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Ocala sells the old library to a high-tech institute, but one city councilman is not convinced it was wise
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Location: Blogs Marion Politics |
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| Posted by: Ocala.com Election Coverage |
3/5/2008 12:21 PM |
When the Ocala City Council sold the old downtown library to the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition Tuesday night, Councilman Kyle Kay cast the only "no" vote.
Why?
Kay said this morning he would have liked to open up the process to see what other suitors might be willing to offer for the site. Perhaps another developer or entrepreneur would have offered more.
IHMC got the building and land for $700,00, about a half million dollars less than its appraised value. Add to that $300,000 in economic incentives that IHMC will get, and the city has about $800,000 invested in this project.
And Kay isn’t convinced that IHMC will be the economic development catalyst it aims to be.
“I just don’t see that inspiring further economic development downtown,” he said. “We sold that (building and land) to IHMC for the land value alone, and my perception of them was that the value they bring as PhDs and lab technicians should speak for itself. Well, I’m not so sure.”
-- tom mcniff |
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Re: Ocala sells the old library to a high-tech institute, but one city councilman is not convinced it was wise |
By sue gruninger on
3/6/2008 1:56 AM |
| This article notes that building and land was sold for $700,000, abt half a million dollars less than appraised value plus incentives. Does not appear to be a good move especially at a time when communities are supposed to be tightening their budgets and not overspending. Don't you think that had we but this out to bid or searched elsewhere for a higher dollar that those additional funds and additional jobs would have helped our community in the long haul and would not have continued to stress the taxpayers wallet. Why do community leaders not think of the community and their financial needs when making these decisions. Would our leaders have sold their own home or business for that much of a loss? I think NOT!<br>People should really watch who they vote for next time. |
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Re: Ocala sells the old library to a high-tech institute, but one city councilman is not convinced it was wise |
By Tommy Smith on
3/7/2008 1:06 PM |
| Thank You Mr. Kay. You seem to have been the only one of the council members that could figure that for every dollar it's was sold for under what it is worth, that amount of dollars has to be made up by increased taxes from some source. The property just to the south of the old library should be leased out as a motor-cross track for additional income. that seems that may be the only use that eyesore may have. |
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