FROM STAFF REPORTS
The Statesville City Council voted Monday night to sell property along Interstate 40 to a company planning to build a hotel at the site.
Reversing a decision from last month, council members voted 6 to 2 to sell two lots off Free Nancy Avenue to Jai Amba Maa (JAM) Hospitality for $650,000.
The property, which was donated to the city, is currently being leased to Lane Construction Co. as a work site for the I-77/I-40 project. About half of the property, which is the former site of a movie theater, is located in a floodplain.
After JAM Hospitality, which owns and manages hotels in Statesville and Greensboro, submitted the bid for the property, city officials advertised the property for sale and did not receive a higher bid.
Councilman C.O. Johnson again voiced his objection to the proposed sale, arguing that the city should have had the property appraised to determine if $650,000 was a fair price.
“That’s pretty cheap for that land,” he said.
The approved bid was $265,000 over the property’s tax value, according to city officials.
Staff followed city policy for selling property and listed the site on the Multiple Listing Service, which made the property listing available to real estate professionals around the world. About 50 agents viewed the property, city officials said.
Councilman Frederick Foster made the motion to sell the property after council members agreed to revisit the sale during Monday’s meeting. The motion passed with councilmen C.O. Johnson and Steve Johnson opposing the motion.
As a condition of the sale, the new owner will provide access to and parking spaces for the city’s greenway.
During earlier discussions, council members said $100,000 of the proceeds from the sale could be used to fund an affordable housing initiative. The council did not take action Monday allocating any of the proceeds for any purpose.
If Steve Johnson voted against the sale, he has a good reason for it. The liberals on city council must be wanting to make a “we did something for low-income housing” statement. Also, $100,000 isn’t a drop in the bucket!
I am not an appraiser, but I agree that the council let the property go for less than its value.
We can just let it sit there like the rest of the properties in Statesville or develop it for more ways to make money for the city. If it was up to Jap Johnson, we could let the rest of this town die (i.e. the mall).
Amen. Jap “Dr. No” Johnson needs to go. He does nothing to help this city and votes NO on everything. He has been in office way too long and he needs to go.
Dr. No needs to go, but who sells land without an appraisal? Examine who it’s being sold to. Sure, we want development but we could use affordable housing. That’s a lot of land really cheap. It’s right on the greenway. It would have been amazing land for affordable housing with park access.
We have no RFP process for city contracts on services and we sell land without appraisals. We function like a good old boys club. The same people get to benefit from every transaction in town. Putting $100k towards affordable housing is laughable. That money will never be allocated and is not enough to do anything. It will end up with our Housing Authority, who already owns too much undeveloped land in the area and doesn’t do enough to build affordable housing. Rich get richer and housing gets less accessible. This is sad.
The mall is privately owned. It is not owned by the city. We have little control over that land not being used well. Old man Collier had a vision when the mall first went in, but his grandkids apparently don’t. It is up to them to decide. Hopefully, they’ll sell it one day once Belk’s lease is up. I’ve heard some developers would love to put some condos there with easy access to I-77 and I-40.
Exactly, why sell something at such a discount, and leave all that money on the table? Same crap happened at the hotel behind Wendy’s on 21 and the Vance Hotel. Again and again our council members screw us over.
I’m just glad someone is investing in Statesville.
Statesville is depressing. All these roads and they are leading straight out of town. Nothing is grabbing the attention of families traveling through. I feel we are missing some great opportunities to bring in money by not offering shopping, entertainment venues and more family oriented activities. We need to get rid of these people on these boards that still want to conduct business like its the 1800s.
This
Oo yayy another business that offers us absolutely NOTHING to do. There is NOTHING to do here but eat and drink. It’s pathetic. I spend every weekend in Charlotte because there is actually entertainment. Hell, Kannapolis is booming compared to here.
New to the area for only about two years. Came from the RTP area to be closer to both daughters and grandchildren. Statesville is becoming a ghost town! Really, not one decent sitdown restaurant to celebrate a graduation, birthday, etc. This place is a restaurant desert unless you want fast food or chain restaurants. Pathetic with such a beautiful downtown area. The lords of this city have their heads in the sand. And at the intersection of two major interstates. Makes no sense.
Lol sad Luv ya bye
I think they are trending in the right direction, City bought the Vance Hotel for $450K ish, if I recall and sold it for $47K 🤣. So $650K not to bad for property on a flood plain. It probably wouldn’t have appraised for near that.