Commercial real estate has been heating up in Quincy over the last several years. A one-acre property known as the Messina property, has changed hands a few times over the last decade and has been a sore point for taxpayer dollars. With a downtown revitalization a priority for city council, the property has now been voted on by city councilors to take the property in its entirety for $6.8 million.
This ends a long-running saga of payouts and problems with the current landowners. What’s interesting is that the property is assessed at $1.1 million currently. However, an independent appraiser working on behalf of both parties studied market trends to determine a fair value and set the price. The city of Quincy previously owned part of this property, but was sold to make way for Walker J. Hannon Parkway, which required a demolition of an office building on the commercial property. The city of Quincy had to pay out a couple of cool million for relocation costs associated with the project.
Beyond that, thousands were spent by the city constructing a parking lot connected to the property and that land was rented for another $100,000 per year to the current owner. With the current landowner refusing to renew the city’s lease, the two parties were at odds. After more back-and-forth, the city has agreed to purchase the property per city council agreement. However, they noted that they felt obligated to purchase the property after investing so much money into it over the years.
Commercial real estate often isn’t this complicated. Between the property being city owned, to city leased, to improved upon it’s been a bit of a nightmare for taxpayers. However, it appears that a final resolution has been reached as the commercial property can finally be utilized fully for the purpose of downtown revitalization, that has always been the goal since the beginning.
Subscribe To This Blog’s Feed