Millerton building set for foreclosure auction

MILLERTON — A Main Street apartment building that has been vacant since a carbon monoxide scare in January is being auctioned off following the property’s foreclosure.

The residential apartment building at 7-9 Main St. will be sold at an auction on Monday, Oct. 26, at 2:30 p.m. in the rear lobby of the Dutchess County Courthouse in Poughkeepsie.

The auction comes more than six months after a March ruling that found owner Chris Rapaj was behind on mortgage payments for the property and owed $625,621.25 to lenders. It marks a closing chapter in a fraught period in the building’s history that climaxed with its evacuation in January caused by a faulty furnace.

Rapaj purchased the building in 2023 with plans to renovate the property. The renovations never came, however, due to concerns from village zoning officials over the building’s compliance with density restrictions and a lack of available parking onsite. Millerton’s Zoning Board of Appeals made its final ruling on the matter in summer 2025, denying variances that would have exempted the property from parking requirements and increased the legally permitted number of units on the property to nine up from six.

The apartment building dates to 1900, according to Dutchess County Parcel Access. The building is currently configured into 12 units with a total floor area of 9,696 square feet. Zoning Board of Appeals members determined that configuration had never been formally approved, and that level density would be too high for the village to condone. Village zoning code requires 5,000 square feet of lot area per residential unit. With 12 units, the lot at 7-9 Main St. only affords 636 square feet of area per unit.

Rapaj later amended his requests, providing six-unit and nine-unit versions of the building’s layout. ZBA members ultimately rejected both of the proposals in June 2025 over the property’s lack of space for off-street parking.

In January, dangerous carbon monoxide levels forced an evacuation of the building. A basement furnace had caught fire, spewing gases and smoke and prompting authorities to rule the building uninhabitable until the furnace was restored. A sign on the door warning against entry has been present since the January fire.

Rapaj has been facing the foreclosure suit since 2023, when his lender first filed documents at Dutchess County Court. Court proceedings continued until March, when the judge presiding over the case ruled to hold an auction for the building.