07-B Chamber Bldg Sales Agmt - Laserfiche WebLink

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MEMORANDUM TO: Michael E. Malone, City Manager FROM: Larry W. Schenk, City Attorney SUBJECT: Sale of the Three-tenths (3/10) Undivided Interest of the City of Paris in the Chamber of Commerce Building Located at 1651 Clarksville Street DATE: February 4, 2003 The City of Paris has been asked to participate with the Lamar County Chamber of Commerce in the sale of the current Chamber of Commerce building located at the intersection of 17th Street S.E. and Clarksville Street. The Chamber has requested this involvement by the City because the City acquired a three- tenths (3/10) undivided interest in the Chamber building in 1984 for a purchase price of$100,000.00. The Chamber is proceeding to sell the current building because the Chamber is assuming new offices in the rehabilitated Santa Fe-Frisco Depot building. The old Chamber building is therefore surplus property as far as the Chamber is concerned. I am also advised that, while the Chamber has informally listed the property for sale for some time, previous offers were considered insufficient by the Chamber, but the Chamber has now received a formal offer of $200,000.00 which the Chamber believes is a fair offer. The primary issue is whether or not the City of Paris can sell its undivided 3/10 interest, which constitutes publicly owned property, as part of the Chamber's overall sale of the property. The sale of real property by a municipality is governed by several provisions of the Texas Local Government Code. Those provisions are found primarily in portions of Chapter 253 and the entirety of Chapter 272 of the Local Government Code. In addition, Section 74 of the City of Paris home rule charter addresses the sale of City property. In reviewing the Local Government Code provisions and the provisions of the City Charter, it is obvious the primary intent of these provisions is to impose a process whereby it is assured the selling municipality obtains fair market value for the property being sold. Both the Charter and the Local Government Code (which in instances of conflict would control the Charter) invoke a process of public offering of the property for sale, the intent of the Legislature by invoking this process obviously being to assure that fair market value is achieved by competitive bidding. However, in several instances the State law acknowledges there will be various circumstances for which using the competitive process would not necessarily result in a municipality receiving the best value. For example, in instances of the sale of narrow strips of land, or land that because of its shape, lack of access, or small area, cannot be used independently under its current zoning, an