By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
With a contract officially approved Tuesday night by the City of Burlington Community Development Authority, the sale of an undeveloped parcel of land in downtown Burlington will likely move forward.
The CDA approved a document for the sale of the property marked for a retail development when the downtown redevelopment began to move forward in 2009.
Coming out of that project was the Hampton Inn and the downtown parking structure, but the retail development adjacent to the parking structure never came to fruition. Citing the tanking economy and changes to the health care business following the passage of the Affordable Care Act, different development groups failed to find businesses for the property.
After waiting to see what would happen, Burlington Core Upgrades II, LLC – led by Tom Stelling and Bill Stone – came to the CDA last month offering to purchase the land on East Chestnut Street for its appraised value of about $70,000.
The document approved Tuesday night will give both the development group and the city 90 days to back out of the deal. That was done so if another offer came in, the city could “start dancing with somebody else, if they so wish,” said City Attorney John Bjelajac.
“I’m confident, personally, if this deal does close, we are doing the right thing,” he added about the Core Upgrades group. Stelling and Stone have been a part of the potential development almost from the beginning, and have brought several options before the council in the last four to six years.
“If I were doing a prediction, we’ll be doing the deal with these guys,” Bjelajac added, saying he didn’t expect anyone to come forward with an offer to purchase the parcel.
The document, Bjelajac said, was drawn up to allow the CDA flexibility in awarding the sale of the land regardless.
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