A deal to sell a county-owned Dundalk tract will cost county taxpayers nearly $20 million.

The county will sell the 9.8-acre parcel, for which the county paid nearly $21 million in 2006, to a company owned by Baltimore businessman John Vontran for nearly $1.64 million.

In 2005, Vontran was charged with illegal gambling, charges that county prosecutors have not pursued.

The tract was once the site of the troubled Yorkway Apartment complex.

County officials defended the sale to Vontran, former president of Amusement Vending, a company that places video poker machines in bars and restaurants. Vontran’s company, Yorkway LLC, was selected to purchase the property through a competitive bid process.

Don Moehler, a spokesman for County Executive Jim Smith, said that from the beginning officials had told the County Council, which approved the sale Sept. 15, that the county would not recoup what it had paid for the land.

He said the Yorkway had been “a cancer” and added:
“There was never an expectation that we would recover all the money we paid to remove the blight from this neighborhood. I don’t know how you put a price on community transformation.”

Vontran likewise defended the deal.

“Just because the county paid all that money doesn’t mean the property is worth that. I have no control over what the county brings a piece of property down for.”

He said there is a payback to county taxpayers beyond raw dollars.

“They get rid of a drug haven. The money the county would put out in police manpower and extra trash pickups is saved,” Vontran said. “You can’t put a price on that.”

Vontran said in an interview that he has not been in the vending and video poker machine business for several years and now focuses on development projects in Dundalk and the Canton area of Baltimore.

The phone number once used for his vending machine business is now used for the headquarters of his various development companies, said Vontran, 44 and a resident of Perry Hall
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As part of the deal with Vontran, the county is removing the tract from Smith’s Renaissance Revitalization program.

Councilman Kevin Kamenetz said that move and the sale price, concern him.

Under Renaissance Revitalization, a developer is required to hold a series of meetings, called charettes, with community members. A plan developed in the meetings would have to be approved by 80 percent of those attending for the county to proceed.

But “all that is before us is a bill of sale,” Kamenetz said Sept. 9. “If we approve this, we have no more leverage over the developer. We need to see a game plan.”

After a Sept. 9 council work session, Kamenetz threatened to block the contract from even coming up for a council vote.

In the end, Kamenetz voted with five other councilmen to approve the sale after Vontran agreed to submit his development plan to the county’s Planned Unit Development process. Under that process, Vontran will have to get the approval of both the council and the county Planning Board. The public will have an opportunity to review the plan and make its concerns known before final approval.

Only Councilman Sam Moxley, a Democrat who represents Catonsville and Arbutus, voted against the sale. He said he was concerned that the county was not getting enough out of its investment because of the slump in the housing market.

“It costs the county nothing to hold onto it,” Moxley said.

The Yorkway development will be Vontran’s largest development project, which he said will be “work force housing” priced from $249,000 to $269,000.

County Administrative Officer Fred Homan said it was necessary to remove the property from the program in order to redevelop it.

“The intention was to be able to use the charette process,” Homan said. “ But developers were not willing to come to the table in this market.”

Councilman John Olszewski Sr., reminded colleagues at the Sept. 9 session that the Yorkway complex had accounted for 3,500 calls for police service a year.

This will be the largest project developed by Vontran, who said he got his start rehabilitating a dozen or so houses in Canton.

He currently has one project under way in Canton, with four houses completed.

Vontran is the former president of Amusement Vending, a company that placed video games and vending machines in bars and restaurants in the county and city. A 2006 report by the Abell Foundation estimated his company once licensed 93 video poker machines in Baltimore County.

Since 2000, Vontran personally has donated $2,050 to Olszewski’s campaign. Amusement Vending donated an additional $1,900 to that campaign and $250 to Smith’s campaign, according to state Board of Elections records.

Both Vontran’s lawyer and spokesman have ties to Smith. David Gildea, a land-use attorney, worked as a clerk for Smith during his tenure as a Circuit Court Judge. Vontran initially referred questions about the Dundalk development to Damian O’Doherty, a Towson resident who was both a spokesman and top aide to Smith.

Vontran said he is not personally close to either Olszewski or Smith.

Vontran faced illegal gaming charges in Baltimore County three years ago. The charges included possession illegal slot machines and failure to comply with licensing requirements.

Those charges were later placed on an inactive docket that allows prosecutors the option to pursue the charges at a later date. So far, those charges remain inactive.

Vontran said he could not comment on the charges and has been out of the business since 2007.

“I had my fill of it,” said Vontran, who added that he no longer owns any bars in Baltimore City since selling one named the Purple Goose in southwest Baltimore this year. Vontran said he still owns the land on which that bar site.

Bryan P. Sears is political editor for Patuxent Publishing Co.’s Baltimore County newspapers.

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