BRISTOL — Rotting wood, falling mortar, leaky roofs and other issues have plagued the tenants of the Bristol Industrial Park, located at 500 Wood St., resulting in businesses moving out of the complex to other facilities. Lyle Fain, who owns the majority of the property, now faces fire-code compliance concerns that have been handed over to the state fire marshals office from Bristol Fire Chief Robert Martin.

Chief Martin said Mr. Fain, who did not return a phone call for this story, has been notified several times over the years to bring the property into compliance without success, leading him to forward those issues to the state fire marshals office a month ago because of Mr. Fain’s “lack of response.”

“I’m uncertain of the fire suppression of the sprinklers in there,” he said. “I don’t know if they’re working.”

Chief Martin said he will not send his men into any of its buildings to fight a fire if it’s determined no one is inside them. Instead, the fire department will ‘surround and drown’ — step back and flood it with water to prevent it from speading.

“I’m not going to risk anybody’s well-being,” he said.

At a recent meeting of the Bristol Redevelopment Agency, Town Solicitor Andrew Tietz said that the state fire marshals office can take enforcement action against Mr. Fain so he will comply with fire codes.

“The state fire marshal has an office for prosecution that works with one of the assistant attorney generals and they bring cases into district court, “ said Mr. Tietz. “The court can order compliance, the court can order it to close down pending compliance or they could issue fines.”

Tri-Mack Plastics Manufacturing Corporation, a Bristol family business, has had a research and development office in one of the buildings for more than five years. Tom Mack, who tests and find applications for their patented plastic product, said that they’ve installed fire extinquishers and lighted exit signs at the request of the fire department three years ago. He wasn’t aware if the sprinklers were operable.

“As far as I know, they haven’t been tested,” he said. “We had a water-pipe burst one time and Lyle came and fixed it. But we’re really self-contained here, if we have a problem we fix it ourselves.”

Another business in the complex, I Shalom, which owns its own separate unit in a building within the industrial park, has corrected all of their fire-code violations, but they cannot determine where the water feeding their sprinkler system is coming from.

“The pipes going through the complex are so convoluted, they can’t tell if it’s coming in directly from the street, or if it’s going through someplace else — the systems are interconnected,” said Mr. Tietz, who added that the entire industrial park also needs to have an alarm system that is fully integrated with the fire department.

Bud Luther, who has owned and operated Luther Welding in the industrial park since 1983, also said his sprinklers haven’t been tested and is unaware if they are working.

Other issues with property

Potential buyers for other units within the complex have been “turned off by the overall condition of the property,” according to Mr. Tietz.

The director of the Mt. Hope Enterprise Zone, Alan Crisman, whose main objective is to stimulate growth in the private sector, said the industrial park’s problems aren’t limited to its water supply.

“There are some serious problems with the electricity and services with that property,” he said. “The electricity isn’t properly metered for the businesses in there — they’re currently paying estimates in their bills. It would take some time for an engineer to go through there and assess what going on.”

Study findings and discoveries

In 2004, Mr. Fain, unable to pay creditors, placed the property into receivership and the Town of Bristol commissioned a study of the complex to assess the industrial park’s condition and ascertain better business uses for the area.

“They wanted to get a handle on its status,” said Ronald Wood, of the Urban Design Group, who helped perform the study. “The town had discovered the [industrial park] had gone into receivership and they were concerned about the possible relocation of businesses there and the economic impact on the town if they left.”

According to the study, lack of routine maintenance and repairs contributed the deterioration of many of its buildings, and most of the property improvements have been undertaken by it tenants, which range from manufacturing, marine and service industries. It was estimated it would take up to $4 million in building and site improvements to maintain its businesses and attract future tenants.

The study further states that tenants in the past have moved out of the park and others have been unable to expand because of the conditions: leaking roofs, aging trusses and general dilapidation. Some tenants took it upon themselves to complete major renovations such as roof repairs, new heating and cooling systems, wiring repairs and sprinklers. In one instance, Mr. Fain requested several months advance rent of a tenant to finance repair work in exchange for one month rent free.

One tenant said that “funds paid to the landlord for utility bills had not been paid to the utility companies, resulting in temporary electricity shut-off.” The study continued to say that the “bitterness of most of the interviewees towards their landlord made it difficult for them to envision the property attracting new tenants. All of them were skeptical that such improvements actually would be made.”

Mr. Mack said that their company has actually had a positive experience as a tenant, but he admitted they’re likely the exception among the businesses in the complex.

“Other neighbors have had frustrations with [Mr. Fain], and most of them have moved out because of that — the place is getting more and more vacant, there aren’t a lot of them left.”

Owner buys property under new business name

Facing creditors claims, Mr. Fain, as shareholder of the Bristol Industrial Park, Inc., placed the property in state court receivership in 2004. The Superior Court appointed the Providence law firm Winograd, Shine & Zacks to market the real estate for the highest price possible in order to liquidate the company’s assets to pay off claims.

According to attorney Diane Finkle, who works for the firm, the highest offer for the real estate was submitted and approved after a competitive bidding process. The highest bidder was a business called Wood Street Investors, Inc. — owned by Mr. Fain. Ms. Finkle said that after the closing, the sale proceeds were distributed to creditors.

Owner loses tax title

The Bristol Redevelopment Agency purchased the tax title to Mr. Fain’s property last month at public auction after he failed to pay real estate taxes since 2006 totaling $113,000. He has one year to buy back the title for the same price, plus interest. In the event he does not get the title back, the agency can petition the courts to foreclose on the industial park, which is assessed at $2.5 million, and become the owners.