MANISTEE – The City of Manistee has several properties that have been for sale for 20 years, and although some have recently been sold, restrictive covenants have made it difficult to find buyers for the properties.
During Tuesday’s Manistee City Council meeting, the council voted unanimously to approve the sale of a city-owned lot in Renaissance Park in the township of Manistee, dubbed “Renaissance Lot 1.”
Despite approving the property, council members had questions and concerns about the restrictive agreements and how they may make it difficult for the city to sell some of the properties Manistee owns.
restrictions
According to the meeting’s agenda, “The city received an offer to purchase the property designated as Renaissance Lot 1. This lot is part of Renaissance Park in the parish of Manistee. These properties are currently subject to restrictive agreements,” the agenda package part reads.
The city received an offer of $22,500 for the property.
The property would be used for self storage, with the first phase of the proposed project incorporating mini storage units and employing one to two people for administration and maintenance. The second phase would include a large warehouse with an office and storerooms employing two to four people.
City of Manistee Attorney George Saylor noted that the way the restrictive contract is written, particularly on Renaissance Lot 1, may cause some confusion as to usage.
“There’s no clear limit that tells us you have to have a certain number of employees. The purpose when this park was originally established was to maintain and then increase the number of manufacturing and industrial jobs in the community,” he said. “So it is questionable whether warehousing is part of the potential use of this property in the commercial exploitation of this property.”
gray areas
Saylor said that with Renaissance Lot 1 in particular, there is some gray area as to whether self-storage fits the definition of industrial use. He also noted that the property had been vacant for a couple of decades.
“One question that has arisen is whether or not self-storage fits that definition. It seems – and I wasn’t aware of it – that there was a phase 2, and it sounds like it might be closer to what we’re talking about,” Saylor said. “But the number of employees – it really doesn’t define that in line with its original purpose, which was to maintain or increase the number of manufacturing or industrial jobs.
“And does that fit that definition or not? I think it’s quite a gray area. It’s probably on the lower side. But again… we’ve had these lots for sale for 20 years, and it’s only recently that we’ve seen some activity.”
Mayor pro-tem Jermaine Sullivan also noted the issue and suggested the city lift restrictions on urban lands.
“One of the agreements in here was[thatthebuyerhadtogetpermissionfromthecitytoresellitIfalltheselotsaresoldwhatdowecareiftheysellitback?”shesaid
“So if we get rid of some of those deals there, I think they could sell faster. Especially since we’ve been sitting on them for 20 years and only now are we getting interested in them. So I think that might be something to look at: removing some of those restrictions so we can sell them,” Sullivan said.
She noted that while this worked for the property in question, it may not have worked for other city-owned properties for sale.
“I mean, it’s like a house. If you put a constraint like, ‘I must get prior approval to sell the house,’ I will not buy that house,” Sullivan said. “Well, I mean, for this one, that’s fine, but I think we need to address some of these restrictions just so we can sell these lots (and) stop sitting on them for so long.”
