Who's Stifling Downtown~The City of Brownsville, the Property Owners, or Both? Comments from A Downtown Business Owner

From the editor:  The City of Brownsville is not unique in having a decaying, albeit historical, downtown.  Many, many cities have been more successful in revitalizing.  Some have revitalized, but sunk back into decay.  

For Brownsville, the frequent scapegoats are said to be cheap-ass downtown property owners who won't spend money to maintain their buildings, lugheaded, inflexible building inspectors, known for irrational, uneven code enforcement and likely "on the take," or the infamous peso devaluations of 1976 and 1993.  

The peso devaluation of 1976 was indeed serious.  Overnight, the savings and purchasing power of Mexican nationals was cut in half.  1993 gave the peso another serious hit.  Of course, these financials hit downtown Brownsville hard, but it also underscored its economic dependence on south-of-the-border customers.  Few actual Brownsville residents seriously consider purchasing, eating or drinking anything downtown.   Serious customers from Mexico also bypass downtown, instead buying a dozen purses for resale from Ross Dress for Less near the Sunrise Mall, sporting goods at Academy or eating at the mall's food court. They also shop hard at Walmart and H.E.B.  This past Sunday when Dillard's at Sunrise Mall offered 50% off tailored clothing, the adjacent parking lot was filled with Tamaulipas license plates.  Those who actually shop downtown include pedestrians who walk across one of two bridges looking for a dollar store level plastic toy for their children or used clothing for their family.  

A recent Facebook thread discussed some of these issues:

Teresa Saldivar

Teresa Saldivar:  Downtown looks so drab because there is a pissing contest going on between landlords and our city from what I have read over the past few years. Landlords claim our city rates are too steep and our city claims property owner's are too cheap and will not meet the building codes nor want to pay appropriate fees. In the meantime our downtown continues to look more like a ghost town than the largest city in the RGV.

Daniel Lenz:  Teresa, I bought my buildings 11 years ago and immediately started fixing them, after years of the previous owner doing nothing. I thought the city would be happy about this, but no, all I hit was road blocks and people from the city trying to shut me down. You have no idea what I went through. Without any notice, I had 11 police officers, the entire staff from building inspections, health department, and also a few people from the fire marshals office, oh and one commissioner, shutting my building down because they said someone reported there was a leak in the roof. By the way, I had just completed bringing the buildings up to meet the current fire code at the time. It was quite the circus to say the least. Anyway, I have had

Daniel Lenz

to fight tooth and nail to even be a property owner in downtown, including filing a lawsuit against the city, which finally got them to back down. I am all about doing things to code and willing to follow the rules, but I am not going to be bullied and when I am, I will either fight or say forget this crap, I will let my building stay as it is. By the way, for the record, the fire marshals office was fantastic to deal with. Lastly, if you are going to make property owners spend thousands of dollars to bring there buildings up to current codes, there has to be a payback to cover these costs. As it is, there are building codes for existing buildings that don't require them to bring them up to current codes, so they do nothing. Once they start any renovation, then they are required to meet all new codes.

We were intrigued enough by this exchange to call Daniel Lenz, the owner the Kobbeltvedt Enterprises Building at 12th and Adams St.(formerly Hotel Economico) downtown for more information.  Here are some excerpts from our brief exchange:

MMB:  When did this incident you described on Facebook with the police, inspectors and a City Commissioner, occur?

Daniel Lenz:  It was around May of 2006.  I had been working on my building, bringing it up to code.  Former Fire Marshall Ben Nunez and Inspector Cassandra Gomez were extremely helpful, yet strict in guiding me through the process.  Jim, I'm not against code enforcement.  I want my

Edward Camarillo

building safe and in compliance.  The event I described came as a complete shock.  One of the fire inspectors alerted me, saying that he was awaiting a group that was to meet at my building.  As I stated, eleven police officers showed up along with the entire inspection staff, the health department and the fire marshals.  District 2 City Commissioner Edward Camarillo was also there along with a crew from KGBT Channel 5.  

MMB:  So it looked like a photo op orchestrated by former Commissioner Edward Camarillo?  What did they give as the reason for the unannounced visit?

Daniel Lenz:  Jim, they said they had heard I had a roof leak.  I later found someone had stuffed clothing into one of my roof drains.  The water had to go somewhere, draining down the side of my building.  

MMB:  Was this your first experience with the City of Brownsville?

Daniel Lenz:  Not at all.  When I first started painting an interior room, changing out some ceiling tiles, I heard a knock at the door.  It was a building inspector threatening to shut me down.  He gave me a "Cease and Desist" order, stating that if work continued I would be fined $2,000 per day.  So, rather than fight it, I went to the Permit Department to get a permit.  Jim, it took me 7 days to get a permit, meanwhile I had to pay a crew for doing nothing or find another crew to remodel.  It was a totally frustrating experience.  I spent at least $75,000 bringing the building up to code.  

MMB:  Did that end your problems with the City of Brownsville?

Daniel Lenz:  No, when you bring your building into basic compliance, you now become susceptible to a new package of codes and restrictions.  You now have to follow rules other building owners have never faced that have not remodeled.  I was still threatened with being shut down by the City of Brownsville.  That ended up costing me approximately $25,000 in legal fees. That's money that just kept me in business, but I have nothing tangible to show for it.

MMB:  You seem to be implying that code enforcement is not applied even-handedly by the city?

Daniel Lenz:  Well, yes.  When I purchased my building eleven years ago, I immediately got a fire inspection, health inspection and a Certificate of Occupancy.  A couple of years ago a survey found that over 200 downtown buildings did not even have a Certificate of Occupancy, including the old Edelstein's Furniture store.  I just want the same rules to apply to everyone.  Before I allow a tenant to rent, I insist they get a fire inspection, health inspection and a Certificate of Occupancy. But, I can walk down the block and see other competing businesses with none of this.   

MMB:  Your building experienced a fire in 2010.  The rumor is that you scored pretty big with an insurance settlement.  

Kobbeltvedt Building after the Fire
Channel 4 Photo

Daniel Lenz:  I actually had no insurance.  My insurance on the building had lapsed by a month when the fire occured.  The bank had received notice of the cancellation, but had not notified me. Still, it was something I failed to keep up with.  I went back to the bank and renegotiated an additional $80,000 added to my loan to make the repairs.  With the fire and other upgrades, I've spent at least $200,000 on the building.  In addition to a new roof, the city mandated I increase the windows to their original size.  It made no difference to them that many, many other downtown buildings reduced the size of their windows in the same way.  All I ask is that whatever improvements or changes I'm required to make apply to others, but that's not the case.

When I had the fire, the city called me every day threatening to condemn my building.  Yet, the El Capitan Bar on 11th Street burned and has remained a burnt out shell ever since with no action taken by the city.  The unfairness, the lack of evenhanded enforcement is what frustrates me.

While I was experiencing my issues, I could walk over to the old Lopez Supermarket on 13th and Adams and see water leaking straight through the light fixtures.  It was difficult to understand how much hassle I was receiving from the city after remodeling while an existing business continued to operate under those conditions.