THE BROKERS
THE BROKERS | GSA closes deal for downtown courthouse site | ||
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Jul 24, 2009 GSA closes deal for downtown courthouse site $80 million appropriated for new courthouse
June 24, 2009 The General Services Administration now owns 63,000 square feet of prime downtown real estate, and by 2012 there will likely be a federal courthouse on the site. GSA and local officials gathered in a conference room this afternoon in downtown Billings to sign stacks of documents that resulted in the GSA walking away as owner of the site, which is along Second Avenue North next to the Yellowstone County Courthouse. Representatives of the city, county, the Downtown Billings Partnership, the Big Sky Economic Development Authority, the White Family LLC and the GSA each took a turn signing papers with Jennifer Smith of American Title and Escrow. After everyone had signed, Steve Arveschoug, executive director of the Big Sky Economic Development Authority, handed over keys to the old Montana-Dakota Utilities building to Shelley Smith of the GSA. Smith is in charge of site acquisition for the federal agency. According to the Downtown Billings Partnership, the GSA will pay $3 million for the site. That money will be split among those groups selling or trading property. Jennifer Smith said the GSA will wire the money to an escrow account in the next day or so, and once all the documents are recorded, the money will be disbursed. Today's closing has been a long time in coming, and those involved say the complex land dealings almost collapsed more than once over the past 19 months. But the GSA now owns the land and it has $80 million with which to build a courthouse, so those behind the deal are relieved. "This type of cooperation would make this county go so much further," said Greg Krueger, head of the Downtown Billings Partnership and one of the deal's architects. "Let's do more of this." The deal was so complicated that many of those involved only knew what they were selling or buying, but not what the other parties were doing. Yellowstone County sold a portion of its parking lot next to the courthouse, and it sold the old Wells Fargo drive-up lot for a total of about $560,000. The city of Billings sold portions of surrounding streets that will be closed for the courthouse. The city received $252,150. The White Family LLC sold for $900,000 a piece of land that's been in the family for more than 100 years. It's currently a parking lot and now belongs to the county. BSEDA sold the MDU building for $756,000. It bought the building a few years ago for $750,000. The Downtown Billings Partnership will end up spending about $40,000 to get the deal finished In a letter sent to county commissioners Monday, GSA officials said that they would like to expand the proposed footprint for the courthouse. The building is expected to be 100,000 square feet or larger. The GSA now wants to buy a strip of land that runs from behind the Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office to the county courthouse. The land near the sheriff's office is now used as a parking lot. The GSA wants to buy that land, plus a small piece of North 26th Street and a strip of land that runs through the county-owned parking lot next to the courthouse. As a result, the footprint for the courthouse will expand slightly to the north. "A larger site will allow for a larger building footprint and larger floor plates, resulting in a facility that will better meet the long-term space needs and operational requirements of our tenants," the letter reads. A GSA appraiser is scheduled to visit the site this week, according to the letter. The GSA is still planning to build the $80 million courthouse on a piece of land along Second Avenue North behind the county courthouse. To free up that land, five groups came up with a complex land deal. That deal expires at the end of June, and GSA said it will be prepared to buy the land by then. County officials have long held that parking is their biggest concern. By building the federal courthouse near the county courthouse, the county will lose some of its parking spaces in the Diamond parking lot owned by White Family LLC, one of the five groups in the land deal. Commissioner Jim Reno said he has an idea for GSA to alleviate the parking problem. "If GSA moves forward, they're going to need to fund at least a vast majority of a parking garage adjacent to our building, where the Diamond lot is now," he said. It's unclear if GSA would be willing to build the county a parking garage. Reno said he's also worried about the impact of the expanded footprint on the sheriff's office. He said he doesn't want the front door of the sheriff's office to open onto a grassy mall. "I want to be positive on the GSA, but I don't want to harm my sheriff," he said. If the GSA buys the extra land, it may be done in a transaction separate from the five-way land deal, as not all five landowners would be involved in the additional land sale. |
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