By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
The City of Burlington Community Development Authority on Tuesday agreed to table a vote on a contract to sell the last remaining parcel of the downtown redevelopment project.
The land, located at the corner of East Chestnut and Dodge streets, was originally slated for a retail center before the economic downturn in 2009.
Since then, a number of different limited liability groups have been interested in the property.
The latest is Burlington Core Group Upgrade II, LLC, which has been working on a contract with the city for the last six to eight months.
A preliminary agreement was reached earlier this spring before both the group and city discovered there might still be remediation needed on the property.
That potential remediation was the cause of the latest change, which was brought before the CDA Tuesday night. The sales price of the property was set for $70,000, with an “as is” provision and the right for either party to walk away from the sale up to the closing.
However, two potential credits were written into the contract this time: one for any issues with the property and one for up to the entire cost of the property for any environmental remediation that needs to be done.
Right now, a study is still in progress regarding the contamination of the land, which used to, in part, house a gas station. City staff said it is confirmed that there is some petroleum contamination on site.
Soil will have to be removed and sent to a certified landfill, as well as vapor mitigation put into place.
The Core Group’s lawyer, Jeff Molinski, also had concerns about access to the parking garage, which is adjacent to the land.
However, he did say that with some fine tuning, the agreement would be acceptable.
“It’s just working out the minutia,” he said.
However, with a potential closing later in the summer and no firm number on the cost of environmental remediation – which could, in theory, exceed the $70,000 price tag, leaving that cost on the Core Group – the decision was made to table the contract until the study was completed.
Other business
The CDA unanimously approved a move to lower the interest rate on the Racine County Economic Development Corporation revolving loan for the Hampton Inn.
The interest rate will drop from 7.5 percent to 2 percent. The original rate was high due to the projected payback on the bonds used for the work on the downtown redevelopment project, which was handled within a tax incremental finance district.
That TID, known as the environmental TID, is set to close next year along with city TID 3. That plus refinancing on the bonds resulted in the city not needing as much income from that loan.
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