This summer, an interested buyer – Greensboro Batting Center Inc.– offered Guilford County $100,000 for the former Monticello Community Center’s land and structures.
At a Board of Commissioners meeting earlier this month, county commissioners expressed their opinion that staff hadn’t publicized the sale enough to really have the opportunity for upset bids. After the Rhino Times ran a story about the property ready to be sold to the Batting Center, commissioners and staff got calls from interested buyers.
Now the county has received an upset offer in the amount of $106,100 to purchase the property at 5009 NC Highway 150 East, now owned by Guilford County.
But that new buyer at the higher price is also subject to upset bids.
According to information sent out by the county this week. “Any person may submit a sealed upset bid to the Clerk to Board located at 301 West Market Street, 2nd Floor, Greensboro, NC by 5:00 p.m. on October 10, 2022. A form recommended for use is available …. The bids will be opened the following day, October 11, 2022, at 9:00 a.m. and the highest such qualifying bid will become the new offer. If there is more than one qualifying bid in the highest amount, the first such bid will become the new offer.”
To qualify, a bid must meet all of the following conditions: It must (1) be at least $111,455 (2) contain terms and conditions that are at least equivalent to the terms and conditions of the current offer when it comes to benefits to the county, and (3) be accompanied by a deposit equal to five percent of the amount of the new offer.
If a qualifying upset bid is received, the new offer will be advertised and the process will be continued until a 10-day period has passed without the county getting another higher qualifying upset bid.
Inquiries regarding the purchase of the property should be directed to Guilford County Real Estate Project Manager Richard Mosher at 336-641-3778 or rmosher@guilfordcountync.gov.
The property up for sale is just over 6.5 acres and it includes a gym, a baseball field and a gravel parking lot. County staff told the commissioners at the board’s Thursday, Sept. 1 meeting that the gym needed a lot of work and the county really didn’t have a good use for the former community center. County staff have conducted a “best use analysis” of the property and found that, given the Guilford County Parks Department’s current needs, it doesn’t make sense for the county to spend the money to fix up the gym, bring it up to code and offer it for public use.
No one has rented the site in over a year and Guilford County is currently spending about $12,000 a year to keep it mowed and trimmed.
$1,000 a month to mow the grass, what little there is, and to pick up trash?
I am in the wrong business.
It is sad that this site with so much history was allowed to deteriorate by the school system so it really isn’t worth $100,000 to anyone. The place is known to anyone who has lived in this area for years but anyone buying it now will just raze the building and the historical meaning will be lost. I’m sorry a group of people in our area can’t buy it to save. The fact that the school system consistently refuses to keep buildings repaired and working until they are falling down so they must go in “fire sales” is the reason I will never vote “yes” on any school bond issue.
Right on!