And what does that mean?
Since the city bought at $5.65 million and are selling at $5,907,000, does that redeem the deal?
Or was the city’s purchase of the property a crazy risk anyway, since “(t)he initial owners had said that, after spending 25 years trying to find a buyer, no would-be purchaser could come up with a financially feasible reuse of the structure.”
I really don’t know. I had my doubts about the deal, but if the city’s going to come out ahead…
Y’all decide.
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The upside is: it doesn’t appear that the city will lose money on this deal. We’ll have to look at the carrying costs and see the fine print, but on the face of it, it appears that the retiree health fund won’t take a bath. Perhaps the difference will cover commissions and legal costs associated with the deal and loans.
The downside is: Using the retiree healthcare reserves for a risky property flip set a bad precedent. If the city does in fact make any money on this deal, will they be tempted to try to repeat the trick again? I don’t think we’ll be able to pull off successful flips regularly.
And what is the end result? A hotel and condos inside the shell of a brick building? Is that what preservation is these days? It’s a brick warehouse. I haven’t figured out what the cultural significance is of that type of structure.
I’m no architect, but in looking at the photos of the building, I see too few windows for a 100 room hotel and those large bay doors on each floor.