At their Tuesday, April 19, meeting at the Administration office on Lewis Street, the Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners unanimously accepted a bid from Ronnie Urbanczyk for the purchase of the historical downtown County Courthouse… and agreed to open negotiations with Mr. Urbancyzk…
…to clarify some of the still-hazy details of the offer?
Mr. Urbanczyk’s previous offer had created a public controversy, because it was submitted two weeks after the official deadline for bid submissions. As a result of the controversy, the BOCC voted, on April 5, to re-open the bidding process to the five current bidders, to allow all current bidders to revise their bids yet one more time, with those revisions due April 8. The BOCC vote implied that no offers would be accepted after April 8.
Three bidders submitted updated or clarified offers by that dealine; one bidder filed a formal letter protesting the way the bidding had been handled; the fifth bidder withdrew their previous bid.
Ronnie Urbanczyk had provided a revised bid offering a $550,000 payment, five years of free rent, a 10% County ownership interest in a 40-acre property near Stevens Field and an offer to purchase an approximately six-acre, County-owned property on Cloman Boulevard $180,000.
The offer valued ‘up to five years of free rent’ for the existing County offices, at $80,000.
His offer also stated, “We recognize that a complete solution to the County’s need must include a permanent new location. We are eminently qualified to provide this solution. Our team has over 20 years of experience in construction and build-to-suit development and will accommodate the County’s occupancy and financing needs. For this reason, we would seek to be the provider choice for the County’s long-term planning needs.”
The Olympus Real Estate Group submitted an updated bid, offering $750,000 plus free rent for the county for three years, with a monthly rent of $1 per square foot for the subsequent two years.
Bob Hart offered free rent for up to five years, and a price based on a sliding scale. If the County remained for 5 years, the offered price would be $580,000. But if the County moved out in year 4, the price paid would be $40,000 higher — $ 620,000. For vacating in year 3, $660,000; for year 2, $700,000; for yer 1, $740,000. Mr. Hart also proposed to include six units of workforce housing within the remodeled building. “This is one way I would like to positively contribute to the situation,” he wrote.
Following the vote, I received the following comments from one of the unsuccessful bidders.
I sat through the work session this morning, [April 19] which included a discussion of the County’s urgent need for workforce housing.
Yet the Commissioners this afternoon decided on the Courthouse bids… and the fact that one of the bids included workforce housing wasn’t even mentioned.
At one of the prior meetings, the County Attorney stated how he was not qualified to analyze the bids, yet today the Commissioners appeared to be basing their decision on his analysis. $10,000 of taxpayer’s money was paid to an incompetent financial analyst last month — and now, the decision was made, without the benefit of any expert analysis, by three Commissioners who stated last month that they were not qualified to make such a decision.
Now, supposedly, Mr. Urbanczyk will build and finance the new building for the County. At what cost and at what finance rate to the taxpayers of Archuleta County? I’m guessing that the new building won’t go out for bid, since now they based the purchase price of the Courthouse on Mr. Urbanczyk building and financing the new one?
Two weeks ago, flexibility was the big issue. Mr. Urbanczyk’s offer says free rent “until renovations are finished”. What does that mean? Does that mean he renovates the building in the first year… and the County needs to move out?
Part of his bid promises the County government a 10% ownership interest in that Mr. Urbanczyk owns. Now the County is entering partnerships with individuals?
In addition, Urbanczyk wants to purchase +/- 6 acres located off Cloman Blvd. The offer doesn’t say he’s donating it to the County. So, what does that mean? That makes no sense… and the Commissioners didn’t even question it.
The taxpayers were poorly served today. The sad thing is, most will never even know it.
Having also sat through the April 19 afternoon meeting, I agree with many of the above comments. Some of the details in the Urbanczyk bid are a bit fuzzy.
I would also offer the perspective that — based on what I saw and heard — the Commissioners gave the public little indication why they chose Mr. Urbanczyk’s offer, or why they rejected the other offers.
Two of the commissioners — Alvin Schaaf and Warren Brown — indicated that Mr. Urbanczyk’s offer to build a new, replacement County facility had caused them to pick his offer. Unfortunately, his offer to build ‘something’ for the County included no promises about how much this ‘something’ might cost the taxpayers, nor where it might be located.
Fuzzy details, like I said.
We might assume that there are dozens of firms who would be willing to build a new, replacement facility for the County government — for the right price.
We might also assume that the U.S. economy will undergo some changes over the next five years — perhaps comparable to the changes we’ve seen over the past five years — and that future County Commissioners might find it challenging to finance for yet another ($10 million?) County facility, before the five-year clock runs out at the old Courthouse.
And speaking facilities for Archuleta County, below is a drawing submitted to the BOCC on April 12. A new office building for all the county officials who are still having to work in “old” buildings scattered here and there around Pagosa. The drawing came from Reynolds Ash & Associates.
Estimated price, $10 million.
Another County facility also in the works. A new transit center for the Mountain Transit Express bus system.
The transit center concept was shared without an estimated price attached to the drawing. But I think I’ve heard the price “$3 million” mentioned at meetings, funded mostly with grants.
Unfortunately, the old County Courthouse carries about $800,000 in debt still attached to it. Mr. Urbanczyk’s $550,000 bid would not even allow the County to break even.