Owner of Norwich Hospital land owes city $81,000 in back taxes

Developer could lose land to tax sale auction

Norwich — The owner of the nearly 50-acre portion of the former Norwich Hospital in Norwich now owes the city more than $81,000 in back property taxes dating to July 2016, city officials said, and the property could be slated for a tax sale auction early next year if the taxes are not paid.

Norwich officials said they do not want the city to foreclose and take ownership of the three large parcels that still have more than two dozen decaying former institutional buildings and residential houses once used by doctors at Norwich Hospital.

Instead, Tax Collector Carlene Deal said, if the taxes remain unpaid, the parcels will be added to a list she is

compiling of properties to be sold at tax auction in early 2018. The starting bid would be the taxes owed — expected to exceed $100,000 by January — with any higher amounts applied to other liens on the property and the remainder going to the state.

Thames River Landing LLC, headed by developer Mark Fields, owes $81,897, including September interest on the back taxes owed. Legal fees thus far would add another $350 to the total, Deal said.

Fields said Friday he was aware of the back taxes owed, but said he did not receive the warning letter attorney Aimee Wickless said was sent to Fields in August. He said he plans to pay the back taxes and is moving forward with plans to develop the Norwich property with hospitality projects and a luxury apartment complex.

“These things don’t happen overnight,” Fields said. “It’s a long, complicated process.”

Thames River Landing purchased the Norwich portion of the former hospital property from the state in October 2015 for a combined total of $300,000 for the three separate parcels on both sides of Route 12.

The buyer was left responsible for cleaning up the buildings abandoned by the state, and most remain decaying, with overgrown brush and trees enveloping some of the structures. Fields has renovated one house at 626 Laurel Hill Ave. as his residence, according to city tax records.

A parcel with an address of Laurel Hill Road with no street number contains four institutional buildings and 17 former hospital staff residences.

The entrance road to the abandoned subdivision is blocked off at the Route 12 intersection. The third parcel on the Thames River side of Route 12 is listed as 705 Laurel Hill Ave. and contains five institutional buildings, most obscured from view from the street by vines, brush and trees.

One building at 705 Laurel Hill Ave., called the Mitchell Building, is 90 percent in Preston and 10 percent in Norwich. Thames River Landing owns only the Norwich piece. Fields said he has been in contact with Preston officials, and does not object to the town’s plan to demolish the entire building as part of the final cleanup of the 388-acre former Norwich Hospital property in that town.

Preston has an agreement with Mohegan Gaming and Entertainment for a major resort, sports, retail and senior housing development on the Preston side.

Fields’ plans on the Norwich side have yet to be put down on paper.

He met on April 19 with city planning and development officials and discussed a multitude of possible projects on the Norwich side, City Planner Deanna Rhodes said. But to date no written plans or permit applications have been filed.

Fields applied for a reduction in the tax assessments on the former Norwich Hospital properties last spring, but the Board of Assessment Appeals denied the request on all three properties.

The Norwich portion is in a Planned Development zone, which currently does not allow for multifamily development, Rhodes said.

The former doctors’ homes were ancillary to the hospital at the time, not the principal use of the property, Rhodes said. Hotels, however, would be permitted on the property.

Whatever plans are finalized, she said, would have to be approved by the Norwich Commission on the City Plan.

“Additional discussions need to occur to tie down what they really want to do there to determine what the (permit) process would be,” Rhodes said. “He needs to provide plans and drawings.”

A city ordinance prohibits property owners from obtaining building permits for renovations or new construction if they owe back taxes.

“Since he acquired the property, he’s had multiple plans, and the city would like to help him, but number one, the taxes have to be paid,” Mayor Deberey Hinchey said. “And the plans have to meet with zoning approval. He has brought in several people, but no complete plans, and no permits have been applied for.”