The city of Burlington is delaying the potential sale of its soon-to-be former police station for a couple weeks at the request of the buyer.
Trinity Hospitality Group owns a hotel in Burlington along Kirkwood Street. City Manager Jim Ferneau said the company is interested in developing a boutique hotel downtown, so it is in the process of acquiring the police station and the adjacent building.
“[Trinity] looked at the adjacent building as one it could rehab,” said Ferneau. “The cost of rehab for the police building was high enough, it would not be beneficial to them. So to make it work, they are looking to demolish the structure, rehab the adjacent building, and build a new addition where the police station currently stands that would work with the adjacent building.”
Ferneau said Trinity does not want to take over the police station until it is ready to acquire the adjacent building, so the purchase agreement with the city has been pushed back until the city council’s first meeting in February.
The terms of the agreement require Trinity to pay $1 to the city for the police station. In exchange, Trinity would have to demolish the building within six months of the police department moving into its new downtown location. Trinity will also be required to invest at least $3 million within two years of that date.
“If those milestones are not hit, the property would revert back to the city,” said Ferneau. “That is to make sure we don’t end up with a facility that is in bad shape that is sitting there and allowed to further deteriorate.”
The city purchased a former downtown bank to serve as the new police station. The city expects to finish renovating the building by May.
