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Wyoming City has put down $38,000 in earnest money towards a purchase of a commercial building on Forest Boulevard.  City Council members voted last week to also move ahead on a contract with Wold Architects, who will review costs to make the existing 16,000 square foot building usable for police and city hall functions. And, Wold is asked to look into the efficacy of the city hall space, attached to the fire station, to be remodeled for full fire department uses once city offices move out.  

If this set of projects is deemed financially feasible, the city addresses most of the dire facility needs identified over many years of space analyses. 

The purchase agreement is for $1.9 million for the building, owned by Shearwater Group, housing a call/processing center and eye care/clinic currently.  The council was advised the tenants are either approaching the end of their lease or have been notified of an impending sale.  The building is brokered by Remax Commercial.  It was contributing $41,718 to the city property tax base.  The lot is 4.4 acres. 

Council member Linda Nanko Yeager abstained, making for a not-unanimous vote to move forward, stating she had not been given adequate time to read the real estate purchase agreement terms.

The city attorney explained the city gets 60 days due diligence but if there is no basis found on which to withdraw the offer, the city could lose the $38,000 down payment.

City Administrator Robb Linwood commented that it’s possible the city will be able to do the space development for everything but public works— for the same amount of money that was estimated starting from scratch for a new fire and police facility (on a site near Splitrocks that had been investigated.)

Council member Dennis Schilling added he is in support of this because it is very much needed and “...we’ve been trying (to land a facility) since 2012 and costs keep going up.”

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