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The future of the former operations building for Monroe Bank & Trust and First Merchants Bank at 212 E. Front St. in downtown Monroe remains up in the air.
The Monroe City Council evaluated two business proposals at its most recent meeting this past Tuesday before ultimately deciding to delay the discussion for a later work session.
The offers were generally met with disapproval by the council though they came short of officially voting to reject either proposal. Instead the council voted 6-0 to pull the item from council action and reschedule it for the upcoming public work session Monday, Sept. 18.
Council member Andrew Felder abstained from the vote due to his professional connection with one of the offers.
After reviewing both proposals, City Manager David Robinson said that tabling the discussion “would allow the council time to study the information that’s already been provided and we can address it at the next work session and have more conversation about this and be able to answer more questions.”
The two offers for the vacant property which the city purchased in April 2021 came from Wiens Acquisitions LLC and the River Raisin Centre for the Arts (RRCA).
Wiens proposed a lease of the building to begin on Jan. 1, 2024, with a $5,000 nonrefundable option deposit to serve as rent and an option to purchase the building at the end of the lease for $275,000. Wiens would pay for utilities and other costs while the city would maintain responsibility for taxes, repairs, and parking lot maintenance.
Wiens Acquisitions is a real estate firm that purchases, renovates, and rents out homes.
The proposal from the RRCA included $75,000 purchase agreement along with conveying ownership of the building at 114 Cass St. over to the city. The RRCA would use the new property to consolidate and expand many of its operations, including instructional programming.
In both cases, the city would retain a section of the property’s parking lot for public and employee use.
Robinson balked at the idea of a lease agreement with an option to purchase later saying that the city should not be “the proving ground for their business ideas to see if their business ideas take hold and become profitable. I don’t imagine they would continue forward if they’re not profitable. So there’s a risk for us there.”
The proposal from the RRCA was appealing from an arts and culture perspective, Robinson said, but the lower purchase offer and the business’s tax-exempt status were “a tough thing to accept.” He added that taking ownership of the RRCA’s other building would only shift the city’s responsibility to find a tenant to that property instead.
“Neither proposal gets me there to take action at this time,” Robinson said. “I’m not prepared at this point to make a decision.”
The city had previously sent out a request for proposals (RFP) to four interested parties that had approached the city about using the building. Only two responded, and Robinson said the council should explore the possibility of sending out an open RFP to gauge interest from other groups.
The property was most recently assessed to be worth $1,548,914. Mark Cochran, the city’s director of economic and community development, said that the city is not necessarily looking to sell near that price. The city purchased the property for $599,000 and would retain ownership of the west parking lot valued at about $300,000.
“It’s not the city’s intent to hang on to any of these properties long term,” Cochran said. “We want to see them back on the tax rolls. We want to see them reactivated for the community benefit.”
When the building is in use, it generates annual taxes of roughly $50,000, Cochran confirmed.
Cochran said the city could likely get higher offers if the building was listed with a real estate agent, but that would also give less control over the type of business in that space. Putting out an RFP helps the city focus on bringing in a business that is more in keeping with the city’s vision.
“We’ve done in the past various market studies and market analysis that tells us where gaps are in our community, where people are leaving the city to go shop or to go eat and dine,” Cochran said. “So we would look at that data to inform us as we put together the RFP to say this is what we feel our city need and our city wants and what our city can support.”
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