No Action Taken on Sale of 1 W. State Street Property

No action was taken on the at the Council meeting Thursday night because another potential buyer has approached the council.

The council announced the public notice for the sale of the former restaurant to Bluestone Developers at its March meeting and after a legal obligation of a 30-day waiting period in order to hear public comment on the issue, they would vote on the proposal.

The 30 day period is a minimum waiting period, not a maximum.

The potential sale with Bluestone Developers is for $650,000, with a $10,000 deposit at the agreement of sale and another $20,000 within 90 days, the public notice states.

The council is currently discussing a second proposal of sale and is not releasing details on that proposal at this time. The council is still accepting offers for the sale of the property.

Borough Manager Jeffery Smith said if the council decides to consider the second proposal as well, the process will begin again, allowing the public at least 30 days for comment.

However, if the council decides to stay with the first proposal from Blue Stone Developers and not consider the second proposal than they could vote on the sale at May’s council meeting, Smith said.

The council and public heard a short presentation Thursday from Heritage Design Collaborative, which is the firm leading the architecture design for Blue Stone Developers, on their vision for the property if the borough should enter into an agreement with them.

Richard Ortega, of Heritage Design Collaborative and former Media resident, said in their opinion the building does qualify as a historic building of local importance and his company specializes in historic preservation.

The building was originally a post office and also the former borough hall.

He said the property does need a "significant amount of work" on the exterior and interior.

"Our vision is to restore it to its historic appearance as close as we can," Ortega said. "There are some changes but for the most part we intend to restore it to its historic grace."

Some of Ortega’s visions included, restoring the interior courtyard or atrium as close as possible to make it feasible for retail space. The original marble flooring and baseboards are still there and Ortega would like to restore those and some original wood finishings would also be restored, he said.

"It’s still there just waiting to be renovated," he said. "It’s our intention to take that and make it a public space for retail use but to revive the original appearance."

Ortega said they would like to create retail space that would be entered through the center atrium and have office space that would be entered from the rear of the building on Jasper Street.

"We think the State Street entrance should be reserved for the retail spaces," he said.

The upper floor is still under consideration and is flexible as to what to create there but office space is currently an option since an elevator is not currently in the plans and it will not likely be ADA compliant, Ortega said.

Borough Council President Peter Alyanakian said the council could not give many details on the offers since they did not take official action on the property at the meeting.