Danville officials are hoping to discourage entities from bidding during the upcoming online auction of Village Mall parcels if they don’t have the means to properly develop the properties.
The City of Danville issued a lengthy statement about the matter from its Community Relations department on Friday, saying it’s in the city’s interests not to be burdened financially in the future by more blighted properties.
The mall’s owner — reported to be T Danville/Tabani Group and incorporated in Texas — is placing the mall for sale by online auction on Monday, May 13, through Wednesday, May 15.
The 35-plus acres that comprise mall property on the city’s north side has been divided into three parcels. The main parcel — the grocery-anchored retail center where County Market, Pet Supplies Plus, Ross Stores and Dunham’s Sports are located — is offered with a starting bid of $1.75 million.
The remaining two parcels are offered with starting bids of $1 each.
The city’s statement expressed specific concern over the two parcels being sold with $1 opening bids, saying those parcels will be “sold to the highest bidder no matter how low the price.”
“This means that anyone with a dollar or more could gain ownership of a very large, highly important structure in our city,” the statement reads. “Time and time again, we have seen what happens when these cornerstone buildings in our community end up in the wrong hands.”
Danville Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. was quoted in the statement as saying, “This structure is very important to our community, and it is imperative that it ends up in the right hands. We will be taking this very seriously because Danville has made too much forward progress to allow a cornerstone in our community to deteriorate.”
The city’s concern over the mall property auction stems from ongoing battles in the community over blighted properties with absentee owners.
The statement reads: “If you look around, you might notice the hundreds of blighted structures we have removed in the last several years and how seriously we are taking this effort. Annually, The City of Danville invests more than $1,000,000 towards reducing blight. This funding comes from a variety of sources including the Community Development Block Grant, the Community Reinvestment Fund, and the Illinois Housing Development Authority. We also pull from our General Fund when necessary.”
The statement explained that a variety of factors have created the need for the city to allocate a large portion of the city budget to managing problem properties. A decreasing population is one factor, according to the statement, but “we also have an ongoing problem with mismanaged residential and commercial properties and a lack of maintenance and preservation efforts from their owners. The aftermath of this poor stewardship leaves us with devastating setbacks for our community and a halt in development in those neighborhoods.”
The statement cited recent examples of this problem include Bresee Tower, the Sears building, and the Adams building, all located in our downtown district.
“When entities without the proper resources purchase these large structures at a small cost without the means of developing them or even maintaining them, the deteriorating structures eventually pose many threats to the health and economic viability of the area,” the statement reads. “They present safety concerns such as falling debris, increased crime, and mold growth. Bordering structures are impacted as property values decrease and new businesses are not incentivized to locate in an area with abandoned structures, causing a cascade of negative economic consequences.”
The city has been working to resolve issues related to the problem properties, but officials emphasize it is a costly and time-consuming process.
The statement concludes:
“The City of Danville wants to communicate loud and clear that we will proactively be enforcing building code and maintenance standards on the Village Mall. The purchaser will be held liable for the condition of the structure and parking lots that are acquired. This accountability for improperly managed property comes with fines, legal expenses, and legal consequences. We know the incredible, positive impact that could occur for Danville with this structure in the hands of the right developer and we are doing everything possible on our end to ensure the best possible outcome for our citizens.”