Land deal is on hold

COEUR d’ALENE — The city and owners of the former Atlas Mill site will decide Wednesday on the fate of $100,000 of earnest money the city anted up to buy the 47-acre property along Seltice Way and the Spokane River.

The fate of that 100 grand hinges on whether Bad Axe wants to keep doing business with the city.

If the property owners agree to postpone the closing date of the $8 million riverfront land deal until next spring, the $100,000 will go toward the purchase price of the property that lies adjacent to Riverstone.

In the event Bad Axe pulls the plug on the land deal, that chunk of change goes back to city coffers.

“We kind of kicked the can down the road,” city attorney Mike Gridley said.

The City Council was supposed to decide last Friday to either buy the former mill site and close the deal by December, or opt out. Instead, it asked Bad Axe for more time, which resulted in an additional delay.

Bad Axe LLC said it would decide by Wednesday whether to accept the city’s request to postpone the closing date.

“She just wanted time to review it with her real estate attorney,” said Realtor Mike Gregg, who represents the seller. “By this Wednesday we should have some clear direction.”

The domino-effect of delays bumped an annexation hearing, originally set for tonight’s council meeting, into next month. If the land deal isn’t derailed, the City Council will revisit annexation then, Gridley said.

Neither the city nor the seller’s agent see the deal going south.

“I think we’ll be good to go,” Gregg said.

The city of Coeur d’Alene and business partner ignite cda announced last spring their intention to buy the former mill site near the intersection of Atlas Road and Seltice Way in an effort to develop the land for residential and commercial use, and to provide more than a half mile of public access to the Spokane River.

Testing of the brownfield by the Department of Environment Quality has so far showed mostly wood fill at the site, but the results of further chemical tests won’t be completed for another four months.

If the owner agrees to close next spring, the city may ask taxpayers to approve a bond to buy the land, since ignite cda at last week’s public meeting told the City Council it could not commit to fronting $8 million for the land purchase. Ignite had expected to recoup the $8 million over a few years, but further analysis showed it could take twice as long.