The borough will list Wrangell’s former hospital building on a nationwide surplus public property website, hoping for better results than efforts the past two months which resulted in not a single bid.
“We’ve got to get rid of this,” Mayor Steve Prysunka said at the July 26 borough assembly meeting.
The borough has been paying close to $100,000 a year to keep the building heated and insured, and protected against water damage.
The borough ran an online auction in June to sell the property but received no bids. It then offered the building and land for sale over the counter — the first buyer at the minimum price of $830,000 would get the property. No one made an offer.
The assembly at its July 26 meeting voted to turn to publicsurplus.com, a nationwide business that lists real estate, police cars, trucks, school buses, backhoes, furniture, office equipment, musical instruments, computers and more — most anything a government agency is looking to sell.
The company charges a fee for its service, which can be passed on to the buyer.
Borough staff had recommended to the assembly turning over the sales effort to a real estate agent. “Our recommendation is to try to list it with a real estate agent, and let them do the work,” Borough Manager Jeff Good told the assembly July 26. An agent could more widely advertise the property.
The borough would pay the agent only if the property sold.
The mayor and assembly members directed the borough manager to list the former hospital with the surplus property website rather than signing up a real estate agent.
The borough a year ago used the surplus property website to sell the former National Guard armory on Bennett Street for $110,000.
The $830,000 minimum price for the hospital was set by a commercial appraisal of the property. Any change in the asking price would require assembly approval, something the mayor said might be needed if the property does not sell on this third attempt.
The property reverted back to the borough after SEARHC moved into its new medical center 18 months ago. The borough owns the property and had leased it to SEARHC until the health care provider could build its new facility.
The former hospital measures 30,596 square feet on 1.95 acres at Bennett Street between Reid Street and First Avenue, next to the elementary school.
The building is being offered for sale as-is. The hospital, originally constructed in 1967, includes additions built in 1974, 1988 and 1994. A 2018 survey detailed asbestos materials in the roofing, tiles, wallboard, window caulk and fire-rated doors.
“We need to move this along,” Prysunka said of trying to find a buyer. No one on the assembly disagreed.
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