Family Elder Law Building Being Considered for Purchase for Lake Wales Police Department
by James Coulter
The former Family Elder Law building could be utilized by the Lake Wales Police Department located right across the street if the City of Lake Wales considers purchasing it.
At their workshop on Wednesday, Lake Wales City Commissioners considered two items concerning the potential purchase of a private building located across the street from the city police department.
Located at 122 E. Tillman Ave., the building is a 5,148 square-foot single-story concrete block office professional office building, originally built in 1980 with renovations in 2014. It was previously owned by Family Elder Law, which recently and rather suddenly closed its attorney’s law office there.
The first item considered by commissioners was a commercial real estate contract between Jay & Dean Properties Florida, LLC, which currently owns the building, and the City of Lake Wales.
If this contract were approved, the building would be purchased by the city for $775,000, with the city manager executing the necessary documents on the city’s behalf.
The proposed contract, which has been drafted and reviewed by the city attorney, would have not only purchased the building, but also “all furniture, furnishings, and all other personal property located within the building, along with the HVAC systems and electric generator,” James Slaton, City Manager said.
The second item considered by commissioners was a declaration of official intent for reimbursement. As its name suggests, it would have allowed the city to reimburse itself from the proceeds of tax-exempt debt of expenses incurred by the purchase.
As Slaton wrote, the declaration of intent would have assured that the city be reimbursed “in connection with the acquisition of real property and renovation of the existing building thereon for use as a public safety facility and/or other municipal purposes.” It would have also covered, “the expansion of two Fire Stations, and for other capital projects.”
At the workshop, Slaton claimed that the acquisition of the building for the police department was a prime “opportunity” that the city needed “to seize upon,” claiming that it would be of great use to the police department across the street.
“We want to seize the opportunity,” he said. “We have been looking over the different ways these past couple of years to expand our police department. Those guys are busting at the seams. So, this is an opportunity for us.”
Commissioner Carol Gillespie asked what the building would be used for. Slaton answered it would help expand the police department by meeting the immediate need to house police officers.
Gillespie asked if the building would be of use to the department, with it being located directly across the street from it. Slaton claimed that it would work.
Finance Director Dorothy Abbott addressed the intent of reimbursement, claiming the city needed to purchase the property.
“It is our intention to reimburse ourselves from the loan we will get for any costs we have,” she said. “It might take me a month to six weeks to go through the process, yet they intend to obtain this building until we can bring in the funds.”
