Update: Justice Beverly Klatt confirmed the judicial sale of the former Capital Pointe site to Royalty Development on Dec. 18.
She is still writing her full written decision.
The original article continues below.
Justice Beverly Klatt hopes to make an approval decision on the sale of the former Capital Pointe site in the next day or two.
Klatt heard arguments from three bidders; Royalty Developments, JYR Investments and Smith Street Lands on Tuesday morning. All three offers are conditional on the city rezoning the downtown property as a parking lot.
Currently, the property’s selling agent has accepted the conditional $2.2 million offer from Royalty Developments.
Royalty Development’s Attorney Grant Richards argued that offer should be accepted, as it already has been approved by the selling agent.
Because the sale is a judicial matter, a judge must finalize the sale.
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JYR Investments has also issued an offer of approximately $2.2 million. Their attorney, David Brundige, argued Royalty is looking for a “free and clear title” for the land. He said it would be in the city’s best interest, as JYR is ready to accept all outstanding taxes and liens associated with the property.
Richards countered that they did not include a final tax amount in their offer, as a final cost had not been established at the time. He added the Royalty offer is closer to $2.7 million, due to picking up liens on the property.
Royalty has a tax credit with the city in their deal, which would see the money paid off over a designated period of time if accepted.
On the Smith Street Lands offer, Richards argued it should be thrown out because Royalty’s had been conditionally accepted by the selling agent and they missed the listing period.
Smith Street Lands’ lawyer, Karolee Zawislak, said that offer was issued on Dec. 10, the final day of the eight month listing period.
She argued this is the best offer for the city, as it is worth $2.8 million and includes provision to pay all outstanding money owed to the city in a timelier manner than the Royalty deal.
While all three offers include the condition that the land property at the corner of Albert Street and Victoria Avenue is rezoned as a parking lot, Zawislak said Smith
Street is not putting a timeline on how fast they would like to see the land rezoned. She said the other deals have a 60-day time limit.
Options for Klatt include approving the Royalty deal or reopening the bidding process.
Editor’s note: an earlier version of the article incorrectly identified Grant Richards as Graham Richards.