GAINESVILLE – The Gainesville City Council unanimously approved the city’s bid to “buy-back” the 41.224-acre tract in Gainesville Industrial Park West sold to Koch Foods in 2006 but never developed.
Tuesday evening’s vote comes days after city officials announced a shortage of commercial building sites and a plan to develop the city’s sixth industrial park.
City Manager Bryan Lackey explained the circumstances leading to the buy-back. “At that time in 2006, Koch Foods, who has a presence here in Gainesville, was looking to expand their facility…well the Recession hit and Koch kind of pulled back…and they didn’t do anything for a while.”
Lackey continued, “As the years went by the council engaged Tim (Evans, with the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce) to reach out to Koch to see what their plans were…to no success.”
Lackey continued the timeline: “About a year or so ago…we looked at the contract and (noticed) a ‘Call Back’ provision where the city could buy back the property if Koch didn’t move on it within a certain time frame. That time frame is well expired. We’ve given them multiple options to tell us what they want to do with it.”
“We decided to invoke a clause in the contract to take the property back,” Lackey said.
The city started negotiations with Koch under the Call Back provision. “The contract essentially said we could buy it back for the purchase price. They let us know they made some improvements to the property at a little less than $200,000.”
“(We) agreed to re-purchase the property for that 2006 purchase price plus a little less than $200,000.” The negotiated price is $1,817,845.05 according to Lackey.
“We felt the time was right, that we had the right agreement to re-purchase this property from Koch…so we’re comfortable recommending the settlement agreement,” Lackey told council members. “We really don’t feel that this property is going to be in the city’s hands for very long.”
“This is 41-acres; there’s not a lot of properties out there like that, especially in that good of a location,” Lackey said. “We’re confident in Tim and his abilities to help us find us a good buyer for it.”
