Springdale considers selling downtown property

SPRINGDALE -- The city is considering selling some downtown property it owns to a company related to the Walton family. City Council members, working in committees Monday night, said OK to a vote coming before the entire council at its next meeting Sept. 25.

Mayor Doug Sprouse told council members that a company named Recasting LLC approached the city wanting to buy the properties at 107 Spring St., 128 Spring St., 130 Spring St. and 132 Spring St.

Sprouse reported the buildings together appraised at $860,000 during the last three months. He asked Recasting for $1 million for the four properties, and company officials agreed, he said.

As part of the purchase agreement, Recasting will lease the properties on Spring Street back to the city for no cost for up to three years. Sprouse explained these offices will house city employees as they relocate during various phases of building the new municipal campus.

Council members also asked that the current public bathrooms built by the city be retained or replaced with equal quality and quantity.

The four buildings sit one block south of the current City Administration Building and currently house city offices and employees that have outgrown the City Administration Building. These departments include the criminal investigation division of the Springdale Police Department, the city's health facility, the information technology department and the building department.

Springdale voters in February approved a bond issue including $40.8 million to build a criminal justice center, which would hold the city's police and courts and renovate the city administration building.

Washington County property tax records show the city paid $1 each for the properties at 128, 130 and 132 Spring St. to the Dorothy Gay Wheat Revocable Trust in 2011. Wheat's husband, Dr. Ed Wheat, operated his medical practice there. Tax records further show that the city paid Southwestern Electric Power Co. $1 for the building at 107 Spring St. in 1998.

Council members asked for the $1 million the city will receive to be put into the city's capital improvement fund, reserved for costs related to the city's planned municipal campus.

Sprouse explained this $1 million could be used to purchase property that sits across Spring Street from the campus to complete the parking lots and a park. The property includes some houses and the American Legion Building.

Recasting is registered in Delaware, according to records on the Delaware Secretary of State's website. Recasting shares an agent with Ropeswing Hospitality Group and Springdale Downtown, both of which are backed by the Walton family. The state is the registration location for a majority of Fortune 500 companies and other businesses drawn by relaxed incorporation regulations there, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Springdale Downtown in 2014 bought 0.7 acres along Emma Avenue between Spring and Commercial streets for about $1.2 million, records show. The group also bought about an acre to the north in 2014. Over the last month, the organization has demolished San Jose Manor on Emma Avenue to make room for "'a mixed-use commercial development' customized to meet the needs of the downtown community," according to a company news release.

Overton asked Sprouse during the meeting if Recasting was related to the Ropeswing Co., Sprouse confirmed they were "sister" companies.

Sprouse said he did not know what Recasting plans to do with the properties.

NW News on 09/18/2018

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