Lodi council OKs potential sale of former fire station

No one contested the sale of the former Fire Station 2 during the Lodi City Council meeting held Wednesday night.

The council voted unanimously to approve selling the former fire station, located at 705 E. Lodi Ave. According to Lodi Business Development Manager Adam Brucker, funds from the sale will be used to pay back the bond used to build the new Fire Station 2 on Cherokee Lane. Back in 2014, Brucker said, the city had anticipated the sale of the property could bring in at least $400,000, and the appraised value is now higher than that.

The station was replaced with a new fire station at the beginning of 2015. The plan was always for the former station to be sold off once it was no longer needed in order to generate the revenue to offset some of the costs of replacing it. The building isn’t being utilized to its full potential, and is currently only used for storage, Brucker said. There have also been issues with some transients breaking into the station, Brucker said.

Back in January, city staff presented the council with a handful of properties that they thought were underutilized and the former fire station was included in those properties.

After the presentation, the council gave staff direction to come back and proceed with the sale of the property.

At least 14 parties, including local contractors and real estate professionals, are interested in the property, Brucker.

Now that the sale is approved, the city will advertise for bids on the property and bids will be accepted for a certain period of time before the results are presented to the council.

The council will ultimately decide if the city should proceed based on the information, and if so the city will enter into a contract for the sale of the property. The council could also reject all the bids if the offers are not high enough. Brucker said he is confident that the city will receive a fair offer.