ThisWeek CW 11/06/2013
The Groveport Community Improvement Corp. will act as the city’s agent in selling a building at 173 Front St.
The city approved a bond in July for $800,000, most of which will be used will be used to construct a new police department facility at 5690 Clyde Moore Drive and to remodel the vacated space in the municipal building.
Some of the money was used to buy the Front Street property from Southeast Mental Health; it includes a shared parking lot used by the city for the municipal building. At the time, Administrator Marsha Hall said Groveport officials were concerned they might lose the parking space if another buyer were to purchase the property.
City officials then worked with the Franklin County Auditor’s Office to divide the parcel, thus making it possible for the city to sell the building and some associated land while maintaining ownership of the parking lot.
According to the auditor’s office, the total current market value of the building and lot is $123,000.
An ordinance approved by Groveport City Council Oct. 28 gives the CIC the authority to market and sell the property to the highest bidder.
“The deal itself is going to go through the Groveport CIC. We’ve got three interested parties that they’ll contact to work out a deal,” city Finance Director Jeff Green said. “They’ll have to set a minimum bid and go from there to see who ends up purchasing it.
“Also, because this is related to bond money, there will have to be a maximum sale amount as well, so we’ll see where the bids end up between those two,” he said.
During council discussions over whether to sell the property to a private investor or maintain the building, the decision to sell was made based on the significant amount of work that would be needed to bring the building back up to code, particularly as a public building.