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Altoona taxpayers have nothing to be upset about regarding the city's decision to pay the former owner of the McCrory's building on 11th Avenue $112,000 in connection with the eminent domain proceedings that allowed the city to assume ownership.
The $112,000 figure represents a good investment, despite the fact that it is $22,000 more than the building's value figure set by an appraisal commissioned by the city.
An appraisal commissioned by the former owners had set the value at $134,000.
It is true that some city residents will continue harboring the opinion that not a dollar of municipal revenue should have had to be expended for the structure, because of the building's status as a blight on the otherwise uplifting downtown redevelopment initiatives.
However, the expenditure holds the prospects of being a source of tax revenue eventually that will dwarf the amount currently outgoing.
That bolsters the opinion that $112,000 will be money well spent.
As an article in Tuesday's Mirror reported, city council Monday passed an ordinance transferring the McCrory's property to the Altoona Redevelopment Authority, which has contracted with a consultant to write a request for qualifications and proposals connected to obtaining a developer.
Presumably, the process of bringing forth a developer will include stipulations and timetables tied to the actual start and continuation of work on the now-deteriorated building.
No "window" must be allowed for procrastination, or a developer otherwise not living up to responsibilities outlined in what will be the eventual redevelopment agreement.
The authority has the knowledge, skill and dedicated intent to ensure that all works according to plans.
A look back at the effort that brought about the compensation agreement with the building's former owners reveals that what has transpired eliminated considerable costly work for the city and those representing it.
The settlement allowed the city and former owners to avoid going before a board of review that would have collected testimony, listened to expert opinions, then prepared a recommendation on fair market value for the property.
Depending on the outcome of that proceeding, either side could have ended up on the "short end" of that recommendation, compared with what the existing agreement provides.
Praiseworthy is the disclosure by Tom Finn, city solicitor, that the negotiations leading to the agreed-upon price were as "amicable as they could be."
The agreement was an example of the acceptance with which labor negotiations should be conducted -- the acceptance that neither side should come away totally happy with the contract hammered out.
When both sides agree to reasonable give-and-take as a follow-up to initial demands, both sides can be construed as having won over the long term.
For the city, the settlement closes one chapter while opening new chapters in the downtown redevelopment saga. No doubt, few people living
through the decades after the downtown's decline envisioned a time when it could once again be a very vibrant entity.
It has taken years and persistence, but Downtown Altoona neither is dead nor on the verge of a "death certificate." Hopefully, in the not-too-distant future, the McCrory's building will be part of the "cadre" proclaiming that message and much more positive ones.