Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter.

ATLANTIC CITY — Last year, the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority negotiated a deal to sell a building for about a 10th of its assessed value of more than $1 million.

On Thursday, authority board members unanimously agreed to cut that price in half, after someone stole the copper façade off the property.

The multi-story building at 20 S. Tennessee Ave. was acquired as part of a deal to purchase the properties owned by the John Brooks Recovery Center for $9.1 million in 2014. The authority also helped relocate the addiction treatment center to the mainland, with an eye toward improving the image of the city.

The CRDA closed on the properties in 2020.

As Lance Landgraf, director of planning and development for the CRDA, described to the board, the authority reached a deal with Douglas Development Corps to sell the building, which would be renovated into 14 residential apartments rather than be demolished.

Once known as the “Tate House,” the property was formerly used as a women’s facility as part of the recovery center, Landgraf told board members.

“The plan was to keep that copper façade. It was in pretty good shape. And also to keep the historic integrity of the building,” Landgraf said. But since the deal was approved, part of that façade has been stolen.

In June, someone removed a section of the copper facing at the top of the front of the building, presumably to sell for scrap. Copper trim was also removed from around the skylights of the building. The thieves had climbed up the fire escape to reach the roof, Landgraf told the board.

Currently, copper of that quality is selling for about $2 a pound, according to a posted price list from a scrapping company.

The police were informed of the theft by CRDA staff, Landgraf told the board. Crews boarded up the fire escape to prevent others from climbing up. The crews also boarded areas where the copper was removed to prevent water from leaking into the building.

At first, he said, the authority planned to go through with the deal as agreed, but he said the buyer sought to back out. Landgraf said the developer “requested that we meet him halfway.”

That change will offset the expected cost to repair the damage, Landgraf said. Contractors have given the CRDA quotes well in excess of $200,000 to replace the copper façade. It would not have the same appearance, he said, with new copper instead of the green and gray patina of the former façade.

If the CRDA were to keep the building into the winter, it would need a new boiler and other work totaling tens of thousands of dollars, Landgraf said Thursday.

Many of the buildings in the neighborhood date from the early 20th century.

City records put the assessed value of the property at $1.76 million, broken down to $356,300 for the land and $1.4 million for the building.

Business owners familiar with the area and the real estate market indicated that is not a reasonable assessment. Because the CRDA does not pay property taxes, there is no reason to appeal assessments, but a private owner would have likely successfully appealed that assessed value.

And assessed value is not the CRDA’s only consideration. The authority has sought to see properties redeveloped and occupied. For instance, the main building for the John Brooks Recovery Center at 1307 Pacific Ave. was sold to Odin US Holdings for $1 last year, with the understanding that the historic building would be renovated into 56 new market-rate apartments.

At the same meeting, the CRDA approved a proposal to auction several properties throughout the city, which Landgraf described as developable. Typically, Landgraf said, when the authority seeks proposals for properties they are sold for a nominal amount.

“With the auction, we hope to bring in some income here, which is sorely needed,” he said.

A minimum bid will be set for each property, he said.

The sale will get the properties back on the tax rolls, Landgraf said. The sale will include a provision that the properties would need to be developed within a certain time or the CRDA will reclaim ownership.

“We don’t want these just to sit and not be developed,” he told the board.

Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter.

Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.

MAYS LANDING — The John Brooks Recovery Center has received a $1 million grant from the state to purchase a mobile outreach vehicle.

One of Gloucester County’s smallest municipalities — a place created in the 19th century as a resort for wealthy Philadelphians — is a home-bu…

With the departure of the head of the Tropicana, none of Atlantic City’s nine casinos is now led by a woman or a Black person. Jacqueline Grace left her job as senior vice president and general manager of the Tropicana in late July after nearly two years in the top job there. She is now CEO of Beam Living, a New York property management company. Grace was the last of a group of four women, two of them Black, who ran Atlantic City casinos just two years ago.

ATLANTIC CITY — City Council postponed acceptance of high bids from a Sept. 14 online real state auction after a bidder said at Wednesday nigh…

ATLANTIC CITY — The Casino Reinvestment Development Authority on Tuesday approved a plan for 14 residential units at the site of the former Jo…

ATLANTIC CITY — During the next several months, the William K. Cheatham Building, the main branch of the Atlantic City Free Public Library on …

In late 2016, the north end of the Atlantic City was a rough scene. On the far end of the Boardwalk sat the newly shuttered sites of the former casinos Revel, Showboat and Taj Mahal, with two of the three shut completely and Showboat operating as a bare bones hotel with no casino gaming and few amenities or attractions of any kind on hand to bring in customers.

ATLANTIC CITY — As the months slip by with no visible sign of progress on a planned grocery store for the city, it appears a request for finan…

ATLANTIC CITY — The Police Department has opened a new substation on the Boardwalk.

ATLANTIC CITY — City Council will consider at a special meeting Thursday an ordinance to lease the historic Carnegie Library for five years to…

ATLANTIC CITY — The Board of Directors of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority on Tuesday approved funding for three festivals.

ATLANTIC CITY — The Casino Reinvestment Development Authority is supplying Jewish Family Service a $685,000 grant to help provide mental healt…

ATLANTIC CITY — Tuition scholarships are now available for the first 15 Atlantic City residents enrolled in the future trucking school at Bade…

Sign up for a digital subscription to The Press of Atlantic City now and take advantage of a great offer.

Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated. Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything. Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person. Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.

PLEASE BE ADVISED: Soon we will no longer integrate with Facebook for story comments. The commenting option is not going away, however, readers will need to register for a FREE site account to continue sharing their thoughts and feedback on stories. If you already have an account (i.e. current subscribers, posting in obituary guestbooks, for submitting community events), you may use that login, otherwise, you will be prompted to create a new account.

Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.