Bismarck, N.D. – An analysis of city financial data regarding the sale of the “Public Health Building” at 500 East Front Avenue shows that when all city capital investments from the Tax Increment Finance (TIF) district fund and City Liability Fund are included, the city will realize a capital investment loss of nearly $1 million if the University of Mary exercises its $2 million purchase option approved by the City Commission in October 2015.
A review of over 230 pages of documents procured via Open Records Request shows that the property was valued at over $2.2 million dollars prior to the city’s purchase of the property in 2003 for $1.85 million.
The issue came to light well after the agreement had been made due to unnamed sources voicing their concerns with city commission candidate Nolan Canright, who subsequently asked the North Dakota Watchdog Network to dig into the issue.
Press reports from the Bismarck Tribune in 2003 had reported the original purchase at $1.85 million, which may have been a bargain as private assessors had valued the building at $2.2 million prior to the original purchase and renovation.
City documents prior to the most recent Open Records Request had shown a $1.1 million investment in 2006 from the city’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district fund. Further city documents now show an additional $400,000 General Fund transfer as well as a $250,000 Sales Tax transfer to complete the work.
It now appears that the City of Bismarck has invested at least $3.6 million from various funding sources including acquisition and improvements.
A review of the audio from the October 13th, 2015 shows there was no real concern for how much the city had into the property or whether the city needed to follow an open-bid process. Commissioners and city staff are heard discussing their power to take the action under the guise of “economic development”, thus believing that would shield them from legal the repercussions of approving a no-bid at-loss sales of city property.
In the year 2000,an Attorney Generals’ opinion was issued regarding the ability of a school district to sell property below market value to a non-profit entity. Then Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp ruled that below-market value sales of real property were only permissible between governmental entities, not between a government entity and a non-profit entity.
https://www.ag.nd.gov/Opinions/2000/Letter/00Krau01.pdf
Lack of Valuation and Assessment
While the building was appraised in 2003 for $2.2 million prior to the city’s purchase, a comprehensive appraisal was not made to the building prior to entering the option agreement with the University of Mary.
Using an analysis of city-wide and TIF District Valuation increases since 2003 we can project with accuracy what the value of the property would be if it is considered to be an “average” property in Bismarck.
Below is a three scenario estimate on the market value of the building.
We looked at the historical property valuation growth rate of the city as a whole as well as the value in the TIF District. For each year we used the LOWER average valuation increase between those two set of numbers.
Then we looked at the investment the city has made into the building and developed a range of values based on whether 100%, 50%, or 0% of the renovation investment actually added value to the purchase price.
