The Town of Athabasca has made an offer to purchase the riverfront Home Hardware property for $500,000, conditional on the current owner demolishing the building.
The offer came out of a special, almost entirely in-camera meeting July 20, in which council voted 4-2 to direct administration to make the offer for the property.
Mayor Colleen Powell and Councillors Ida Edwards, David Pacholok and John Traynor voted in favour, while Councillors Tannia Cherniwchan and Robert Balay voted against making the offer, according to a recorded vote in the meeting minutes. Coun. Michael Arychuk left before the vote was conducted.
Home Hardware Athabasca owner Carol Alberts said she has been exploring other offers in the weeks since the town made theirs, after originally approaching the town in hopes it would purchase the property.
"It's only been in the last six or seven weeks that we've even considered anything else," Alberts said in an interview. "It's not the offer I was hoping for."
Alberts confirmed the issue with the offer was in the price. She said the property has been evaluated at $1.25 million, but she was willing to sell the property to the town at a discount.
"If the town could acquire the property, it's in the best interest of the town and the people," Alberts said, adding she was not seeking to sell it for the highest possible value. "I went to the town with a lesser ask and they offered substantially less than that."
More riverfront property
Powell said the town was interested in purchasing the Home Hardware to expand its riverfront property. Although what the property would turn into if purchased has not been determined, Powell said she would personally like to see the Riverfront Park expanded.
"This is an opportunity for the town to get some land on the riverfront and it would be a benefit to the whole community," she said. "If we got that property, I would like to open that up for a larger discussion. I think it would really enhance the downtown to own that property."
Alberts said her thinking was in line with the town for what the property should become.
"My hope was the town would want the property, to turn it back into some green space," she said.
Home Hardware is selling its current property to move to a new building within Athabasca, Alberts said.
"We've outgrown the space that we have. At this point, our goods are spread over multiple locations," she said. "We expect to be in there (the new building) late this year."
However, Powell said the town has no interest in the current Home Hardware building, which is why it included the demolition requirement in its offer.
"It's an old building and it isn't exactly a beautiful building," Powell said. "We would like to see something that matches what we would like to see the town become in the future. I think there's a lot of possibilities to that piece of property."
Alberts said Home Hardware will likely not have fully vacated its current property until February 2019.
"At that point is when I expect we will become more aggressive about selling the property or leasing the property," she said.
She also said the town had been co-operative in regards to Home Hardware's new location and the town's offer was still under consideration.
"Negotiations haven't come to a complete close," she said. "We are still considering that offer."
