A block off Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis sits a long-vacant home with peeling paint and storm windows that tumbled into the shrubs below. The main floor is gutted, plants are overgrown and pigeons were the most recent inhabitants.

And it is not just the dilapidated home on Irving Avenue S. that has neighbors grousing, but also the owner ­— Ross Fefercorn, a developer of multimillion-dollar commercial and residential projects.

"People get annoyed with Ross because he's buildings things elsewhere," neighbor Jean Bass said. "It would be different if he was destitute."

Fefercorn has owned the duplex for 16 years, but it has been empty about a decade, a scruffy blight in a neighborhood known for lush green yards and some of the city's most expensive homes.

The city added Fefercorn's property to the vacant building list in 2007, the only such property in the East Isles neighborhood. The annual penalty doubles his property tax bill, to almost $17,000 a year.

Frustration over the duplex erupted at the East Isles Residents Association board meeting two years ago, with some neighbors suggesting the city not approve any more development deals for Fefercorn until the Irving property is fixed up. Some note his personal home blocks away in the Wedge neighborhood is well-kept with pleasant landscaping.

"I do things slowly, but when I do them, I do a pretty good job," he said.

Fefercorn said he bought the duplex with the idea he might live there someday. He rented it to tenants for a few years, but then began to gut it. He said he ran into unforeseen structural issues that arose from the house being cobbled together on different foundations over its 106-year history. Those problems, and then the housing recession, stalled progress. He said he is now debating whether to sell, rehabilitate or tear down the duplex and build a new home. The city said Fefercorn took steps toward demolishing the building in 2009 but never followed through.

"It's not something you want to put another $800,000 into," he said.

Neighbors say the property has been dilapidated for years with no apparent signs of progress. The driveway is breaking up and weeds poke through shrubs. But they say it has looked worse, with piles of construction debris and a back yard that filled up with junk left by passersby. Fefercorn has been billed more than $1,275 in the past three years for city cleanups at the duplex; he's gotten 22 city inspection citations since 2003.

There are other hazards, too. Neighbor Karla Forsyth said a window fell off the duplex and shattered into her yard when it hit her fence.

"That's when my Irish really got up," she said. "I said you owe it to your neighbors to keep your property safe. How does the city let this guy get away with this?"

Fefercorn paid $360,000 for the property in 1998, but city records show it is worth just $389,000 today, with the land worth twice the structure. The ground floor interior is in see-through condition with just studs showing. Fefercorn said the upper floor is wired and plumbed, with new windows. He blamed the falling windows on a faulty plastic clip used by a window manufacturer. The city threatened to condemn the boarded-up building in 2009, but Fefercorn removed the boards, city spokesman Casper Hill said.

Fefercorn has developed commercial and residential projects from north Minneapolis to Uptown to Mendota Heights and St. Paul. But he's developed a reputation among government officials as a slow-moving, cautious developer. For example, he was the local face of a team selected by the city to build several phases of housing at the Grain Belt brewery complex in Minneapolis. But he lost that chance when he took years to start and then ran into trouble during the recession. Another developer is now building that housing.

Fefercorn also was selected to build housing along the Humboldt Greenway in the city's far northern fringe. He completed a first phase years after the initial timetable. The city was forced to repurchase lots it had sold to Fefercorn when his lender foreclosed after he didn't pay property taxes during the recession. Among his successes, he developed Track 29 along the Humboldt Greenway, where lofts boast an indoor saltwater pool and a Zen garden, among other amenities.

All this causes neighbors to ask why the city can't hurry Fefercorn along.

Meg Tuthill, who used to represent the area on the City Council until this year, said Fefercorn paid his taxes and responded to trash issues quickly, although records show he's paid multiple city assessments for cleanups.

City ordinance defines properties such as Fefercorn's duplex as nuisances and allows officials to order them demolished or rehabbed.

But Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde, the city's top regulator, said exterior conditions don't warrant either action. She said the impacts felt by neighbors could play a role if the city decides to ask a court to put a long-neglected property into receivership for repairs.

Forsyth said she's tried to stay civil with Fefercorn because they could end up as next-door neighbors. But she extended her fence the fence between her duplex and his to block the view of his yard.

Forsyth told a city regulatory official: "You're all over people on the North Side. Why aren't you on this guy?"

Only Fefercorn knows the future of the duplex.

"If and when I do a project, it'll be a very good project," he said.

Steve Brandt • 612-673-4438

Twitter: @brandtstrib