BERLIN– Just two weeks after voting to end negotiations regarding the sale of Heron Park, the Berlin Town Council is expected to reconsider the issue on Monday.
A trio of Berlin elected officials will seek additional discussion regarding the sale of a portion of Heron Park to local developer Palmer Gillis on Monday. Mayor Zack Tyndall and Councilmen Jack Orris and Steve Green asked their peers in a letter this week to reevaluate their decision regarding the sale of parcel 57 to Gillis’s Coastal Venture Properties.
“We respectfully request that you reconsider your vote to end the negotiations with Coastal Ventures Properties (CVP) regarding the sale of Parcel 57 at Heron Park,” the letter reads. “During our WorkSession meeting on Monday, August 28, the majority of the Council reached a consensus on the draft contract. Following the meeting, at least one of you reached out to the Mayor’s Office to express the items you would like to see in a future contract and stated that you would be interested in reexploring the potential sale…”
On Aug. 28, the council voted 3-2, with Orris and Green opposed, to end negotiations with CVP regarding the sale of parcel 57, the site of the old processing plant. Council members Dean Burrell, Jay Knerr and Shaneka Nichols voted against the sale, citing concerns about development there competing with downtown businesses as well as the fact that selling that piece of the park wouldn’t eliminate the debt associated with the entire Heron Park property.
In this week’s letter Tyndall and the two council members who supported the sale asked Nichols, Burrell and Knerr to reconsider, alluding to the fact that one of them already has expressed an interest in exploring a deal with Gillis. The pending demolition of the property using the town’s $500,000 grant is also referenced.
“We also ask you to re-evaluate the risk that the Town of Berlin is taking on by moving forward with the demolition ourselves. The engineers from DBF have been on-site to evaluate the building following our meeting on August 28″ to begin preparing documents to take the demolition of the building to bid. DBF believes that it is ‘unlikely’ that the Town will be able to demolish the entire building. DBF also believes that the Town ‘will have to spend money to secure and stabilize’ the remaining portion of the building if the entire demolition cannot be accomplished with the available funding.”
The letter summarizes changes discussed at the last council meeting, including a $1.2 million purchase price, consideration of the EDUs attached to the property and the incorporation of a residential component into the project and states they’re being worked into a new draft contract by legal counsel.
The letter, which is available in its entirety online in the council packet, is listed as a discussion item for Monday’s 7 p.m. town council meeting.
