No bidders on former hospital building

No one bid on the former Wrangell hospital building, which the borough had offered to sell at a minimum asking price of $830,000.

The bidding period was open for a month and closed last Thursday. The property is now available for an over-the-counter sale.

“It means that the first person to come in to sign an intent to purchase with a 20% down payment (payment in full within 60 days of signing) would be the buyer,” Borough Clerk Kim Lane explained last Friday.

“If that happens, I would then take a resolution to the assembly to approve the sale.”

If a prospective buyer wants to offer less than the $830,000 asking price, “that would have to go before the assembly for consideration,” Lane said.

A commercial property appraiser determined the $830,000 value of the former hospital.

The property reverted back to the borough after SEARHC moved into its new medical center last year. The borough owns the property and had leased it to SEARHC until the health care provider could build its new facility.

The borough is spending close to $100,000 a year to heat and insure the empty structure. The assembly decided to sell the surplus property in hopes of attracting a new use for the 30,596-square-foot building on 1.95 acres at Bennett Street between Reid Street and First Avenue, next to the elementary school.

The building is being sold as-is. The hospital, originally constructed in 1967, includes additions built in 1974, 1988 and 1994. A 2018 survey detailed asbestos materials in the roofing, tiles, wallboard, window caulk and fire-rated doors.