At their regular meeting Monday night, the Port Huron city Council approved listing the Municipal Office Center, or the MOC building, for sale. The building will be listed for $5 million with Kramer Realty on October 1st.
Port Huron Mayor Pauline Repp said the city has been considering listing the building for awhile, and the timing seems advantageous to pursue sale of the property now. They hope to see something move to the site that would be an economic driver for the city.
“When it was [built] it was the right thing to do because we got all kinds of money. The site down there was pretty much industrial, and we got a lot of federal funds in order to fix up that property and put the building up. So, it wasn’t a big cost to the taxpayers when that went up,” said Repp.
Repp also said the purchaser of the building would have to submit a development plan before the sale was approved. “We will not allow anyone to purchase it and just hold on to it,” she said.
The only thing for sale is the building and the parking lots. The City will keep ownership of Keifer Park, and the public will still have access to the waterfront.
At this time, there is no plan for relocating the city’s employees or tenants when the building sells. Current tenants include Michigan Works! and other State of Michigan offices, Port Huron Police Department, and the St. Clair County EDA. In August, The EDA announced plans to build its own building at Desmond Landing near the Blue Water YMCA.
Repp said the Council also issued certificates to DTE Energy and the city’s police, fire, and forestry departments at the meeting. They commended them for everything they did to assist residents and deal with the aftermath of last week’s storms.
Reporting for WGRT – Jessie Wiegand
