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asking price of $1 million. They wanted a quick sale, says Todd Clarke, investment broker for Grubb & Ellis/Lewinger Hamilton, the real estate company that is the sellers' agent. "The county said it wanted to buy the building, but it never made an offer," Clarke says. "They didn't say when they would make an offer or how much it would be." The sellers, according to Clarke, got tired of waiting. The county has deposited $5,000 with the sellers as an "option" payment. The sellers have told the county that if the sale to the Bonfantines does not go through, that $5,000 will be deducted from the county's cost for purchasing the property.
Clarke and his colleague Terrie Hertweck, an associate broker, say they have kept both the Bonfantines and the sellers up to date on all issues having to do with the property, even sending each side newspaper articles reporting the county's stated intentions for the property and some that mistakenly announced that the building had already been sold to the county.
County Manager Juan Vigil says the sellers have refused permission for the county to appraise the value of the building and to conduct a preliminary environmental assessment, both of which are required before the County Commission can decide whether to go ahead with the
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for storage or leased to another business.
The total property, a corner lot at Central and Wellesley S.E., includes about 24,000 square feet. There's even some room between the two buildings for a very limited amount of parking. Janice Bonfantine says she's excited about the opportunity to "take the building back to its historically correct" Streamline Moderne look -- a 1920s style of architecture that drew from increased streamlining in industrial design. She's flying to San Diego soon to look at the restoration of a Streamline Moderne building there that now houses two restaurants. The Jones Motor Co. building was opened in 1939 as a Ford automobile dealership by Ralph F. Jones. It has also been a gas station and service garage.
Additions, including the building in the back, were constructed in 1945 and 1951. The main building was vacant for a time beginning in 1957, but from then until the late 1980s it was used by other businesses -- a furniture store, a thrift shop, a bicycle store, an auto body shop. Most recently, although vacant, it has been the site of occasional teen "rave" dance parties.
Last summer, before the November election in which voters approved the county's bond issue to buy the building, the sellers set an
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purchase. Clarke says it's true that county officials haven't been permitted to enter the building, but only since the Bonfantines signed a purchase contract.
Vigil says the county still desires the property. Purchase of the Jones Motor Co. for use as a community and art center would be "one of the few public projects funded by the county within the city limits," he says. "We have put them (the sellers and the Bonfantines) on notice of our intent to purchase the property to renovate it for use as a cultural center. Based on that public use, we can acquire it through negotiation or condemnation. "We are still intent on acquiring the property. We understand the sellers have a purchase offer, but we have to have an independent appraisal, and we will have to go with the appraised price," Vigil said.
"The county ought to be very thrilled at a private buyer coming into this building," says David Campbell, a former Albuquerque city attorney now in private practice who has been retained by the Bonfantines. "If I were the county, I'd be leaping for joy that the public would be benefited with renovation of an historically significant building, and the continuation of a vibrant business, with no expenditure of the taxpayer's dollar," Campbell said. "In fact, there would be signifi
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