From the Richmond Palladium-Item:
When Wayne County conducted its delinquent property tax sale earlier this month, the former Reid Hospital property was on the sale list.
All seven property parcels that make up the former hospital campus on U.S. 27 North were combined into one lot for the sale, but no one bid on it, Wayne County Treasurer Cathy Williams said.
Past-due and current property taxes and penalties, which haven’t been paid by owner Spring Grove Development LLC since 2011, totaled $328,828.57, Williams said.
The commissioners requested the 60-plus-acre property be listed in the delinquent tax sale as one unit, in hopes it might sell, Wayne County Board of Commissioners President Denny Burns said. Commissioners also didn’t want just the single-most desirable parcel to sell, leaving the rest behind, Commissioner Mary Anne Butters said.
The former hospital property, which has been vacant since 2008, is now eligible for a commissioners’ sale in the spring, but Wayne County officials say they don’t plan to place the troubled property in the sale.
Commissioners’ sales are often the way tax-delinquent properties get new owners because commissioners can set the minimum prices at amounts much less than the taxes due on the properties.
Keeping the old Reid Hospital campus out of a commissioners’ sale, at which the county provides a deed to the new buyer, could protect the county from being responsible for any potential environmental problems, Burns said.
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See the full article here:
http://www.pal-item.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013310140016
