List of articles in our series on Dunk Them Donuts’ mixed-use tower proposal:
- Proposed High-Rise “Donut Tower” Would Require Demolition of Historic Hotel
- Preservation Board “Preliminarily Denies” Dunk Them Donuts Permit to Demolish Hotel Stansbury
- Joint Planning Commission / Federal Council Committee Meets on Proposed Zoning Amendment
- Did Dunk Them Donuts Set Up a Dummy Company to Buy the Hotel Stansbury
- Bricklyn’s Chief Prognosticator Advises Against Downtown Bricklyn Junction High-Rise Zoning
- Bricklyn Officials and Dunk Them Donuts Reach Landmark Agreement, Saving the Former Hotel Stansbury
- plus bonus feature: Dunk Them Donuts’ CEO Broffman Talks with The Bricklyn Eagle
February 24, 2024
by Paul B. Macro, Bricklyn Eagle Business Reporter and Mark Tiler Richmond, Bricklyn Eagle Politics & Law Correspondent
The Bricklyn Eagle, as part of its reporting on the Dunk Them Donuts request to demolish the Hotel Stansbury, recently examined the 2015 transaction by which Brickwater Realty purchased the Hotel Stansbury. Brickwater, in turn, sold the hotel to Dunk Them Donuts in May 2023.
Was Brickwater Realty actually a dummy company owned and controlled by Dunk Them Donuts?
We take a closer look at the ownership history of the Hotel Stansbury.
Before Brickwater Realty purchased the Stansbury in 2015, the hotel had been owned and operated since 1988 by a corporation called Stansbury Associates.
For the period between 1988 and 2007 the Stansbury continued to operate as a hotel, before being converted into office space in 2008.
During the period 2008 through 2015, office occupancy levels in the Stansbury averaged between 70 and 80 percent (typical for Bricklyn Junction’s downtown), and all reports are that the building was well-maintained.
For reasons that have puzzled many, the Stansbury’s fortunes appeared to take a precipitous turn for the worse soon after being purchased by Brickwater Realty in 2015.
Two former tenants we contacted told us that Brickwater offered them what they both termed “extortionate” rates for renewal of their leases — which forced both of these tenants to vacate their space.
Other tenants told us they were simply not offered a lease renewal, saying that a Brickwater representative told them their space was needed for another client.
There were also a growing number of complaints of a lack of proper maintenance in the building. A parade of tenants terminated their leases in 2016.
By 2017, the Stansbury’s occupancy rate had plummeted to 30 percent. The following year the remaining tenants were compelled to leave, as Brickwater told tenants that “renovation plans for the building required it to be emptied out.” But no other plans emerged.
During the period from 2018 to 2023, several complaints were filed with the Bricklyn Junction Dept. of Public Works (responsible for code enforcement) indicating that portions of the vacant Stansbury building “were falling apart” and “in need to significant repairs.”
DPW sent “warning letters” to Brickwater Realty, but apparently took no other follow-up actions.
Review of Police Department files also show that the vacant building had become a favored spot for some of Bricklyn’s petty criminals and troublemakers, with apparently little effort by Brickwater to do anything.
Was Suzanne Broffman (aka Mary Ellen Osterbrick) a “Dummy Shareholder” in Brickwater Realty acting on behalf her husband David Tiler Broffman and Dunk Them Donuts in purchasing and “managing” the building?
In investigating the records of Brickwater Realty’s purchase of the Stansbury in 2015, we noticed that the signatory for Brickwater’s purchase was listed as Mary Ellen Osterbrick, President, Brickwater Realty. Further research indicated that Mary Ellen Osterbrick was the birth name of Suzanne Broffman, wife of Dunk Them Donuts CEO David Tiler Broffman.
Dunk Them Donuts, in its filings with the Planning Department, made no mention of the fact that the wife of Dunk Them Donuts’ CEO was the principal officer and shareholder of the Stansbury during the time period the building became vacant and fell into disrepair.
According to USLegal.com: “Dummy shareholder means a person who maintains the stock in his/her name for the benefit of the true owner. … true owner means a person or company who really owns the shares. For example, a person who holds the shares on behalf of his/her spouse is a dummy shareholder. Usually the identity of a dummy shareholder would be concealed.”
