Vacant building

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   Middletown considers $11
offer for vacant building

Ed Richter  Staff Writer

8:00 a.m. Sunday, March 12, 2017  Middletown

MIDDLETOWN

It wasn’t a
typo in a first reading of legislation before Middletown City Council last week
to sell a building on First Avenue
for about $11.

The city
received a proposal from Patrick Klancar, owner of MJK Management LLC of
Middletown, who said he’d be willing to purchase the property at 1200-1204 First Ave.
for $11.39.

While selling
this fixer-upper for $11.39 may seem to be a bargain, Klancar said the
estimated cost to revitalize the building is about $50,000 with contingencies
to create three market-rate apartments on the upper level and three small
storefront businesses at the street level. One of those businesses would be his
property management office.

In his plan,
Klancar said he had $40,000 set aside for this project and that he planned to
do much of the work himself as well as being connected to a network of
wholesale high-quality building material suppliers.

MORE: Middletown seeks developers for 4
downtown properties

According to
Klancar’s proposal, the building is in a state of decay due to a leaky roof and
a lack of ongoing maintenance. In addition the interior has a lot of water
damage that will require extensive repairs. Klancar said structurally the
building seems to be intact per spot inspections. However Klancar said the state
of the plumbing, electricity, HVAC is not known as access to the basement was
not possible. The building has broken windows, missing siding and a non-secure
door.

After
completion of this project, Klancar said he would like to acquire additional
projects in the surrounding area to revitalize.

City Manager
Doug Adkins said Klancar came to the $11.39 amount after taking the Butler
County Auditor’s last appraisal of the property and deducting the costs in
bringing the building up to current building standards. Adkins said this was
preliminary proposal and that a structured development agreement would be
developed that would include credits for work done to get the price to where
the developers wants it to be.

“It seems to
be a nice project,” Adkins said.

Council will
consider the proposed agreement for final approval at an upcoming meeting.

Proposed development met with
resistance in Middletown

Several
properties in the downtown area have been put out for Request for Proposals for
redevelopment three times over the past six months. The last round of Request
for Proposals resulted in one bid for 1200-1204
  First Avenue, as well as a second bid which was
incomplete. According to city records, these are the first bids for this
property. Last year, the city started putting out RFPs for various properties
on a quarterly basis.

According to
Matt Eisenbraun, Middletown’s
assistant economic development director, said the city acquired the property in
July 2013 through the Sheriff’s sale process at no cost to the city.

Properties
that do not receive a bid during a first attempt to sell are made available to
the city before they go through a second auction attempt,” Eisenbraun said in
an email.

He said if
there are no bids are received at the second attempt, the property is then
forfeited to the state of Ohio.

Eisenbraun
said the RFP process is being utilized to sell off city property that is not
used or occupied. In addition to the 1200
  First Ave. property, the city is trying to sell
the following buildings: the former Studio Theatre on Central Avenue; 19 S. Clinton St., and 24 N. Main St.

He said the
city sold the old Midtown cabinets on Vail
  Street last summer. Eisenbraun said the next round
of RFP submissions are due April 3.

Vacant building

Middletown considers $11 offer for vacant building