SPRINGDALE -- Industrial land changed hands Wednesday when the city's Public Facilities Board bought a piece of property and sold another.
The board will pay $95,200 for 2.3 acres on the north side of Turnbow Avenue, in one of the city's industrial parks.
The Public Facilities Board owns and manages industrial land for Springdale. The City Council makes appointments to the board. The Springdale Chamber of Commerce handles administrative duties for the board.
The board in 2004 sold the Turnbow property to the Southwestern Electric Power Co., which planned to build a substation, said Scott Edmondson, vice president for economic development for the chamber. The substation was built on a lot immediately northwest of the Turnbow lot, on land behind the Farmers Regional Sale Barn on East Emma Avenue.
The Public Facilities Board includes a "claw back" clause in every property transaction, Edmondson said. If the buyer no longer needs the land, the board has the first right of refusal to buy back the land for the same amount for which it sold.
The board sold the lot to the power company for $40,000 an acre or $95,200, he said.
The board owns a 2.37-acre lot immediately east of the power company's lot. Together, the lots total 4.75 acres, which gives the board more opportunities to sell the land, Edmondson said.
The board also sold a half acre lot on Jefferson Street to Brunner & Lay, a manufacturing company, for $5,600.
The strip of land includes only a dirt driveway accessing the back of the company's plant on Old Wire Road, Edmondson noted. The company has built soccer fields behind its plant for workers to use, and the road provides access to the fields.
The land also includes an easement for the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad for a railroad spur to the plant, if it ever is needed, Edmondson said.
"They asked if they could put up a gate up," Edmondson said of Brunner & Lay. "We asked them if they wanted to buy the lot."