Council continues building purchase process

In a special meeting Tuesday the Conway City Council passed an ordinance authorizing the city to enter into an agreement to purchase the Spirit Homes building.

The council passed a resolution to this effect on June 4, but needed to pass an ordinance as the purchase process requires the council's intent to purchase the property be published in a newspaper's legal section. An ordinance must be published; a resolution does not.

"When we initially made the offer and acceptance it said we had 45 days worth of due diligence," Mayor Tab Townsell said. "In those 45 days we secure financing, get city council approval and get further environmental assessment if we feel it's necessary. One thing that was supposed to happen in that 45-day window was the referendum period, which was supposed to run 30 days after publication of the actionable item."

As a result of the oversight of not publishing the council's intent, the "window" will be missed by about a week, Townsell told the council, but this likely won't put the deal in jeopardy.

The finance agreement approved by the council's June 4 resolution is unchanged in Tuesday's ordinance. Townsell has asked city-owned utility company Conway Corp. to loan the city money to purchase the $3.75 million Spirit Homes property.

According to the terms Townsell has presented the Conway Corp. Board of Directors, five years would pass before the loan is repaid in full via a lump payment including the interest accrued over the five years.

The repayment of Conway Corp. five years from the date the loan was made via normal five-year financing.

Conway Corp.'s board of directors has agreed to the loan "in principle," Townsell said, though details including the loan's interest rate have yet to be worked out.

The Spirit Homes property, currently owned by Cavalier Homes, includes a 220,000 square-foot building formerly used to manufacture mobile homes. The council intends to purchase the property for $3.75 million to be used as a multi-purpose recreational facility.

(Staff writer Joe Lamb can be reached at 505-1238 or by E-mail at joe.lamb@thecabin.net. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit.)