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Editorial: Selling city’s real estate should be a win-win

Wed., July 11, 2012

Rather than test the waters, Mayor David Condon and the Spokane City Council are diving into the disposal of surplus city real estate.

The mayor put property sales on the to-do list for his first 100 days. He missed, but not by all that much. And he and the council are not starting small, at least in terms of price.

The rock outcrop below Anthony’s Restaurant is the most valuable nonessential property the city owns. The site offers a spectacular view of the Upper Falls of the Spokane River, Riverfront Park and the Monroe Street Bridge. A walk across the Post Street Bridge puts you in the heart of downtown. The Veterans Memorial Arena is only slightly farther away.

What will people pay for a piece of the rock?

Lots, we hope. And good riddance.

Purchased for $2.78 million 15 years ago in conjunction with a plan to build a new Lincoln Street Bridge, the site and its misplaced Polynesian-themed restaurant structure became a problem when voters deep-sixed that project. A succession of restaurant/event center tenants occupied and vacated the building. A proposal to lease to the Cheesecake Cafe crumbled faster than a graham cracker crust.

Anthony’s opened in July 2004 and has made good on its $10,000 per month lease ever since. The lease expires in April 2014.

The request for proposals from buyers will go out next week, with the goal of closing a sale by the end of this year. Assuming an acceptable buyer comes forward – shoppers came knocking as soon as the mayor announced his plans – the city will be able to return the site to its property tax rolls. And it will, at last, have funds that can be dedicated to the rehabilitation and upkeep of other city-owned properties that have deteriorated for lack of money.

Sometime before the sale closes, the council should resolve to use the new money for just those purposes.

Councilman Mike Allen suggested a sale be contingent on continued public access. That should be negotiable, not a deal-breaker. Access now is limited, and the public can view the river and falls from the nearby Post Street Bridge and many other places along the falls.

More important would be some guidance regarding design.

The city paid $5.3 million to buy, and spent another $250,000 demolishing, the former YMCA building on the river’s south bank, opposite Anthony’s. It would be a crime to replace one eyesore with another.

This first sale will be a test – a big one – of the city’s ability to sell its surplus real estate in a transparent manner that maximizes the financial returns for all citizens while respecting surrounding neighborhoods. Conceivably, hundreds of parcels could be sold off – some mere slivers useful only to adjacent property owners who might take better care of the land.

This is not the best time to be liquidating real estate, but done thoughtfully, it’s hard to see much downside to a process that raises cash in the short term and gets property back on tax rolls for the long term.