Sale Pending on Renovo’s Mills Park Complex
RENOVO – A several year effort to sell Renovo’s Mills Park public housing may be nearing fruition.
Housing owner the Clinton County Housing Authority recently put up a “sale pending” sign over the “for sale” sign for the 27 units of now vacant housing along Huron Avenue.
Housing Authority executive director Jeff Rich, contacted by therecord-online, said he could say little at present, but did acknowledge a potential sale: “We are negotiating a purchase option agreement with a qualified buyer. It’s a positive move but far from a done deal.”
The site in the lower end of the Renovo downtown had been put on the market in 2016. At the time, Rich said, the process could be completed by the fall of that year. But any prospective sale lagged as prospective buyers waited to see if the proposed Renovo Energy Center would become reality. Word in recent weeks is that the REC project is on track. Mike Flanagan, CEO of the Clinton County Economic Partnership, approached by therecord-online, gave a qualified positive update, “The power plant project continues to move ahead and investors are being sought at this time. It is hopeful that some word on the project’s future will come around the end of the calendar year.”
The 27 units, elevated above the floodplain, have been vacant since January of this year as the Housing Authority has moved ahead with its sale plans. When the decision to sell the units had first been announced, Rich said Mills Park had a 12 percent average occupancy rate in 2015, the declining occupancy rate behind the authority decision to sell. The process to empty/relocate occupants had been ongoing in the interim, the last tenants departing in January.
While the population of Renovo has been on the decline in recent decades, there is expected to be a demand for housing if the final go-ahead for the energy center project (converting natural gas to electricity) is given. The last REC report to the community came in October of 2016. At the time project officials said the construction time frame will be 34 months with 900 or more workers building the mammoth facility during the height of its construction phase, estimated to be some 18 months after work begins. Some 30 permanent jobs are expected once the plant is completed.
