertain to these types of easements? We are nottalking about a shared driveway but a much different matter:http://www.conservationeasemen... Thanks, Jack Bellis△ ▽
• Reply •
James Goodwin • 2 months ago> Jack Bellis
Where are you going to get bidders if nobody will bid on this project with protectedeasements? School District and bank want their money. Only way to have full auction isto remove easements and then bidders will come to make serious bids. Whether thewinner will preserve property even with historic protection easements removed will be upto him or her to make. You might get lucky a developer will preserve property andmarket it as an executive home or demo it and build three new executive type homes.△ ▽
• Reply •
Observer • 2 months ago> James Goodwin
Bankruptcy applies to owner of property not holder of easements, real estate101. If this sells for market price taking into the account the valid easementrestrictions there are viable money making uses such as condos which areallowed within the existing building envelope. It could go for a few hundredthousand. At worst it becomes beautiful parkland, at best the price drops waydown and someone buys it for a home or limited condos. Read the Chhsdescriptions. Don't overreact.△ ▽
• Reply •
Chester Longbridge • 2 months ago> Observer
The historic easements flow through to the condo owners. There is no way adeveloper would be able to sell condos with these restrictions. People would becrazy to purchase a condo with these easements in place. Read the fine print.△ ▽
• Reply •
Jack Bellis • 2 months ago
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> Chester Longbridge
Woohoo! The most important thing in the 100-plus year history of Greylock hasjust occurred: the Chestnut Hill Historical Society has started to actually conversewith the public!!! Only someone at the CHHS would refer to the "buildingenvelope" and feel it necessary to tell us that the draconian, overreaching termsof the easement (written in blood, no less) are valid. We'll call "Observer" Ms.Salganicoff (the top of the house of the CHHS) and let him or her tell usotherwise;it really doesn't matter. I suspect it's the person who wrote theeasement document and lives very close to Greylock.
Ms. Salganicoff,Here is what you must do to change the easement document from one that isdestroying the mansion to one that supports the genuine spirit of "historicalpreservation" and "environmental conservation" rather than focuses overly on thezoning-intensive demands of the neighbors, which should be the job of thezoning authority:1. Remove every instance of "with the prior approval of the CHHS." (One eithercan or can't install a swimming pool and tennis court.)2. Leave all of the environmental runoff/impermeable surface requirements;
1△ ▽
chazz • 2 months ago> Jack Bellis
Mssr: Bellis et al:Fascinating indeed. As an architect I love these dense and difficult projects, andthe disasters of zoning regs and easements written as literature. The fact is thatthe CHHS cannot require the impossible -- and yes the windows can be replaced"in kind" with new insulated glass, or if historic photos are available -- as they
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A park gone to the dogs2 comments • 11 days ago•
counseling — It's time to spread this out to a full 3day weekend event to make the daily crowds alittle smaller.
ALSO ON CHESTNUT HILL LOCAL
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may have been when original. There is a slight perviesion that says that whatexisting when the facade easment was written is what has to be retained. It is'shutter' nonsense.
It is also quiet possible to preserve the exterior walls and remove the entireinterior (everything) because the roof has been "let to die" making the floors andwhat is left of the interior walls unsafe for their "intended" purpose. I nderstandthat everything has been stripped. This is optimal for a facade-to-roof renovationat less cost than trying to preserve old damaged floors and interior finishes. Asfor the nuns having institutionalizing the interiors -- there aught to be a law...
A good client makes a good renovation. The CHHS would be but a small pebblein one's shoe... that being said by a "far neighbor" not a "near neighbor."△ ▽
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Jack Bellis • 2 months ago> chazz
Chazz,There is virtually nothing in the requirements about the interior, except for therequirement about splitting the mansion into up to 9 condominiums... and whatthat would clearly imply about the interior. I'd say that the word "interior" doesnot even appear in the documents, but most of the pages are images, notsearchable text. And I was told by someone who should know, that "they nevercome inside, they can't."
Sounds like good points about the windows, but I'm pretty sure that the windowsizes were unlikely to ever have been larger, and size is the main issue. I don'thave good photos of the exterior, but the ones I do have make me think this isn'tquite as bad as my original concern. A lot of the windows I see (even searchinggoogle) are double- or triple-frames, so replacing with a single panel would be abig improvement. The carriage house is a definite example of the problem,though. Its main wall has only little portholes, and the easement terms aredefinite about not altering that wall. Getting back to the mansion, the easementterms are so restrictive—and threatening with unlimited and undefined legal feecompensation by the homeowner—that even what you and I presume to besensible changes to the likely second and third floor residence upgrades, cannotbe presumed safe.△ ▽
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