You may remember a piece of property that the City of Sault Ste. Marie wanted to sell off at 903 Base Line Rd., back at the end of September. It may be hard to remember that only two years prior, the City paid more than six times the price for the property.
It was appraised at $22,500 and was to be sold for twice the price thanks to James Caicco’s advice from Century 21 in September.
The City declared it “surplus property owned by the City is in need of disposal.”
The land was the physical element that represented the failure of Elementa Group, another multi-million-dollar investor that sparked the City’s interest, as well as the interest of Steve Butland and Debbie Amaroso and after it was given five extensions by the City, completely failed to deliver.
The City had also paid to provide services for this plot of land, a figure which was never calculated or considered as a cost to the City.
The last court proceedings which were to settle the bankruptcy of Elementa, had well over $2-M owing, and that was just in legal fees.
So the City bought the land back in January 2020 for the price it sold it to Elementa for, $270,000.
When the abutting property owner, Enbridge Gas Distribution wanted to buy the property last September, there wasn’t much of a discussion at the city council.
The property’s estimated value was $22,500, twelve times less than it was purchased for only two years earlier.
The City requested James Caicco, a broker for Century 21 Choice Realty Inc. for his opinion on the property.
Caicco recommended the property sold for $44,500.
Enbridge was prepared to purchase the property for the price recommended by Caicco and it did.