The city of Arnold has purchased a triangle-shaped lot next to Jeffco Boulevard that has been deemed unfit for commercial use.
Arnold City Council members recently agreed to pay MS Transport, a St. Louis-based trucking company, $120,000 to purchase the 0.21-acre property at 1105 Jeffco Blvd.
The property was last used for a Custom Cellular store, which closed in November 2015, and it also had once been home to an AT&T store, city officials said.
City Administrator Bryan Richison said Arnold agreed to buy the property after Merim Sibic, the owner of MS Transport, approached officials in August with plans to use the building for his business.
“Unfortunately, it was a problem property,” Richison said. “Over the years, previous owners had sold off pieces of it to (the Missouri Department of Transportation) for the expansion of Jeffco. The remaining lot was no longer compliant with city codes, particularly parking and the setbacks.”
The city codes require a business to have a minimum amount of parking spaces, and the way the lot is configured, Community Development Director David Bookless said it likely would be impossible to have enough available parking on the lot for any business. The city also requires buildings on corner lots to be at least 36 feet away from the road, which is no longer possible on the lot.
Richison said city officials recommended the council approve the purchase to avoid a potential lawsuit.
He said even though the city had not recently changed its rules about how many parking spaces a business must have and how far back a building must be from a roadway, Arnold officials felt Sibic’s argument about not being able to use his property would gain a jury’s sympathy if the case went to trial.
“Our concern was we were going to have to admit that basically no business could operate there because of the parking requirements,” Richison said. “We were concerned a jury would be very sympathetic to the property owner and not to us. In an effort to avoid litigation that we were not sure we would win, given the facts, we felt the purchase was a way to avoid that.”
Richison said the price was negotiated with Sibic, who paid $100,000 to buy the property from Kars4Kids, a nonprofit organization that uses proceeds from donated cars to help children in need. Also, Sibic had invested about $20,000 to determine what he would need to do to open his business at the location.
Richison said Kars4Kids had the building appraised, and it was valued at $370,000.
However, Richison said the building is not worth as much as the appraised value, and the city plans to tear it down.
“We need to first figure out how that will work because the back wall of the building is also a retaining wall,” he said. “We have to make sure we don’t cause any problems when we take it down.”
Richison said the city does not have immediate plans for the property, but he said Arnold may be able to use it to spur redevelopment in that area along Jeffco south of the QuikTrip gas station and in front of the part of the Water Tower retail complex that houses the Schnucks grocery store.
“In the long term, this may serve as an anchor and we could get another piece or two so it would be less property a developer would have to get,” Richison said. “Maybe this could be a foothold that we could use to spur redevelopment up there. That is indefinite and very long term.”
City Council members voted unanimously Oct. 7 to buy the property, and the contract was finalized Dec. 7, according to city records.