Trustee Ann Becker, who was not on the board then, said they were all surprised by the offer.
“Business is business and you get a good offer that makes sense and is a good sale for the township,” Becker said. “Sometimes business makes strange bedfellows.”
The property went up for sale in January with an asking price of $2.5 million, but it is $100,000 more than the township would have gotten if they sold it for a new Kroger Marketplace. The sales agreement with Aziz includes a 30-day inspection period and 60 days to finalize payment of the cash offer. The property is being sold as it stands.
“It’s a good use for the property and with interest rates rising it’s financially prudent for the township to sell,” Becker said.
Trustee Mark Welch said they updated the appraisal on the building last August and it came in at $1.9 million, “so we got the appraised value, gotta be happy about that.”
Welch said part of the agreement states that Aziz understands the roof and AVHC system need extensive repair or replacement so that can’t be a reason for him to back out of the deal after the inspection.
Aziz and the township settled the federal lawsuit and he was allowed to open his facility on U.S. 42 with several conditions. He could not be reached for comment about his plans for the building. Just last week the trustees finalized a zone change to facilitate the sale. Medical offices are specifically allowed in the new commercial planned use development district but institutional facilities — like Aziz’s drug rehab center on U.S. 42 — are conditional uses requiring zoning commission approval.
The cash sale ends another long saga for the township. The Activity Center has been at the center of a debate over whether or not the township should be in the business of providing community gathering space.
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 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.
Kroger officials would not comment on the future of the existing store.
The displaced seniors have been begging the trustees to find them a new gathering space since the Kroger sale was announced. The township has considered three options to provide the seniors and others meeting space: renovating the Activity Center, which had a rough estimate of $3.4 million, installing heat and air conditioning in the Muhlhauser Barn so the seniors could use the lower level and an estimated $6.6 million MidPointe Library expansion.
The seniors have made other arrangements but Nancy and Jack Williams, who led the charge, told the Journal-News recently it might take a few years to get another permanent meeting place but “we’re not giving up.”
Now that the Activity Center is off the table and the trustees recently backed off library expansion, Becker and Welch said creating additional community gathering space is no longer a top priority. Welch said they have the library — which is used already — and the Barn. He said they might one day “pull the trigger” to fix up the Barn basement.
“We’re finishing the chapter if you will but it doesn’t mean the book is over,” Welch said. “It doesn’t mean that at some point in the future that we decide to improve the space within an existing property of the township. But people have to live within the constraints it can’t be everything you want.”
Becker said since her pet project the library expansion “got crushed” the issue is over.
“Our community has a variety of ways to entertain, exercise, have life fulfilling activities,” Becker said. “The government itself doesn’t really need to be in the business of entertainment or recreation in particular when we have a community that flourishes in those areas.”
Recently a member of the symphony asked the trustees to create them space and Trustee Lee Wong told the Journal-News “a performing arts center is something to think about, West Chester might be at that level” but said it is on the “back burner.”
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