City of Lock Haven: Wanted – Developer for Half Acre Downtown Site

LOCK HAVEN – The City of Lock Haven has added the vacant Heilig-Meyers lot and the nearby Earl Kennedy building to finish the purchase of three plots along Bellefonte Avenue. The city acquisitions will create half an acre of developable commercial land in the downtown.

Clinton County held its judicial real estate tax sale at the courthouse Thursday and city manager Greg Wilson was the lone bidder for two plots, the cleared Dave Mayes/former Heilig-Meyers site at 37-41 Bellefonte Avenue, and the nearby abandoned Earl Kennedy Jr. building contiguous to the old Town Tavern building at 47-51 Bellefonte Avenue.

Council on Sept. 13 had approved purchasing the Town Tavern building from Mayes, the cost $10,000 plus $1,519 in unpaid 2017 taxes. The deed transferring that plot to the city was filed at the courthouse on Wednesday.

The city was the lone Thursday bidder for the Kennedy and former Heilig-Meyers plots, getting both for the county-set minimum of $100 each.

Wilson told therecord-online that city council will be asked at its meeting next Monday to approve the solicitation of bids to demolish the Town Tavern and Kennedy structures. The ultimate plan, he said, is to clean up the acreage and market it. He indicated the process to advertise and award bids should take about a month. Wilson said the city could then hold a public auction or accept sealed bids towards getting the land back on the tax rolls. That would not preclude, he said, a developer coming forward in the interim with a development proposal.

Wilson had said earlier this month the Heilig-Meyers purchase was part of the process to make sure the city investment in the cost of razing the building is protected. The city has spent more than $60,000 to clean-up that fire damaged site.