Beaufort County Commissioners Open "Quick Start II" to the Open Market | Eastern North Carolina Now

   All real estate agents, licensed to engage in real property transactions in North Carolina, will now have an Open Listing on Beaufort County's Quick Start II, and, therefore, will be properly remunerated.

   The Beaufort County Commissioners met with the Beaufort County Community College Trustees and staff today, way in advance of the 2013 / 2014 budget about possible state budget cuts, but that is not the story from this joint meeting. Understandably, it is always important for the county government to get some advance notice as to the possibility that there may be an expanded request from the county coffers to offset any state cutback; however, this Special Called Meeting had a twist - after the conclusion of their meeting with the BCCC trustees, the Beaufort County Commissioners considered an offer on their Quick Start II building from Flanders Filters's executives.

   Beaufort County's Quick Start II is a "shell building," which has been marketed by all conventional economic developers as the best avenue to a county's economic development. It is simply their clichéd twist on "Build it and they will come." Obviously we built it, and they never came, but today we had an offer for its sale. Good riddance, right?

    Not so fast. Read here below to gain a better understanding of what did transpire.

   This consideration of an offer, tendered, was done in a closed meeting, as is the commissioners right to do so to protect the integrity of the offer; however, any action taken, by this governing body, must be done in a public meeting format, which did occur moments later.

   Once the closed meeting was concluded, Commissioner Hood Richardson made the motion to accept the offer, pursuant to a variation of the "public property offerings" statute, which stipulates that accepted offers be subject to a 10 day upset bid period. The vote was taken, and it failed: Richardson and Commissioner Deatherage voting to accept the bid, and Commissioners Al Klemm, Jay McRoy, Robert Cayton and Jerry Langley voting to reject the bid.

   The idea of accepting a much lower offer under the desired price of about two million dollars, on this building that has never been formerly open for public purchase, was to take an offer, which was; however, relatively close to the appraised value of that property, was to alter the status quo of Beaufort County's economic development inertia, and divest ourselves of an unwanted building. By selling this property, at the lower value, we would still bring jobs to Beaufort County, but with no further incentives offered. Furthermore, we would effectively put the property back on the property tax roles, and stop paying yearly maintenance on a building that has sat vacant for over 4 years.

   Sometimes, one does not get what they want, but one may; however, get what they need. Accordingly, one could logically make the case that the acceptance of a lower offer could actually be the better for Beaufort County, and its taxpayers, than keeping the vacant structure waiting in the wings for the industrial prospect that never comes.

   For those commissioners who ascribe to "shell building" waiting for the optimum industrial prospect and therefore, were in the negative on that aforementioned vote, have long held fast that this property should not be openly marketed, but held in private and offered to only "qualified prospects."

   I personally never understood what constituted a "qualified prospect."

   Remarkably, after some tough talk in the closed meeting about the stark reality of a building left vacant and unused for so long, the Beaufort County Commissioners did vote 6 to 0 to accept my motion to list the property in an Open Listing format with all real estate agents, licensed to engage in real property transactions in North Carolina, thereby affording them the opportunity to serve Beaufort County and be paid the entirety of a 6% fee for their trouble.

   There is finally a publicly listed price on this property, and finally, it is on the market to everyone interested. The listed price is 1.5 million dollars.

   Commissioner Stan Deatherage (at the BCC / BCCC meeting, September 19, 2012): "You commissioners must accept the fact that we will never sell this property for any reasonable price, in this economy, if you continue to make the selling of this property private to only those people that you are familiar with, and not on an open basis to the public at large."

    Beaufort County's Quick Start II is officially on the public's open market.