Gary officials hired a real estate brokerage firm to help market various parcels around the city in an effort to raise cash, but found only empty envelopes when the redevelopment commission opened “bids” for eight sites.
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The sites include the Genesis Convention Center, a city government annex building at 839 Broadway that once was a Sears store, a former fire station in the 3300 block of Virginia Street, and the Gleason Park Golf Course at 3400 Jefferson St.
The only properly that attracted any interest was a house in the 800 block of Vermillion Street that drew one bid — from “R. Hatcher” of Gary for $65,001.
Redevelopment Executive Director Joseph Van Dyk said the house had been foreclosed upon by a bank, which then turned the property over to the city.
Other parcels that drew no interest on Wednesday, June 20, were 900 Madison Street, 1100 Massachusetts Street and 540 Tyler Street.
The Massachusetts Street site did draw bids from three firms interested in demolishing the structures there. Attorneys will study the bids, and a demolition contract could be awarded next month.
Van Dyk said the city will continue to work with its consultant, NAI based in New York with Chicago- and Detroit-area offices, for help in finding buyers for the prominent properties.
William Godwin, a realtor based in the Miller Beach neighborhood who also serves on the city’s port authority, said the lack of interest at this point does not mean the properties are unsalable.
“It takes time to sell anything,” Godwin said, noting the consultant was only hired earlier this month. “We can hope that next year, we will find people interested in buying those sites from the city,” he said.
The redevelopment commission hearing devolved into some humor as James Nowacki, who owns approximately 400 plots scattered across Gary, responded to the lack of interest by offering to pay $100, in cash, for the Genesis Convention Center.
“Land in Gary isn’t worth much these days, so I think it’s a fair deal since it would take the liability of the site off the city’s hands,” he said.
Redevelopment officials snickered at Nowacki’s suggestion, with attorney Gilbert King, Jr. telling him flat-out the city was not interested in his proposal.
“Your offer was not presented to us in a proper manner,” King told Nowacki, while commission president Kenya Jones said, “I wish I had a ‘reject’ stamp right about now.”
But Nowacki said his offer should not be so quickly ridiculed.
“All of the excess property that exists in Gary is only of value to the demolition crews that will be paid large fees to tear down whatever exists on it now,” he said.
Gregory Tejeda is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
