THE WARREN SENTINEL

Article Date: March 27, 2003

EDA ups price on initial Avtex rental properties

By:  Roger Bianchini

Despite dissension from one member, the EDA voted to up the price on its initial Avtex business rental properties at its March 21 meeting.

The increase of $2 per square foot on four commercial spaces in the old Administration Building at 404 Kendrick Lane, which are scheduled to become available next month, was made to send a specific message.  That message, as voiced by EDA Director William “Bill” Barnett, is that these are “Class A” office spaces.

“My thought process is that on my rental inquiries, if the price is low people become suspicious of the property.  They think, “What’s wrong?”

“I agree with Bill,” EDA executive Director Stephen Heavener said of Barnett’s observation.  “We need to tell the world it’s a good property.”

That “good” property has cost $1.6 million to cleanup and renovate.  Of that total, $1.1 million came from federal and state grants for asbestos abatement, demolition and rehabilitation at the federal Superfund site.  The EDA borrowed $400,000 to complete the renovation work at the site, which is also on the state and national Historic Register.

Among the features of the circa-1940 building are wood parquet floors and oak fixtures.  But despite the quality of the office space itself, another EDA director disputed the move.  William “Billy” Biggs pointed out that the lower prices had been discussed as an incentive to attract the initial customers into the planned Avtex Business Park. And those first clients would be a landmark achievement in the 13 year reclamation of what was the country’s largest environmental disaster, cleanup project.

Biggs pointed out that despite the “Class A” nature of the Administration building’s office space, the first commercial renters of EDA -owned space at Avtex will be putting up with a less than ideal environment around them.

“It’s a mess out there,” Biggs said of the state of the land around the building in the wake of the contractor’s work at the site.  “ Are you going to shop those “Class A” spaces to people that have to walk through ankle deep mud to get into them?”

“I think we’ve already moved past that,” EDA Director Rick Novak replied of discussion about work at the site.  That exchange led to some tension as Biggs tried to make his point that the lower prices would help get the first businesses costumers on site.

Biggs also later noted that those first clients would be dealing with a “less-than-Class-A” view of years of demolition and construction work out both their front and back, historically restored windows.

The rental price adjustments make by the EDA’s 4-1 vote to raise prices are:

•                     404 A Kendrick Lane, 3,330 s.f. to $4,150.50 from $3,500;

•                     404 B Kendrick Lane, 2,620 s.f. to $3275 from $2,500;

•                     404 C Kendrick Lane, 900 s.f. to $1,125 from $950,

•                     404 E Kendrick Lane, 4,200 s.f. to $5,250 from $4,000