Lynn treasurer says Athanas family owes city thousands

LYNN – According to city records, the owners of the long since defunct restaurant Anthony’s Hawthorne owe the city a big chunk of change in overdue taxes.
City treasurer Richard Fortucci said the Athanas family owes the city nearly $16,000 in back taxes, $11,387.11 for the restaurant parcel at 37-45 Central Avenue, and $4,607.78 for a parking lot located at 380 Washington St.
The taxes stem from two separate quarterly bills, one mailed last October that was due in November, and one mailed in January that was due in February.
?Looking back 10 years from today, this is unusual for the family,” Fortucci said. “But I also can’t tell if any of those bills were paid late.”
Fortucci said the city would have to wait until well until the next fiscal year to move forward with foreclosure proceedings on the properties if the taxes remain unpaid.
Wig Zamore, a representative of the Athanas family said he didn’t have any knowledge of the overdue taxes.
?My guess is that the tax thing is completely inadvertent,” he said.
Frustrated by the lack of movement to restore the prime piece of downtown property and now the unpaid taxes, James Cowdell, executive director of the Economic Development & Industrial Corporation said the city still has the option of eminent domain in mind if all else fails.
?I think this is indicative that they have just abandoned the city because they’re not trying to sell the property, redevelop it or pay taxes on it,” he said. “We said to them that if they want to develop the land, we will roll out the red carpet. But we stopped meeting with them because they don’t seem to want to do anything.”
The family previously expressed interest in transforming the former eatery into a four- or five-story building that would contain underground parking, commercial space on the first floor, and residential units on the remaining floors.
The family also said they would like to acquire the former Whyte’s Laundry site located next to the main post office to create a parking lot, which would be made available for customers shopping at the proposed commercial spaces.
An exact vision of the plan and eradicating any pollution issues would take several years to get in place, according to Zamore.
The family has been working with Boston architectural firm Steffian Bradley for the design and preliminary studies.