Partners Help Village Buy Property

    Blissfield Village is now the owner of the 35-acre Home Canning property at 119 E. Jefferson St.
    After Friday’s auction, Village Council President Jae Guetschow, who was authorized by council to do the village’s bidding, said the village hoped to use the property for an industrial park.
    “Our primary interest is that we believe we are going to need more industrial park,” Guetschow said. “Especially when you consider some of the development, with BioDri and the spinoff industry, that’s coming in. I think we need to be in a position to attract those businesses here because they have nowhere else to go (in the village).”
    The village was the high bidder, at $150,000, at an onsite auction held Friday afternoon. Bidding started for the entire property at $100,000. There was one unidentified party bidding against the village during the auction, which was held by Wilson Auction & Realty Co., of Bryan, Ohio.
    The village is expected to take title of the property within 30 days. The property is owned by Jody and Susan Green, of Blissfield. Only a couple of years ago, Green was offering four acres of the property to the village, which was considering potential sites for a new village hall, for $450,000.
    With a two percent buyer’s premium, the total cost of the property at this point is $153,000. That number is expected to go up as the village begins cleaning up the site and demolishing the deteriorating structures.
    Citing a lack of funds, the village found three private partners to share the costs.
    “All of the partners volunteered funds to do this because they see this as something worthwhile for Blissfield. They also see this as something worthwhile for their business, even though they are not using funds from their business to support this,” said Village Administrator Jim Wonacott.
    The partners are George Brown, who is a trustee on Blissfield Village Council, has contributed $50,000 to the project. Pat Farver, through Farver Investments, LLC., has invested $25,000. Farver is owner of Blissfield Manufacturing. Mark Dobronski, through Blissfield Industrial Properties, LLC, invested $50,000 in the project. Dobronski is president of the Adrian & Blissfield Railroad. Wonacott told council that Farver and Dobronski emphasized that this partnership was separate from Blissfield Manufacturing and the Adrian and Blissfield Railroad, respectively.
    Brown was absent from two special meetings council held to discuss the matter last week.    
    Trustee A. Ray Jones said the village asked several local business owners to partner on the project.
    “We talked to people we thought might be interested. I talked to a number of them and explained the whole concept for this project and gave them the opportunity to join the village,”Jones said.
    Trustee Art Weeber said sought out certain partners.
    “We were looking for people who would share our passion for this project and would want to be part of it. We weren’t looking for any kinds of return. They get their money back and there isn’t a set time frame,” Weeber said. “It could be a number of years before they get their money back.”
    With $125,000 in private funds, the village’s contribution is $28,000. Although that number will grow substantially as the village conducts environmental tests, cleans up the property and demolishes the buildings.
    Wonacott explained that when the property is ready to be sold, the partners will receive a prorated return.
    “If they paid 15 percent of the total cost, they’d receive 15 of the total price,” Wonacott explained.
    He said that, as he understood it, the village would maintain ownership and controlling interest of the property.
    Wonacott is scheduled to attend a county meeting on brownfield redevelopment Thursday. This property could give the village its first chance to use its brownfield redevelopment ordinance, as well.
    There may be state grants to help fund the cost of demolition.
    Council made the decision to put a bid in on the property after more than two hours of closed session discussion last week. At the first special meeting Tuesday, council met in executive session for 65 minutes. When the meeting reopened, Jones made a motion to proceed with his recommendation regarding the purchase, lease or sale of real property. The motion failed in a 3-3 vote. Jones, Guetschow and Weeber voted for the motion. Trustees Al Navarro, Mike Gunter and Mark Burgermeister voted against the motion. A motion to adjourn failed. Gunter then motioned to return to executive session. The motion passed by a 6-0 vote. After about 15 minutes, council came out of the meeting and Jones motioned to have a second special meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday. The motioned passed by a 6-0 vote.
    At Thursday’s meeting, council immediately went into executive session. After about an hour, council reopened the meeting to the public. Jones motioned that council accept his recommendation regarding the purchase, sale or lease of real property. This time, Jones’ motion passed by a 5-1 vote. Burgermeister was the lone dissenter. Brown was absent from both meetings, as well as Monday’s meeting of Blissfield Village Council.
    Guetschow, meanwhile, was happy that the village was able to buy the property for $150,000.
    “It’s significantly less than what I was authorized to bid,” said Guetschow, who said he wasn’t sure if he disclose the ceiling he was given.
    Jones called the purchase an important step for Blissfield.
    “We’re excited about what we can do and hopefully the village, as a whole, can see that,” he said.
    Neighbor Liz Seeburger, whose home abuts to the property, said she was glad to see something happening with the property.
    “It’s exciting. Blissfield needed something to happen here,” she said.