Monday, November 18, 2019
Flipping the other way
Earlier today I talked about the duty of beauty, and a magnificent flip.
I understand people who take ugliness ... or even prosaic dullness ... as a reason to create beauty, no matter how big or small. Write a symphony, plant a flower. That's the exact definition of life. Ingest chaos, create order and complexity and beauty.
I don't understand people who intentionally create ugliness.
For many years I've been following the decline and momentary fake rise of an abandoned building in this neighborhood. During a decade of vacancy Nature wasn't doing much harm. The basically pretty building was holding its own against snow and wind. Two years ago meth-addled squatters moved in, and decline accelerated dramatically. Windows broken, fires started. Finally the city bought out the original owner and forced a sale.
Supposedly the buyer was required to tear down the building and put up new housing on the large lot. The buyer didn't demolish; instead, they started to renovate. They fenced off the lot, reshingled the roof...
... pulled out the windows and doors and drywall ....
... and that's all. Now the building has been wide open for six months, and all signs of construction have stopped.
Why? What's the gain? The squatters were breaking the windows, now the windows are all wide open to rain and snow and squirrels and rats. The roof is new, but it's not sheltering anything. The fence may be keeping squatters out, but nobody is supervising, so I doubt it will last much longer.
I don't understand the long holding by the original owners, and I don't understand the behavior of the new owners. Neither makes sense by ordinary business purposes. Supposedly the purpose of owning an apartment building is to rent out the apartments and gain profit. Spokane is seriously short of rentals now, so the apts would rent quickly.
The original owners were paying property taxes and risking lawsuits for 10 years, with no gain. The new owners spent a considerable amount for construction crews, with no gain. No tenants, no rent coming in, property tax and potential lawsuits still going out.
There must be a profit-based reason for this "Creative Destruction" and profitless expense. Tax dodge? Using the LLC as a shell for illegal activities?
I don't understand.
Supposedly the buyer was required to tear down the building and put up new housing on the large lot. The buyer didn't demolish; instead, they started to renovate. They fenced off the lot, reshingled the roof...
... pulled out the windows and doors and drywall ....
... and that's all. Now the building has been wide open for six months, and all signs of construction have stopped.
Why? What's the gain? The squatters were breaking the windows, now the windows are all wide open to rain and snow and squirrels and rats. The roof is new, but it's not sheltering anything. The fence may be keeping squatters out, but nobody is supervising, so I doubt it will last much longer.
I don't understand the long holding by the original owners, and I don't understand the behavior of the new owners. Neither makes sense by ordinary business purposes. Supposedly the purpose of owning an apartment building is to rent out the apartments and gain profit. Spokane is seriously short of rentals now, so the apts would rent quickly.
The original owners were paying property taxes and risking lawsuits for 10 years, with no gain. The new owners spent a considerable amount for construction crews, with no gain. No tenants, no rent coming in, property tax and potential lawsuits still going out.
There must be a profit-based reason for this "Creative Destruction" and profitless expense. Tax dodge? Using the LLC as a shell for illegal activities?
I don't understand.
Labels: Asked and unanswerable
¶ 1:54 PM
