Editorial: Wrong Time to Sell the Ameritrust Complex - 19 Action News|Cleveland, OH|News, Weather, Sports

Editorial: Wrong Time to Sell the Ameritrust Complex

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(WOIO) - It is a fact that after this year we won't have those three Cuyahoga County Commissioners to kick around anymore but until then there remains plenty of reason to question their competence. 

The latest example is news that the commissioners have resurrected plans to sell the Ameritrust building and the adjacent rotunda at the corner of Euclid and East 9th for almost 20 million dollars less than what the county has already invested in the buildings.

The commissioners are studying recommendations from their staff to price the buildings for sale at between $22 and $28 million. 

Back in 2005, the commissioners bought the buildings for about $21 million with the idea of designing new county offices. And, they have since plowed $13 million more into rehabbing the building. Well, the whole notion was a boondoggle to begin with but selling the buildings now - in the middle of the worst real estate market in decades -would just compound the sin.

There are a bunch of developers around who would love to steal the buildings and who could blame them? 

And, developing that corner is certainly better than the buildings sitting vacant. But come on, the commissioners need to wait until the market improves and then maybe we taxpayers can get more of their money back. 

Write and let me know what you think. I'm Bill Applegate.

 

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