Lawyer buys Spruce Street property in Scranton [The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa.]

Jan. 05--A corporation headed by a Scranton lawyer has purchased a Spruce Street building for $1 million.

Barrister Investment Group LLC bought the four-story structure at 410-412 Spruce St. from Scranton Downtown LLC, according to documents filed with the Lackawanna County recorder of deeds office. Attorney Thomas J. Jones Jr., of Scranton, whose law offices are in the building, said he is the sole managing member of the purchasing concern.

The structure has undergone substantial transformation over the last decade.

More than $245,900 in back taxes had accumulated on the abandoned building before the city acquired it in a 2001 judicial sale.

In 2002, the Scranton Redevelopment Authority sold the structure for $20,000 to a development group, including Brian Murray, a Scranton insurance executive who was sentenced to 51/2 to 161/2 years in state prison in September after pleading no contest to charges of theft and conspiracy in a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme.

Mr. Murray's group spent $1 million renovating the structure. The group sold the building for $925,000 in 2009 to Scranton Downtown LLC, which has a corporate address in Pocono Pines, but listed a Clarks Summit address in the latest property sale.

Mr. Jones said he already had invested money to renovate and upgrade his office suite, so when the property became available recently, he decided to buy it.

"For my own preservation, I thought I would buy the building if I could," he said. "The building is fully renovated and everything is brand new."

Clarks Summit businessman Neil DeLuca is the principal in Downtown Scranton LLC, said attorney Gregory Pascale, who represented the seller in the transaction. Mr. DeLuca was president of Pinecrest Lake Homes LLC, a Pocono Pines housing development company that has ceased operations, Mr. Pascale said. Efforts to reach Mr. DeLuca were unsuccessful.

The building is fully occupied by professional tenants, Mr. Jones said, with the exception of the street-level space at 412 Spruce St. New Laundry, an apparel shop that occupied the space, recently relocated to the Connell Building.

Contact the writer: [email protected]

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