Schuylkill County Commissioners are proposing the purchase of a commercial property in the Jalappa section of Pottsville for a price of $375,000.
According to the Agenda for the June 21 Commissioners Work Session meeting, the property they want to acquire is 306 Prospect St., the long-time site of Pottsville Moving & Storage.
The Republican Herald newspaper reports the County wants the property for storage. It’s currently leasing a property on Bulls Head Rd. for that purpose.
Officially, the Commissioners would first approve to “enter into a sales agreement” for the purchase of the property. Sale of the property, per the meeting Agenda, “is contingent upon an appraisal of equal or higher than the purchase price and a clean Phase 1 environmental assessment.”
There is no call for a motion on this matter listed on the Commissioners Work Session Agenda on Wednesday.
Since it’s on the Agenda, you can be sure the Commissioners will move forward with this purchase, assuming it meets all the criteria listed on the Agenda for Wednesday.
Another Commercial Property Grab By the County Government
If this deal goes through, it’ll mark the first time since 2020 — when the Commissioners wanted to purchase the former downtown GIANT grocery store for unknown purposes at the time — that they’d be trying to purchase a valuable Pottsville property that had been used for a private business.
That deal for the grocery store fell through after some intense public backlash — backlash that even came from local elected officials at the state level. Eventually, the grocery store found a buyer in Alvernia University, which now runs its Pottsville CollegeTowne on the site.
It seems our local government officials can’t help themselves when it comes to removing commercial properties off the tax roll. And they don’t wait long before making these land grabs.
Remember back in 2020, the Commissioners admitted they were eyeing up that grocery store in Pottsville before the last bag of carrots was sold there.
It’s also interesting to note that the County is looking to purchase a property for storage when it already owns the former STS headquarters in the St. Clair Industrial Park.
However, there are rumblings that that property could eventually be used to house the County government’s fever dream of a pre-release prison center.
According to this listing information at crexi.com, the Pottsville Moving & Storage building is a massive 25,000-square feet of warehouse and storage space with a 400 square-foot office space. There are 3 levels in the 18,000 square-foot main building.
The listing agent on the property is Eric Seitzinger.
$375K Now … How Much Later?
Based on the photos on that listing page for this property, the County may want the property for $375,000 but it’s likely to spend at least that much more in updating it for its needs
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