Officials win auction with bid of $165,000 plus fees
By Barb Pert Templeton
After much discussion and many years, the Algonac City Council seemed quite pleased to announce that they are now the new owners of the former Algonac Elementary School.
“I’m very proud that we decided to do this, we’ve been sitting in the passenger seat for way too long on this building,” Mayor Rocky Gillis said. “Eight years ago, they closed down and we’ve been waiting for someone else to develop it and now the city is in the driver’s seat along with the council and the citizens so I’m very proud of this decision we are making.”
“Congratulations and good job to Denice (city manager Gerstenberg) as many times as I’ve been in her office over that school over the last three years, you did a wonderful job, thank you,” Councilwoman Cathy Harris added.
An auction for the property was hosted by Crexi, a commercial real estate firm, in November and the city of Algonac was the successful bidder, purchasing the property for $165,000 plus a $20,000 marketing fee. Now that the council has formally approved the agreement the closing date for the property is Dec. 18.
During the council’s discussion on the issue, Councilwoman Dawn Davey characterized the deal as “cool” and said the auction itself was a bidding war that was a nail-biter. She said as they watched the numbers come across things were changing every few seconds for over an hour.
“It was crazy,” Davey said. “This is a first step and I’m hoping all the residents understand that we don’t have a magic wand to just (do this) but it’s going to be awesome because the school is going to be taken care of.”
Algonac City Manager Denice Gerstenberg.
At the same time, she noted that it’s going to take a lot of work, planning, and some serious dollars.
“But for the first time in a long time we can finally make that first step,” Davey said. “So, we were geeked, we were seriously geeked. Thank you, Denice.”
Councilman Michael Bembas said he thinks the key word is control because the city now has control of the school, they can’t help what happened in the past, but they finally have it now.
“I think council and city management needs to take a breath and give it a couple weeks and then start coming with the ideas and price tags, of where we go next,” Bembas said.
He also asked the community to let the council and city administrators know what ideas they have for the building too, be it via emails or letters.
Davey agreed with Bembas’ thoughts and said planning may call for some town halls and work studies to see what the public thinks.
Mayor Pro Tem Ray Martin said he knows there have been some comments about the city spending the money on the building but people have to realize it was a worldwide auction. So, any random entity could have shown up to put anything into the space and now the city has the control.
Councilman Ed Carter said realizing the building was empty and an eye sore and not in the city’s control for almost eight years it was time to take this step.
The council then unanimously approved the purchase. Councilman Corey Blair was absent from the Dec. 5, 2023 meeting.
A little background
Algonac City Manager Denice Gerstenberg, who worked tirelessly on the project provided some background on the issue.
She said the school has been for sale by a private owner for seven years. It has been under contract many times, but no one has ever closed the deal because the costs to renovate or demolish the existing building were too high to make a profit.
The building’s owner, National Christian Foundation, decided to list the school with Crexi.com. On November 7, the Algonac City Council met in a closed session to discuss the possible purchase of the school. They exited the closed session and authorized the city manager to enter the auction.
The auction was on November 13 with bids starting at $1. A $10,000 deposit was required to register to bid. The winning bidder would be required to pay a marketing fee of 5% or a minimum of $20,000 to Crexi at the end of the auction.
The auction started at noon on Monday, Nov. 13, and was scheduled to end at 11 a.m. EST on Thursday, Nov. 16 but it went into overtime. That happens if someone places a bid under two minutes, it adds three minutes to the clock. The auction didn’t end until about 12:06 pm, Gerstenberg said.
In the end, the city was the successful bidder. Before the auction, Gerstenberg said they did ask if the National Christian Foundation would give the property to the city, and the answer was no
The city did not want the property being sold to an out-of-state or even out-of-country buyer, so the decision was made to try and purchase the property and at least have local control over its future.
She said there are no definite plans as to what will be done with the school, the city is currently researching all possible options.
The school is located at 1216 St. Clair Boulevard in Algonac.
