1316 Val is one of the seven properties mentioned in the article.
Posted: 7:00 a.m.
Monday, May 16, 2016
Middletown to consider offers
for one of seven buildings it owns
By
Mike Rutledge
Staff Writer
MIDDLETOWN — Want to buy a
building, real cheap?
Middletown will
consider offers for one of seven buildings it owns in the city, and may even be
willing to let one go for $1, if a business could put it to good use.
City Council Member
Daniel Picard has pressed the city to market on its own the buildings in its
possession, and in March said Middletown might sell some properties “for a
buck,” after some citizens criticized the sale of a dilapidated building at
1316 Vail Ave. and two adjacent vacant properties for $1 to start-up
micro-distillery Liberty Spirits LLC.
Liberty Spirits
owner Mike Robinette plans to open a micro-distillery in late June in a nearby
4,000-square-foot building at 1357
Central Ave., and also plans a modest-sized
tasting room and retail space there until he renovates the 4,000-square-foot
building he bought from the city at 1316 Vail.
At that point,
Robinette plans to keep operating out of 1357 Central while housing a larger
tasting and retail space at the Vail property, which will be configured to face
Central Avenue,
with an outdoor entertainment area between it and Central.
As the public
discussed the proposed Vale sale, Picard said Liberty Spirits wasn’t the only
company that could buy city property cheap.
“Well, I tell you
what, folks: Mr. (City Manager Doug) Adkins is putting together a list of all
the properties that this city has. If you’ve got a deal, you want to do
something, step forward,” Picard said. “Bring us your project. We’ll be glad to
consider it. We’ll probably be willing to make you a deal where you get a
building for a buck, too.”
Here’s the
six-property list Adkins released, plus another building the city bought since
then for $20,000:
* A building with
retail spaces at 1200 First Ave.,
which are in the same block as the Butler Metro Housing Authority tower. Adkins
said via email that the housing authority “has expressed interest in taking the
building to demolish it and expand their parking.” He added: “We are talking to
them but do not have any firm dates or terms of a transfer.”
Middletown took title to the property without
spending money in 2010 after it was forfeited to the state, according to
Adkins.
* The former Studio
Theater at 1345 Central Ave.,
whose title Adkins said Middletown
took in September, 2009, by donation without spending city funds. Like the Vail Avenue
property sold this year to Liberty Spirits, the city once planned to demolish
it. Once called the Strand Theater, which opened as a 1,800-seat showplace in
October, 1929, and later known as the Studio, which closed in 1984, it was
designated for demolition by the city in 2009, but the city lacked money for
the razing.
“The Studio Theater
and old Montgomery Wards are in such poor condition they should be demolished
when funds are available,” Adkins said via email.
* The former
Montgomery Ward building at 24 N.
Main St., for which Middletown took title in July, 2012, after it
was forfeited to the state for back taxes. No city funds were spent, Adkins
reported. The city has been discussing demolishing it since at least early
2013.
*403 Curtis St., which Adkins described as
“low-income senior housing – No immediate records available as to how we got
title to the property. Don’t know how long we have had this.” A city document
describes it as a group home. Here’s how the MidPointe library system describes
the structure: “Located at 403
Curtis Street, this house was built by Lorenzo Dow
Doty, grandson of Middletown’s
first settler, Daniel Doty. In 1958, the building was renovated and became
known as “the miracle on Curtis
Street.” It then became known as Doty House, a
special school and home for handicapped children. When Doty House moved to its
new home on Timber Trail, Doty House became Unity House, a drug treatment
center.”
The Butler County
Auditor’s website also offers no information about sales.
*19 S. Clinton St. a commercial building. Middletown took title in
September, 2010, after it was forfeited to the state for back taxes. No city
funds were spent, according to Adkins.
*930 Ninth Ave., a social services
building that Adkins reports was “part of a land swap that traded this property
for the old Amanda school site, which became the site for the new clinic.”
*The former
Middletown Area Senior Citizens Center building at the southwest corner of Columbia Avenue and
Verity Parkway.
Middletown
bought this building for $20,000 that the city had donated four years ago to
Higher Education Partners, for use by Cincinnati State Technical &
Community College, which does not have a use for it. City officials say they
may be willing sell it, renovate it for city use or demolish it to create green
space.
Before City Council
voted 5-0 for the purchase, Adkins told members the $20,000 represented costs
HEP “incurred to date in purchasing and carrying costs associated with the
building, in lieu of putting it back out for sale.”
When questioned by
the Journal-News about the lack of a purchase price, Adkins responded by email
that, “We donated the building but there were still legal costs, etc.,
associated with the transfer,” and said he hadn’t asked HEP about the carrying
costs paid.
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