The City of Bloomington will pay $11,250 to the real estate firm of Don Griffin, the former deputy mayor, for marketing the Bloomington Police Station for sale.
That’s despite the fact the city no longer plans to sell the station.
The Board of Public Works approved the payment Tuesday for work Griffin Realty did last year, when the city planned to sell the police station for a private housing development.
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Former mayor John Hamilton wanted to use the proceeds to help pay for a project that sought to relocate the police headquarters and fire administration into the western portion of the city hall building, also known as Showers West. Hamilton left office Dec. 31.
But in December, the city council rejected the station’s sale after the former owners of the land it sits on spoke out against it.
Had the city approved the sale, Griffin Realty would have received 4 percent of the proceeds for whichever offer it accepted.
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Griffin Realty preferred the GMS-Pavilion Properties’ offer, which was for $4.4 million. Griffin Realty would have received about $176,000 from the deal.
The other offers were for $3.2 million from UP Campus Properties and for $4.85 million from Aptitude Development.
The city’s new mayor, Kerry Thomson, said this month she no longer plans to relocate the police headquarters into Showers West.
Thomson has not ruled out using the space for other public safety purposes, however.
