Source: http://pensacolatoday.com, April 21, 2015
By: Shannon Nickinson
Extensive soil contamination of the Escambia School District’s former Garden Street headquarters has axed a pending $3.25 million sales contract with a Tampa Bay developer.
The school district terminated its contract with developer Fred Hemmer April 1 when it discovered the soil contamination, and cost of remediation, within the 4.82-acre property was greater than originally estimated.
“We discovered we had the (fuel) tanks in the ground on the property, and the School Board decided it was going to get the property remediated to Department of Environmental Protection standards before moving ahead with the sale,” said assistant superintendent for operations Shawn Dennis.
One provision of the sales contact with Hemmer, Dennis said, allows the district to terminate the agreement if additional “unanticipated” cleanup is required and the cost exceeded the original $300,000 approved by the board.
“We wanted the option to stop and regroup if that happened, and it did, so that’s what we’re doing,” Dennis said. “There’s a considerable amount left to do on that property.”
Board members will consider tonight during their regular meeting a $250,000 proposal by the Pensacola firm Professional Service Industries to complete additional remediation of the Garden Street site.
“The original sale price was negotiated before we discovered these problems,” Dennis said. “So, we’re going to step back, clean up the site and then put it back on the market and see what costs we have in it before we price it again.”
Meanwhile, Hemmer said Tuesday that he was “trying to stay in the deal with them (School District) and we made several proposals that were not accepted. It was the school district that decided to terminate the contact.”
Asked if he still was interested in developing the property, Hemmer said, “we’ll have to see what happens when they’re done with the cleanup.”
Hemmer said his development firm has spent almost a year working on closing the sale with the school district.
“And, quite frankly, we’ve passed up other opportunities on other projects because of this situation with the Garden Street property,” Hemmer said.
Hemmer said he has other active projects under way in Escambia County, including the recent opening of a new residential subdivision.
“Whether we will be interested in the Garden Street property when it comes back on the market will depend on where we stand with our other projects,” Hemmer said.
Justin Beck, whose Pensacola-based Beck Properties was brokering the deal until it was terminated earlier this month, said the site from a market standpoint “makes sense as a mixed-use (office/multi-family residential) development.”
The now-vacant building contains more than 48,000 square feet of interior space, and is zoned for office and commercial use, Beck said.