Hartford Business Journal

8 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | OCTOBER 6, 2025 DE AL WATCH DE AL WATCH | BUYERS & SELLERS down on housing violations, naming Paxe and Puretz among the city's top three "problem landlords." At the time, Paxe controlled 357 units in 24 Hartford buildings, many of which were vacant due to unsafe conditions; 13 were already in foreclosure or receivership tied to code and blight violations. In April, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Puretz was one of four real estate investors sentenced for a scheme that defrauded lenders on commercial and multifamily properties. He received a five-year prison sentence and was ordered to pay $22.2 million in restitution. Attempts to reach his attorney were unsuccessful. Carrots and sticks Arulampalam credits the city's use of blight citations with pushing Paxe's West End portfolio into new hands. His crackdown has sharply increased the penalties levied on landlords: the city issued $725,000 in citations in 2024, compared with $4.7 million through mid-September of this year. The goal, Arulampalam said, is to force negligent landlords to "shape up or ship out of Hartford." "Our blight division has been very aggressive but also targeted in going after the worst landlords, and also trying to work with … those landlords who are trying to do the right thing," Arulampalam said. "I think that strategy is bearing out." Hartford currently has about 350 vacant structures, mostly residential but some commercial, according to Mike Perez, the city's blight remedi- ation director. That's 60 fewer than at the end of 2023, after those build- ings were renovated and issued certificates of occupancy. Perez emphasized that the city prefers to work with owners before issuing fines. Officials start with outreach and recognize some landlords face financial constraints. Incentives include tax breaks for correcting blight and access to a community loan fund. Citations and liens, Perez said, come only after those options are exhausted. "What we want is compliance," Perez said. "Our enforcement paradigm is not built for revenue collection." Paxe didn't respond to repeated outreach from the city over "a ton of issues" at its properties, Perez said. The city ultimately cleared residents from Paxe's 36-unit building at 249 Sisson Ave., because of fire code violations and mechanical problems. Several other Paxe buildings deteriorated into dumping grounds, requiring the city to board them up multiple times to keep squatters out. "The big, overarching problem was that this owner had no property mainte- nance staff attending to these buildings in any meaningful way," Perez said. Hartford's stepped-up use of blight citations, which can turn into liens, is expected to put more neglected properties into the city's hands, Perez said. If liens are smaller than a property's value, foreclosures must be resolved through a sale — a risk that troubled buildings could end up with new negligent owners. To avoid that, city staff are preparing strategies to return seized properties to productive use, potentially in part- nership with the Hartford Land Bank, Capital Region Development Authority and other groups. "We don't want to be the largest owner of blighted properties in the city," Perez said. "We are not just taking them away from bad landlords and sitting on them ourselves. Over the past year, we have ironed out a process for our endgame." The boarded-up apartment building at 467 Farmington Ave., in Hartford, is for sale as part of a larger portfolio. HBJ Photo | Michael Puffer Following foreclosure, Meriden office park heads to auction T he Meriden Executive Park, a two-building office complex in Meriden that recently went through foreclosure, is scheduled for auction later this month with a starting bid of $2.25 million. The property, at 530 and 538 Preston Ave., totals about 152,800 square feet. Built in the late 1980s and renovated in 2008, the three-story buildings are 33% and 44% occupied, respectively, according to marketing materials. Albany Road-Preston I LLC, controlled by Boston- based Albany Road Real Estate Partners, bought the complex in 2014 for $8.15 million, but lost it to foreclo- sure earlier this year, court records show. The auction will take place between Oct. 20-22, and is being conducted through Ten-X, an online commer- cial real estate marketplace. The office building at 530 Preston Ave., in Meriden. Photo | CoStar WOLCOTT A Bridgeport metals manufacturer and distrib- utor is expanding to Wolcott after acquiring a 52,574-square-foot light industrial building for $3.1 million. An LLC led by ATA Steel Corp. President Teoman Ernamli purchased the 1980-vintage property at 238 Wolcott Road in September. Sean Duffy and Damon Bowers of Cushman & Wakefield were the property's listing brokers. David Flayhan, of Norwalk-based Colonial Realty, represented the buyer. The property had been on the market for 18 months, with a few potential sales falling through because of financing issues before the deal closed with Ernamli, Duffy said. ATA Steel Corp., which manufactures chain-link fencing and welded wire mesh sheets, will occupy the building for production, he said. The seller, Massachusetts-based WARE-IN LLC, acquired the building for nearly $2.8 million in 2009. DERBY A Derby property with two commercial build- ings totaling 25,886 square feet has sold for $2.7 million to Blizzard Mechanical, a growing HVAC company. Owner Daniel Blizman said the move from a 2,000-square-foot leased site in town was necessary as the business expanded from four to 10 employees over the past two years. The company will occupy 8,400 square feet at 155 New Haven Ave., and lease the remaining space to other tenants. Blizman purchased the 1.8-acre site from Riverside Properties LLC, founded by Michael Klein and Basile Tzovolos Jr., who previously operated online framing company Frame it Easy there before moving to Milford. Riverside bought the property in 2009 for $700,000 and later expanded it. ANSONIA A group of friends led by a Fairfield University accounting professor has expanded its real estate portfolio with the $9.15 million purchase of two downtown Ansonia buildings recently converted into 44 apartments. The acquisition boosts the partners' self-man- aged holdings to more than 350 units across Connecticut, with most clustered in Fairfield County. The Ansonia deal brings them deeper into the Naugatuck Valley, where they see affordable prices and opportunities for growth. Ahmed Ibrahim, an associate professor of accounting and certified public accountant, is one of four principals in Fairfield-based MADG Realty LLC, according to state records. A deed recorded Aug. 25 lists the firm as the buyer of two, three-story buildings at 158 and 200 Main St., in Ansonia. Other principals are Khurram Nomani of Stamford, Awais Malik of Fairfield and Fahmy Khalil of Trumbull. "I am kind of the glue that put them together, because as a CPA, almost all of them are clients," Ibrahim said. "But, before they are clients, they are friends. So, it's a group of friends who have the same business approach." The partners are retail and wholesale busi- ness owners who each had smaller multifamily holdings before joining forces to scale their capabilities. They primarily operate under the name MADG, which means "Glory" in Arabic. Mike Perez City Crackdown Continued from page 7

• Cover