Fighting City Hall From Within: An Ongoing Series III
Matt Shorraw, Mayor City of Monessen
Part III
The Sale of Eastgate 8
MONESSEN — As Mayor, I feel that I am duty-bound to continue to inform the public to the best of my abilities about what has been happening in the city’s government affairs. This is my continued attempt to inform the public of some issues that have been persistent, of which I have not been able to solve as of yet, and of which the general public has been intentionally kept out of the loop.
One of the issues that have me concerned within the City of Monessen, is the sale of the Eastgate 8 building. Most recently, Eastgate 8 was utilized as the Monessen Municipal Complex. The building originally served as the Mon Valley Health Center.
The City of Monessen, under the leadership of former Mayor Lou Mavrakis and his administration, sold the former Municipal Complex, also known as Eastgate 8 (a 4-story building that, prior to 2008, was the Mon Valley Health Center). In 2015, there was a resolution from Monessen City Council for the sale of 3 different properties, one of which was Eastgate 8. They sold one property soon after that, but they were not able to sell the other two (Eastgate 8 and Eastgate 11) as they wanted.
In 2016, Dr. Kamlesh Gosai placed a bid on Eastgate 8 for around $200,000. Council at the time declined the sale, saying that it was not a high enough bid and that they would feel more comfortable with a bid at or above $600,000. Then-Councilwoman Lucille D’Alfonso-who was forced out of office in the Summer of 2016, got a approval to get appraisal of Eastgate 8 from CBRE. To the dismay of Mavrakis, the CBRE appraisal came back at $1.9mil fully occupied, and $900,000 vacant. The former Mayor pressed on and found another buyer, named Krishnan Suthanthiran (a friend of Dr. Kamlesh Gosai), who has questionable businesses. He bought the former Brownsville (PA) Hospital as well as the ghost town of Kitsault in BC, Canada and has done nothing with them. They are under the name Gunston Hall Realty, which has been bankrupt. It was advertised that Eastgate 8 was being sold to Best Medical, LLC, which is not what the Westmoreland County tax map states. Suthanthiran is also in legal trouble due to alleged money laundering and fraud, in Belgium and Canada. It is also alleged that he left medical nuclear waste in his abandoned facility in Belgium. The Kingdom of Belgium and the Canadian government have taken legal action against Mr. Suthanthiran, and that action is currently pending.
A special meeting was held on Dec. 3, 2016, to take action on bids received for the municipal complex. Another special meeting was held on Dec. 15, 2016, to take action on a letter of intent to sell. On Jan. 23, 2017, the city solicitor asked for a motion to approve a promissory note. Suthanthiran bid $435,000, of which the council agreed on, in early 2017. The check was dated for 3/13/17, in the amount of $235,000. A former city employee who was employed with the city at the time, took a photo of the buyer and the former Mayor for the press, on 3/14/17. According to a copy of a city receipt, signed by the Treasurer’s office, the check was not received until 4/19/17. City employees believe the check was personally held by former Mayor Mavrakis or the late Councilman Chiaravalle.
A deed for the property transfer is dated May 1, 2017, and on the final page of that document under the witness section, the witness for Fairfax, VA (where this company is based) is dated June 27, 2017, and above that, for the witness in Westmoreland County, it was dated July 30, 2017. The date listed in the barcode by the recorder of deeds is dated 7/10/17. A promissory note agreement was made by the city and the buyer, on July 5, 2017. It states that the promissory note has a balance of $190,000, which will be made to the city in balloon payments, and that there will be quarterly interest payments of $950.00. The city has been receiving the interest payments but has not been paid in full for the entire transaction. This document was notarized by Fairfax County, on July 5, 2017, but not Westmoreland County. The promissory note is not lawful nor in accordance with the PA Third Class City Code, specifically 12402.1 (b)(4): “All bids shall be accepted on the condition that payment of the purchase price shall be made within 60 days of the acceptance of bids.”
To me personally, the building sale has been questionable from the start. In December 2017, after my election, but before my swearing-in, and while he was still serving in office at the time — District Magistrate Joseph A. Dalfonso urged me to meet with him and the buyer Krishan Suthanthiran to discuss the Eastgate 8 project. I felt that this was improper given the Magistrates elected position, and the whole ordeal certainly raised additional red flags for me. Ultimately, I declined to meet with them. This fact and the fact that the purchase price still has not been paid in full to the city continue to raise suspicions that this sale was not made above board. Upon the city vacating the building in 2017, most of the remaining tenants were forced out.
While the building certainly needs remodeling, it has potential, and could be used to bring real businesses or offices into Monessen. It is not doing any good sitting there empty, just like Brownsville Hospital, or the Ghost Town in Canada. We can only hope that there won’t be abandoned medical nuclear waste at Eastgate 8, like the property owned by Suthanthiran in Belgium.
MS
