It’s been almost three years since SEARHC started its move out of the borough-owned hospital building on Bennett Street into new quarters. It’s been almost five months since the borough embarked on multiple efforts to sell the unused property.
Since then, there have been no buyers, no serious expressions of interest, not even a prescription to ease the financial pain of maintaining the empty facility. The $830,000 asking price for a decades-old building with a lot of problems is about as attractive as an old pickup truck that needs new tires, a new transmission, leaks oil and has a cracked windshield. However, the junker truck will usually find a taker if it’s free — someone with the skill and initiative could bring it back to better health.
The borough has tried to sell the hospital property itself, talked of turning it over to a real estate agent and then decided to list it on a commercial website of surplus government property from across the nation. The assembly has talked about a lot of ideas to unload the building and land, but still the unused building is costing about $8,000 a month for minimal heat, insurance and to make sure it doesn’t deteriorate further.
It’s time to think of the building on almost two acres of land the same as that old pickup truck. Just as the owner would stop insuring the truck, quit renewing its plates and clearing off the snow and ice, Wrangell should apply the same logic to the hospital property. Giving it away for free is the best answer.
Even better, give it away with the requirement that the owner develop the property for housing. Single-family homes, apartments, condos — who cares, whatever works to cover the costs of gutting and rebuilding the hospital, or tearing it down and building new.
Any development plans for the site will be expensive and will cost far more than the $830,000 asking price. But removing that $830,000 price tag may help attract a developer to do something with the property that would not otherwise happen. And right now, nothing is happening.
The borough would get out from under the liability and $8,000-a-month cost of maintaining the building. It would move the property on to the tax rolls. It could create housing, and jobs building the new units.
Of course, even at “free,” no one may be willing to take on the development. They would need a lot of money to rehab or tear down and rebuild the Bennett Street property. However, as the borough is working hard to get its finances in good order and wants to address the lack of housing in town, giving away the property for free is worth a try.
At least come up with a plan and advertise the property and see if anyone submits a reasonable development proposal. If nothing happens, nothing is lost. The old truck can sit there another year.
— Wrangell Sentinel
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