City Marketing Town Tavern/Old City Garage Sites
LOCK HAVEN – City Hall is proceeding with plans to sell two city-owned sites, the old Town Tavern/Heilig-Meyers holdings at 37-55 Bellefonte Avenue and the soon-to-be-vacated city
garage site at 2 E. Walnut St.
The city, through its Lock Haven Redevelopment Authority, has over the past few days put the two locations on the market and will accept proposals through Nov. 22.
Information on the process has been shared by city manager Greg Wilson. He said the city redevelopment authority, at its meeting last week, agreed to issue requests for proposals (RFP) for the two sites, the 2.2 acre Walnut Street location and .63 of an acre on Bellefonte Avenue. Wilson said the RFP approach is a step to see if a developer may come forward with a beneficial plan for economic investment in the community which may not have been possible if the property were sold to the highest bidder.
According to information Wilson shared with city council, “The responses to the RFP will state how much the developers will offer to pay for the property and provide details about what type of business they would build there.” After that, Wilson said, the combination of purchase price and development will be reviewed by the redevelopment authority and council “to pick a successful developer to whom the property would be sold.”
He noted city council has the right to not turn the land over to the redevelopment authority if it doesn’t find any of the proposals acceptable and instead could hold a public auction to sell the holdings to the highest bidder.
The redevelopment authority has set up an optional pre-proposal meeting on Sept. 24 at City Hall to answer questions for interested parties.
The city is presently cleaning up the former Town Tavern area holdings and is finishing up relocating to its new city garage on Third Avenue, the old PennDOT Maintenance Building. The old PennDOT building and acreage had been purchased by the city for $327,000 in 2013. It covers 2.4 acres.
