City of Fall River taking South Main Street property part of downtown revitalization

FALL RIVER ─ A 10-year effort to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in outstanding back taxes from one of the city’s worst tax scofflaws could be ending with the tax foreclosure on the owner’s building at 308 South Main Street.

“We’re moving again,” said the city’s real estate attorney Matthew Thomas who has been handling the case.

Property owner and former city glass company owner, Moses Rapoza, owes nearly $600,000 in property taxes, fees and penalties, according to Thomas.

As of May, the property was valued at $665,000.

Rapoza is no stranger to tax troubles with the city taking tax title to his former property known as Pleasant Place Condominiums at 212 Pleasant St. in 2015. Thomas, representing the city, auctioned off the property in 2015 for Rapoza’s outstanding tax bill at the time of $700,000.

In 2019, Rapoza, 83 at the time, pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court in Boston to multiple charges that he failed to report and pay more than $170,000 to the IRS after he withheld the money for his company’s employees. He was the owner of the former Global Specialty Glass Contractors Inc.

Rapoza received three years’ probation with the first six months on home detention.

The matter of 308 Main Street has been in Land Court since 2015, and Thomas said there had been a lot of stops and starts along the way. The delays were caused by a myriad of reasons, from bankruptcy filed by the LLC that was the legal entity that owned the building and the city’s attempts to recoup the back taxes from potential new owners, which “fell apart,” said Thomas.

Covid slowed things down in Land Court, and Rapoza made several attempts to retain the building. And the state legislature changed the rules on municipalities in tax taking last summer, which caused some confusion on the amount of interest towns and cities may charge for interest, said Thomas.

The city filed a motion to have the Land Court file a public notice of the tax taking of 308 South Main St. to move the foreclosure ahead.

There was a July 28 deadline for anyone to make a claim of ownership of the property. Thomas said that Rapoza never responded to the deadline.

Thomas said he has filed a motion to the court for a finding on the matter to continue to move it ahead.

“Now the finding will give them 45 days to redeem and pay all the taxes back,” said Thomas. “If the taxes are paid, they get the property back and can go on with their lives.”

Property identified as piece in downtown revitalization

The building has certainly seen better days, and the condition of the structure is to be determined, but Thomas said it is a significant property due to its location and calls it a “strategic” piece of real estate for the pending downtown revitalization plan.

The building is located at the corner of Rodman Street and at the intersection of Columbia Street. Both locations are targeted for improvements and upgrades.

And 308 South Main Street is also identified in the Fall River Redevelopment Agency’s “Fall River Downtown Urban Renewal Plan” released in 2019.

If the foreclosure is completed and a Land Court judge issues a decree, “the law gives us two weeks after the decree to decide what we are going to do with it,” said Thomas.

“Whether we are going to keep it in-house for municipal purposes or if we are going to sell it,” said Thomas.

The city could sell it out right in a tax possession sale, but the city would not have the ability to put any restrictions on the redevelopment of the property.

Because of the short window of time the city must decide what it will do if it claims 308 South Main Street. Thomas said the city has already secured an appraiser and an appraisal and are waiting for the results.