Way cleared for Saginaw County to sell Morley Building

by Barrie Barber | The Saginaw News
Wednesday June 11, 2008, 7:00 AM

The Saginaw Community Foundation and the Michigan State University Extension apparently have worked out details that could clear the way toward a $650,000 purchase of the Saginaw County-owned Morley Building along the riverfront in downtown Saginaw.

The foundation wants to use the building at 1 Tuscola as a "nonprofit hub" for charity groups, Foundation President and Chief Executive Officer Renee S. Johnston has said. Saginaw County owns the building.

The foundation -- a charitable fund that a board of volunteers oversees -- would move its operations from Jefferson One, 100 S. Jefferson in Saginaw.

MSU extension, which has 30 employees in the building, has agreed to move its offices from the first floor to space on the second and third, said Marie A. Ruemenapp, the regional director for southeast Michigan.

"That's going to be very workable," she said.

The agency provides education services for residents interested in agriculture, gardening, child care, parenting, nutrition and 4-H activities.

Moving the MSU offices presented a possible sticking point in the sale of the building.

The foundation still must raise money to buy the facility, reach a parking agreement with the city and conduct an investigation of the property, Johnston said in a Tuesday letter to county leaders.

Members of the county Board of Commissioners County Services Committee urged their colleagues to sell the building to the foundation.

The 15 commissioners are to vote on the sale Tuesday, June 24. A deal could close in 60 to 90 days, County Controller and Chief Administrative Officer Marc A. McGill said.

The pending sale has critics because the county could lose $1 million on the deal, based on figures McGill previously provided.

Commissioner Michael P. O'Hare, for example, was irked at the potential financial loss, continued spending for Browne Airport and the taxpayer-approved subsidy of about $400,000 a year to keep TheDow Event Center open.

"I get tired of investing in things, and we take a butt-beating on everything," the Chesaning Democrat said. "We made some bad investments."

He blamed McGill as the "ring leader" on deals gone bad.

McGill said he did not recommend that commissioners buy the then-$1.3 million Morley Building from Republican Commissioner Thomas A. Basil Sr. of Saginaw Township and a group of investors in May 1999. McGill was deputy controller at the time. Basil had abstained from a vote on the sale.

''We've got losses, and we're

cutting our losses short,'' McGill said.

He agreed with O'Hare on one point: The Morley Building was, in hindsight, a poor investment.

McGill said no other parties have shown interest in buying the facility in a weak economy with an abundance of office space downtown and a long battle to retain tenants.

The county would use sale proceeds to pay off about $550,000 in bonds on the building and put another $100,000 in a rapidly shrinking maintenance budget for county facilities.

In part, the building has plummeted in worth over the years because state law exempts some nonprofit tenants, such as MSU Extension, from property value calculations, Saginaw City Assessor Lori D. Brown has said.

The city assessed half the market value of the building -- its state equalized value -- at $319,284 a year ago. In 1999, the Saginaw assessor set that value at $669,890, city records indicate.