By IN reporter Sean Boone
According to City Manager Al Coby, city staff did not recognize two appraisals that were made for the 11.44-acre airport property that council has recommended to be leased to Sandspur Development to construct a hotel.
Coby says a formal appraisal of $7.1 million and a review appraisal of $7 million were given to the airport in addition to the $6.4 million appraisal that was offered to Sandspur.
“When we realized the mistakes that we made, we got back with the developer (Sandspur) and said this is an error on our part, but we can proceed at the lower value,” he says. “Sandspur agreed immediately to go with the higher evaluation of $7 million.”
Coby says that as of Wednesday afternoon all Council members have been notified of the error and city officials were working to create a contract modification that will be up for discussion at Thursday’s meeting.
In addition to the appraisal change, the property contract will also be modified to include an architectural and landscaping review, as well as storm water criteria for the property.
As far as not receiving the appraisals from the airport until Wednesday, Coby says the city takes full responsibility
“Should we have known about it? Yes, we should have. Is it our error? Yes it is.”