Schoharie County has a new roadmap to sell the former Guilford Mills factory in Cobleskill.
Supervisors Friday morning agreed to list the 465,000-square-foot plant with CBRE of Albany for one year with a likely sale price of $3,000,000.
After a deadline passed last month without a long-awaited closing with Butternuts Beer and Ale, supervisors agreed to put the property back on the market and put county Treasurer Bill Cherry in charge of the sale effort.
Mr. Cherry told supervisors Friday that it is much more likely that portions of the massive building will have to be leased before a buyer will be found.
The building had been without a full-time tenant since Guilford Mills moved in late 2001.
Most companies are in the market for a much smaller building for a factory, Mr. Cherry said.
"It's no accident that it's remained vacant for 12 years. There is simply no market for a 460,000-square-food building."
While he would love to sell the building in "one fell swoop," Mr. Cherry said the chances of that happening right now is about five percent.
"What better way to make a building more attractive to buyers than getting people in there?"
The building, he added, would be much more attractive to buyers with some tenants and would benefit the county until the building is sold.
If portions of the buildings could be leased, in blocks of 25,000-square-feet or more, the tenants would be paying a lease to the county, taxes on the section leased as well as creating jobs, Mr. Cherry added.
Realtors suggested leasing the factory at a rate slightly below the average rate in the region, possibly at $2 to $2.50 per square foot per year. The tenant would be responsible for utilities.
"We will absolutely be successful breaking it up into more manageable pieces," Mr. Cherry added.
Companies in the Capital Region will be interested in the building if the leases are priced right, Mr. Cherry added.
"We have to be less expensive. We have to be competitive so people come here."
The plant, he added, lends itself easily to being subdivided into units that can be leased.
There may be some county expense for the building, but Mr. Cherry noted that the plant "is solid, not some falling down old factory."
He does not want the county to be a landlord in the long run, but a factory with tenants will eventually lead to a significantly higher sale price.
CBRE suggested that the county hire an electrician/engineer to better understand the cost and complexity of re-electrifying the building.
An electric substation had been scrapped by a previous owner.
Mr. Cherry has shown the building to interested buyers three or four times since being asked by supervisors to take over the sale effort. One of those interested were from the pharmaceutical firm in Blenheim.
Not all supervisors were in favor of the plan.
Dan Singletary of Jefferson, who voted against listing the property with CBRE, said he would have liked to have had more than one choice. He noted all the complaints voiced about the last realtor that tried to market the factory.
Mr. Cherry informed the board that he evaluated several realtors before recommending CBRE.
CBRE is an international company with a much broader perspective, Mr. Cherry explained.
The company's commission would be five percent on a sale price of $3 million.