UCDD will look to potentially sell the District’s old office building located on Willow Avenue.
The Development District moved out of the old building to its current location on England Drive in 2019. UCDD Executive Director Mark Farley said with more development taking place on Willow Avenue, now might be the time to sell the building.
“That whole stretch of lower Willow is obviously gonna change over the next two or three years, and I know there’s some developers and other interested parties that are looking at that area and trying to get ahead of the boom,” Farley said.
Farley said he has already received calls from several developers interested in the building. Farley said he received permission from the Executive Committee to get an appraisal on the building.
“Not gonna say that we are gonna sell it, but we felt like it would be a good time to have an appraisal done on it, just to see what the value of it is, and sort of an idea of what the marketing price would be, so we can make an informed decision if we decide to go that route.”
Farley said if the Development District did sell the building, the funds would likely go towards paying the debt on the current facility.
“We were very fortunate that we were able to build this building we are in currently before all the inflation that happened during Covid, so we did get it at a very reasonable rate,” Farley said. “But we do have debt on it, and our hopes will be ot take that money and apply it ot the principle that we owe and hopefully speed up the process of paying this building off.”
Farley said the Development District has kept the building, as the thought was that they would eventually need the building for more space. Farley said nothing has materialized for a need for more space. Farley said two lessors currently use the old building.