Greensburg wants dilapidated building torn down

Greensburg wants the California owner of a three-story brick building in the downtown business district to raze the structure or the city will do it.

The building’s roof has fallen in and the structure is “at immediate risk of collapse,” according to a legal notice tacked to the front of the building.

“I want it on the ground as soon as possible. It’s a huge safety risk,” Mayor Rob Bell said last week of the structure at 127 S. Pennsylvania Ave., less than a block from the Westmoreland County Courthouse.

The city has given the owner, Baris Tansel of Beverly Hills, until April 23 to either repair it or raze it, but the mayor said the Californian has not responded to the city’s request to take action. Tansel could not be reached for comment Friday.

“The structure is (an) immediate danger to the public” because the roof has collapsed and interior floors have failed, reads the note on the building. Exterior walls have bowed outward toward an adjacent brick building that is but a few feet away. The notice states that the owner faces legal liability if anyone is hurt in a collapse of the structure.

The city blocked off the sidewalk with sawhorses and stretched police tape to discourage anyone from walking on the sidewalk in front of the building. The opening in the roof can be seen from the alley and through front windows on the third floor and through the first floor window.

If Greensburg undertakes the demolition after April 23, Bell said, the city will place a lien on the property or file a suit against the owner.

Tansel has owned the vacant building since buying it from Princeton Commercial RE Holdings LLC of Wilmington, Del., for $18,000 in June 2019, according to documents filed with the Westmoreland County Recorder of Deeds. A month later, ownership was transferred to Shiny Penna LLC for $10, but the company claimed a realty transfer tax exemption of $346,050. Shiny Penna lists as its address the vacant property on South Pennsylvania Avenue, which was home to Derby’s Delicatessen in the 1980s.

Bricks from the building may have fallen and damaged the roof of an adjacent building, causing a leak, said Suzanne Ward, who owns the former Art-Tech store at 135 S. Pennsylvania Ave., with her husband Michael Ward. The Wards own the building through their development company, City Cribbs 2, according to the Westmoreland County tax map.

Suzanne Ward said they had submitted a bid to buy the building from Tansel before the roof had collapsed, but he rejected it. At that time, it could have been rehabbed, Ward said.

MWT Holdings Inc. of Latrobe, the owner of the building at 125 S. Pennsylvania Ave. that is adjacent to Tansel’s property, could not be reached for comment.

The Pennsylvania Department of State does not identify the officers of MWT Holdings.