Ms. Broffman has failed to return multiple calls from The Bricklyn Eagle. Likewise, Mr. Broffman and other officials at Dunk Them Donuts have not returned our phone calls, text messages, and emails.
At this point, we do not know if there was any nefarious intent by the Broffmans’ using what may have been a dummy corporation to purchase the Stansbury in 2015.
However, we do make note of the fact that Dunk Them Donuts argued to the Historic Preservation Board that the Stansbury needed to be demolished because it was in an advanced state of disrepair and could not be rehabilitated without the company incurring a very substantial financial expense.
The Bricklyn Eagle also sought to contact Realm of Bricklyn Planning Director Tim Brickedy and Bricklyn Junction Public Works Department Director Alan Tiler Alman about our investigation.📍
➤ Note that each of the three cities making up the Realm of Bricklyn — Bricklyn, South Bricklyn, and Bricklyn Junction — has its own Department of Public Works, while the Bricklyn Planning Department serves all three cities.
Staff at Public Works told us that Alman could not be reached, being on a safari in a remote portion of East Africa to research developing a zoological park for Bricklyn Junction. Other senior staff at DPW indicated they could not respond to our questions.
Planning Director Brickedy said he was “troubled by the implications of our reporting.” He noted that “demolition by neglect📍 is a concern with many demolition permit requests, but would be especially troubling if the neglect were the result of both willful intent to allow a building to fall into an advanced state of disrepair and failure to make full and accurate disclosures when applying for a demolition permit.”
➤ Demolition by Neglect: “Do historic preservation ordinances impose maintenance requirements on property owners? Routine maintenance work (such as replacing tiles on a slate roof) is generally excluded from commission review. However, many ordinances require that designated property be kept structurally sound, and empower the local government to make repairs and seek reimbursement in instances where a property is essentially being ‘demolished by neglect.’ ” — “Historic Preservation Ordinances: Frequently Asked Questions,” by Julia H. Miller, Esq. (Planning Commissioners Journal 51:14, Fall 2003). For a pdf of this article & four others on planning for historic preservation.
Brickedy acknowledged that the Historic Preservation Board was not aware that Brickwater Realty might have been acting as a dummy company on behalf of Dunk Them Donuts during the years Brickwater owned the Stansbury and allowed it to fall into a significant state of disrepair.
More to come as The Bricklyn Eagle continues its reporting. ✥
Response from Dunk Them Donuts
Shortly after filing this article, The Bricklyn Eagle received the following response from Dunk Them Donuts CEO David Tiler Broffman:
“The Bricklyn Eagle seems to have lost its bearings, with its sloppy, poorly researched article impugning the integrity of not just Dunk Them Donuts, but my lovely wife Suzanne.
In everything Dunk Them Donuts does, we are guided by legal counsel from the esteemed Bricklyn law firm of Brickly Baker. We have followed the letter of the law, and promise Bricklynites that “The Dunk,” our proposed mixed-use tower, will give a huge boost to the vitality of downtown Bricklyn Junction, while generating over sixty units of badly needed affordable housing for our employees.”
Editor’s note: for readers wanting to learn more about Dunk Them Donuts CEO David Tiler Broffman, see his recent interview with Bricklyn Eagle correspondent Gloria Vanderbrick.
We welcome Letters to the Editor. Please email to: bricklynvt@gmail.com
Letters to the Editor:
To the Editor: “Sounds like there are some scandalous scoundrels at work in the whole Dunk Them Donuts purchases of this historic hotel! Yikes, this place is a hotbed of controversy!” — Pat in Vermont
To the Editor: “The only real dummies are the folks who are standing in the way of the new Dunk Them Donuts tower. Let them do what they need to so that it can be built!” — Frank in South Bricklyn
To the Editor: “What Dunk Them Donuts appears to have done reflects the monopolistic power that happens in our supposedly free market economy. They’re not content with just being the biggest company in the Realm, but they also want to destroy the Realm’s heritage. Save the Stansbury!” — Marjorie in Bricklyn Junction
