Nobody Admits To Putting it on Market
By Sarah Ryley
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — A Duffield Street home that was allegedly linked to the Underground Railroad, and is caught up in eminent domain proceedings, is on the market for $4.5 million.
The “Downtown Brooklyn Prime Location” — an eight-bedroom, four-bathroom, semi-detached home with a store and the right to build up to 20 stories high — has been listed with RE/MAX for three weeks, and was updated this week with a photograph. But nobody seems to agree on who put the property up for sale.
The home’s occupant, Joy Chatel, has spent the last three years of her life trying to prove that the residence was once a stop along the Underground Railroad in the hopes of saving it from the wrecking ball, and dozens of activists and elected officials have joined in.
Chatel says she wants to turn her home into a museum, but the city’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) has plans to put an entryway for a parking garage in its place. The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development held a hearing Tuesday on the property and 20 others on three blocks in Downtown Brooklyn.
Chatel doesn’t own the home she’s been living in for over a decade, which would make it difficult for her to fight an eminent domain ruling. She signed the deed over to her mother in 2004, and her mother, Arnelda Monroe, gave outside investor Errol Bartholomew 50 percent ownership of the property the following year to stave off foreclosure proceedings, according to city records and a source close to the issue.
The source said Chatel had agreed to have the property renovated so it could generate income — by renting out stations in the now inoperative, garden-level hair salon and leasing the apartments she’s not occupying — but she never followed through.
Chatel said last week that her attorney, Angelyn Johnson, listed the property without asking, and suggested that Bartholomew was involved.
The attorney said Chatel and her mother both wanted to sell the Duffield Street property, adding that Chatel suggested the asking price be set at $3.9 million.
“The mother wants it sold,” said Johnson. “At this point they’ll do anything because they’re kind of in a pickle.” Johnson said the home could be in foreclosure again.
Chatel responded, “I never told [Johnson] anything about my house.”
Johnson, who maintains a law practice on Court Street, was charged in February by the Queens District Attorney’s Office as part of a six-person deed fraud ring, and is still under investigation for other frauds she may have committed, according to the office.
And Everett Samuel, who handles Bartholomew’s business affairs regarding this property, said she had nothing to do with it being put on the market.
Beverly Branche, the real estate agent, confirmed that Johnson gave her permission to put the property on the market. Branche said there’s been a lot of interest in the property, but wouldn’t say if an offer had been made.
“Speak to Mrs. Johnson, she has all the information on the property,” said Branche.
Lewis Greenstein, the owner of another Duffield Street home allegedly involved in the Underground Railroad, said he thinks the city is up to this.
Greenstein’s home was not among the 21 properties discussed at the eminent domain hearing this week, but a city source said it would be part of a second phase of condemnations.
“The city has done everything they possibly could over the past few years, short of burning us out, in an effort to get us out of our homes,” said Greenstein, listing the times unscrupulous developers looking to make a buck have approached him or his relatives.
“We’re not selling these properties. This is holy ground. Developers want these properties so bad they’ll do anything.”
The air rights on Chatel’s property — the right to build 20 stories high — would be the only thing of interest to developers if the property were taken through eminent domain. A small group of developers are able to trade air rights for money.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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