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CITY: REALTOR WILL SELL M&M

 

Commissioners have different expectations for property
 
City officials Monday night approved a measure giving St. Augustine Realtor Irene Arriola of Saltwater Property Group the exclusive right to sell the former M&M Market at 102 Bridge St.
 
Asking price: $345,000.
 
“It’s a challenging property,” Arriola told the board. “We don’t have any expectation that we will get full price for this property.”
 
The contract says, “The property is offered ‘as is,’ with no warranties expressed or implied.”
 
It also says the property will not be used as a bar and that “seller reserves the right to further restrict the property.”
 
In addition, Arriola took on the task after waiving the usual 3.5 percent commission paid to sellers.
 
Another local real estate broker had been asked to sell the structure but turned the offer down when he learned he wouldn’t get the selling agent’s customary 3.5 percent commission.
 
A commissioner then asked Arriola to do it, and she accepted.
 
Mark Knight, city director of planning and building, said bids had gone out on the property — once home to a family of drug dealers — a year ago.
 
Three bids were eventually submitted, but the commission rejected them all.
 
The building, thought to be historic, will need extensive renovation, including new plumbing and electrical. It has been boarded up for some time.
 
Some commissioners said city staff could redo their earlier call for bids. But City Manager John Regan said, “We simply don’t do business this way (with bids). The (sale option) allows people to come in and negotiate.”
 
Commissioner Errol Jones said the property could be sold in the same manner as Sebastian Inland Harbor.
 
“We don’t want a Jiffy Store that sells beer and wine,” Jones said. “That’s what created the problem before — hanging out. We want it to be an economic engine and create three, four or five jobs. The sales contract is too vague. People could buy it without our knowing what they want to do with it.”
 
Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline said she believed that city staff was going to redo and reissue the bids and that a sale was offered only as an option.
 
“I’m hearing that two commissioners don’t care if the building gets demolished,” she said. “We don’t demolish buildings in St. Augustine. We save them, especially if they are ours. I can’t in good conscience allow the demolition of this structure.”
 
Vice Mayor Leanna Freeman said that, for her, the idea of demolishing the building is not a deal-breaker.
 
“It will be a private business. Someone will make a significant investment into a significant project,” Freeman said. “I don’t want to scare anyone away by grilling them about what they’re going to do with the property.”
 
City Attorney Ron Brown told the board that it had a right to limit the use of the property with deed restrictions.
 
“This is a listing agreement, not a purchase or sale agreement,” he said. “(A purchase or sale contract) still has to come back to you for approval. And there may be someone who comes up with a use that the city never considered.”
 
Commissioner Bill Leary said that the city paid too much for the property.
 
“But we needed to get that use out of there and protect the neighborhood,” he said. “This is social engineering. It’s not the core mission of this city to buy up property and tell people how it should be used. That’s not our business.”
 
The vote was 4-1, with Sikes-Kline dissenting, to give Arriola exclusive rights to the sale.
 
Sikes-Kline said, “It’s not the direction I want the city to go.”

This article was written by Peter Guinta and published in the St Augustine Record on December 12, 2011

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Irene Arriola Real Estate, Inc.
81 King Street, Suite B Saint Augustine, FL 32084
Email: [email protected] | Office phone: 904.829.2002
Cell phone: 904.669.0691 | Fax: 904.829.2029