 - The Riverton City Council has approved a third extension for the vacant lot at 422 E. Main St., giving Brown Sugar Inc. additional time to develop the property.){kind=link}
(Riverton, WY) – The Riverton City Council has approved a third extension for the vacant lot at 422 E. Main St., giving Brown Sugar Inc. additional time to develop the property.
Brown Sugar bought the property from Riverton in 2019 for $52,000, according to a memo from city staff.
The transaction was completed without advertising the sale or calling for bids, because the business “was acquiring the property for a use which the governing body determined will benefit the economic development of the municipality,” the staff memo says.
Extensions
To ensure the sale resulted in an economic benefit to the community, the 2019 warranty deed for the property included two conditions, according to the staff memo: First, that Brown Sugar would apply for a building permit to construct a building on the property within 18 months, and second, that Brown Sugar would obtain a Certificate of Occupancy for the building within 18 months.
Brown Sugar requested an extension of those conditions in 2020, explaining that “circumstances beyond its control made it unfeasible to meet the 18-month deadline,” the memo states.
The extension request was granted at that time – and again in 2023, when Brown Sugar asked for a second extension “due a number of factors including COVID-19 aftermath, increased building costs and unexpected site/design changes,” staff said.
The second extension expired in February of this year, when Brown Sugar asked the city to “formally recognize the intent and purpose of the stipulations in the original warranty deed have been substantially performed,” the memo states.
Brown Sugar has not yet applied for a building permit or obtained a Certificate of Occupancy for the property, Community Development Director Gary Michaud told the Riverton City Council during a regular meeting Feb. 3, but business owner Amanda Henry said she does “have current plans going.”
“I still am working with an engineer and an architect,” she explained. “I do have full architectural plans that I could pull and build at any time – but right now interest rates are high. Building prices are high. You can all probably admit that it’s probably not the best time for me to build.”
Plus, Henry added, “I haven’t figured out the right project to put there that’s going to work with the limitations that I have on the lot.”
Earlier, Michaud had noted that “water supply … is a very limiting factor” for the property in question.
“(That’s) something that does get lost in the mix of all this,” he said. “The water supply is very limited to them. (That) is a factor that continues to keep coming up.”
Discussion
The council discussed the extension issue “at length” during the Feb. 3 meeting and again on Feb. 17, weighing the following options, according to staff:
- Immediately exercise the city’s right to the title of the property.
- Waive the performance requirements and time limits associated with the warranty deed.
- Amend the length of the proposed time extension or any other associated terms.
If the city resumed ownership of the property, Councilmember Karen Johnson said another buyer could come forward and develop it to be used for parking or a public seating area with restrooms, for example.
Those uses wouldn’t qualify as economic development, Councilmember Eric Carr pointed out, expressing his desire to see more “densification” downtown instead that would lead to increased property values and sales tax revenues.
Councilmember Mike Bailey proposed simply releasing Brown Sugar from the performance requirements and time limits of the warranty deed, but Mayor Tim Hancock pointed out that, in that case, the business “could just turn around and sell” the property, which has increased in value since 2019.
Carr said he would rather give the business another extension – a move that Johnson supported when the council discussed the issue again on Feb. 17.
An extension protects Brown Sugar from losing the money it’s already invested in the property while also ensuring that the lot in question is developed as the city intended, Johnson explained.
“The city needs to hold some interest in the value of the property, because it is an asset to the city as well,” she said. “And so I don’t want to release complete ownership without a responsibility to what should be done. … I don’t think (that’s) in the city’s best interest.”
She did add, however, that she “would like to see some kind of progress” on the property before the third extension runs out.
“I would (say) you’ve got five years to do something – that would be a total of 12 years to develop on the property since buying it,” Johnson said. “I think that’s more than fair – and no further extensions after that.”
The council voted to approve a five-year extension for Brown Sugar that evening, and a resolution granting the extension was approved as part of the consent agenda during a regular meeting on March 3.