New Fellowship Baptist Church has submitted a bid of $3,000 to purchase a city-owned property at 1100 S. Cherry St., which is currently a vacant lot and was formerly the site of Davis Hospital.
Aldermen Charles Boyd and Lloyd Holcomb Jr. learned about the offer Tuesday at a Pine Bluff City Council Development and Planning Committee meeting. Boyd and Holcomb tabled the item to gather more information including whether the sale would comply with laws governing the public use of that property.
The third member of the committee, Alderman Glen Brown Jr., was not at the meeting.
Boyd said he considers the property a prime location.
Pine Bluff Chief Zoning Inspector Mitzi Ruth said the city owns hundreds of properties they don’t need and is selling them.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“The city reserves the right to sell or keep any property,” Ruth said. “This is a brand-new process we implemented this year to get rid of excessive city-owned properties and get them back on the tax base.”
Ruth said city officials consider the value of a property and whether the city may want to use it in the future.
“We do not want to give it away but we do not want to charge too much,” Ruth said. “We are at a spot where the aldermen are seeing if the city wants to sell (this property and what is the monetary value).”
“We have always entertained the thought of selling properties but we had never reached out to the public in this way,” Ruth said. “The website gives you a better idea with the size of the lot and a picture of the lot. Most people who are buying city properties own land next door. They are expanding. That is the whole idea.”
Boyd and Holcomb said they expect to discuss the matter in January at their next development and planning committee meeting. Pine Bluff Mayor Debe Hollingsworth said she agreed with Boyd and Holcomb on tabling the item to gather more information.
Ruth provided a copy of a 2009 resolution showing that Jefferson Regional Hospital Association gave $300,000 to the city to remove the Davis Hospital and Nursing Home buildings at 1100 S. Cherry St.
Pine Bluff Assistant City Attorney Joe Childers wrote a letter to Jefferson Hospital Association President and CEO Walter Johnson to ask about a provision in the association’s irrevocable gift of $300,000. Childers stated that a private party had requested buying the property for development with the money to be used for public purposes.
In the letter, Childers asked Johnson if the hospital association would object to the city selling the property or whether it agrees that “converting this asset from real estate to cash for public use is consistent with the intent of the irrevocable gift.”
Johnson responded that “converting the asset from real estate to cash for public use is consistent with the intent of the irrevocable gift.”
The list of available city properties can be viewed at www.cityofpinebluff.com/pbar/pine-bluff-citynet-gis-and-database-systems/