“They wanted to purchase it as an event center, the story I got was the matriarch or patriarch did not want to co-sign for the loan so it died,” Welch said. “They went through and gave decent terms and a good offer and we were going to go ahead verify it in a special meeting, then we got word they were unable to secure the loan.”
In April the trustees agreed to sell the property to the same doctor who sued them a few years ago over his rehab center but he backed out a month later. The property went up for sale with an asking price of $2.5 million at the beginning of the year. Dr. Mohamed Aziz offered $1.9 million which is $100,000 more than the township would have gotten if they sold it for a new Kroger Marketplace. The property was being sold as it stands.
He sued the township in 2016 over a temporary moratorium banning drug rehab centers. Officials said he planned to refurbish the building for medical office space.
Welch told the Journal-News after the inspection Aziz came back and wanted about $300,000 shaved off the price because of some required upgrades like sprinklers. He canceled the purchase in time to receive his $100,000 in earnest money.
Trustee Ann Becker said “it’s kind of a bummer” because the potential buyer was local.
“There have been other offers on the building and we’re exploring another offer next week,” she said on Friday. “The interest in the building is still really high, we just have to find the right buyer for the right price and what’s right for the community.”
Trustee Lee Wong said he couldn’t disclose much about the newest buyer but “there is another offer on the table, it’s a sweeter deal even.”
Welch said he believes the property is priced right because they have gotten some offers near the asking price, except one where the offer was $1.6 million.
“They had no specified business or what they were going to do with it, so that to me was a flipper,” Welch said. “They just wanted to get it under contract and then go out there and try to let’s say, I don’t know get Regency or Kroger to move off the dime and flip it and make $200,000, $300,000.”
The Activity Center came into play after Community First Solutions stopped providing senior programming in 2019. Shortly thereafter the township agreed to sell the building to Kroger’s landlord Regency Centers for $1.8 million.
There were many moving parts and parties involved in trying to build a new 117,166-square-foot Kroger Marketplace. The deal was contingent on Regency Centers being able to acquire the Activity Center, the Providence Bible Fellowship church, a sliver from Chesterwood Village and easements and agreements with about 10 other property owners to complete the complicated deal.
The trustees gave Regency extensions of the timeline that was set in the purchase agreement to March 2020. The company had 90 days to acquire the church and Chesterwood properties and six months to complete due diligence. However three 90-day extensions could be requested at a cost of $50,000 each. The trustees agreed to amend the contract giving Regency another six months with $100,000 due September 2020. Regency cancelled the deal just before the payment would have been due.
The trustees have had sporadic discussions with Regency and Kroger since the deal died in 2020 but those talks ended last December. Welch at the time said they were still asking the township to pay for some of the necessary infrastructure improvements that could cost as much as $2 to $4 million.
A Kroger spokeswoman said they have nothing to report on the status of the Marketplace project for the township.
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