Jack in the Box still looking
City officials voted last week to decline a counter offer from a prospective buyer for city property located off North Chancery Street after negotiations stalled.
The city had been negotiating with NENR Investments, which does business with Jack in the Box restaurants and others, to sell the lot for $160,000. Officials passed a resolution to send a contract for that price to them in January after months of negotiations, but officials indicated disparity at language included in the offer.
City Administrator Herb Llewellyn said the most recent problems have stemmed from negotiations regarding the buyer’s right to sue the city if the city didn’t close, and the city’s desire to have a non-refundable earnest money deposit of $2,500.
City Attorney James Dempster said he changed the language of the contract to read that if the city didn’t close, the buyer would get the deposit back in certain circumstances but if the buyer didn’t close, the city would keep the money in certain circumstances.
Dempster also said the city wanted the contract to reflect that the city should have the same opportunity as the buyer with regard to bringing suit for damages, if it ever came to that point.
The land includes 9/16 of an acre located near the corner of North Chancery and the Highway 70S bypass, where officials previously hoped to build the city’s first fire substation but ultimately decided against it.
Alderman Rickey Jones, who chairs the Building and Grounds Committee, said he believed officials grew tired of negotiations that had been going with NENR. He indicated a past agreement never worked out. Llewellyn added past verbal agreements did not appear the same on paper.
“The problem is that the language in the contract has been inconsistent with what the city has been willing to sign,” Llewellyn said this week.
Jones said although committee members voted to decline this particular contract, it’s always open for negotiations.
He noted there may be two other potential buyers, but could not confirm any specifics at this time.
Real estate agent Jana Wilson, who has acted as a facilitator between the two, added Tuesday some of the legal language of the contract has been updated since the committee action. She said she was still hoping to present the contract to city officials for deliberations in the near future.
“They didn’t like some of the other language in the contract. That was my understanding,” she said of last week’s decision, adding the process has been a complicated one.