Council kills Agapion deal: Now what?
Expected (at least in this corner) to take more time to consider its options, the Greensboro City Council chose not to wait.
By a vote of 8-1 Tuesday night, the council killed a proposal in which it would have played the middle man in a real estate deal with a controversial landlord.
After impassioned pleas from affordable housing advocates to dis the deal, the council chose not to pay $1.65 million to Bill Agapion for property in the Cedar Street neighborhood. The council in turn would have sold the land to a private developer at a loss. (It would have recouped its investment over time in increased property tax revenue.)
But the council obviously felt that Agapion's long record as a negligent, unrepentant and -- according to his severest critics -- uncaring landlord outweighed the potential benefits of giving the modest, struggling downtown neighborhood a desperately needed shot in the arm.
Agapion has had repeated run-ins with city inspectors; even the property in question contains apartments that have logged more than 5,000 housing code violations since 1983.
The council's stance is understandable. No one wants to reward Agapion for bad behavior. Yet it leaves the biggest question unanswered: What now?
If the fate of the Cedar Street neighborhood is left strictly to market forces, residents' concerns that affordable housing be a part of the mix is highly unlikely. Developers stand to make more money on higher-end housing.
Or nothing could happen.
Council members pledged to work with residents to study how other cities have made mixed-income housing developments work, but that doesn't mean the effort would translate into something tangible.
Another question asked over and over Tuesday night and still unanswered: Is affordable housing downtown even realistic?
Finally, what is it about the city's housing code enforcement that allows Agapion to thumb his nose at them all the way to the bank?
It's as if Agapion is playing his own personal game of Monopoly with Greensboro real estate and no matter how much the city tries to tighten the rules, he keeps passing "Go" and collecting cash.
Comments (1)
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Allen, it would be very interesting if someone from the N&R would do an investigative story on whose back pocket Agapion is in. My guess is it has to be someone who has been "around" for a number of years, as Agapion has been allowed to act with impunity for as far back as I can remember.
If nobody is up for the task at the N&R to do this, then I suggest, (and it would be alot cheaper for the city than buying his trashed property), that the City Council hire a Private Investigator to follow Agapion around for 60 days or more to see where he goes, who he meets with and check into his banking business.
Why has Agapion been allowed to get away with violations of housing codes for all these years? Who is he paying off? My inquiring mind wants to know.
Posted on December 30, 2005 9:29 AM