By By MIKE VOSS
mike@wdnweb.com
Contributing Editor
Washington’s City Council, during its meeting Monday, approved a lease with Impressions Marketing Group for the city-owned property that the company occupies (the former Hamilton Beach site on Springs Road). Impressions has been leasing that property from the city since 2006.
“We’ve been working on this for quite some time,” Mayor Archie Jennings said, drawing laughter from council members and others at the meeting.
The lease had been a recurring item on many council agendas for several years. There was a reason for the delay in the city and Impressions coming to terms with the new lease.
“The major focus of the lease negotiations has been to address the maintenance of the facility,” wrote Matt Rauschenbach, the city’s chief financial officer and assistant city manager, in a memorandum he sent to the council and mayor early last month. “City Staff and Counsel have met with Impressions on numerous occasions and are close to an agreement of which a draft is attached. A general contractor evaluated the building condition, identified the areas in most need of immediate repair, and provided cost estimates outlined below. Work will be bid out per N.C. General Statute requirements and costs finalized. The City will fund the improvements and recoup through an increase in rent … over a five year period.”
The lease is for five years, with an option for Impressions to renew for two additional years. There’s also a provision for Impressions to extend that extension for two years.
Impressions will pay a base rent at the rate of $392,736 annually. It also will pay additional rent at the rate of $176,731 annually under terms of Exhibit A (improvements to the leased premises), which is part of the lease document. The total annual rent comes to $569,467.
The agreement requires the city to obtain financing in the amount of $769,566 for building-improvement projects. If the city is unable to secure that financing, its obligations for improvements to the property are as follows:
• Up to $457,430 for roof replacement/repair;
• Up to $26,061 for an interior fire-protection system;
• Up to $82,800 for an exterior fire-protection system;
• Up to $100,000 for other repairs.
“That final amount won’t be determined until the final costs are determined,” Rauschenbach told the council Monday.
In August 2008, the Washington Daily News reported that a memorandum from the city manager to the council and then-Mayor Judy Meier Jennette stated that negotiations had “essentially been completed” with the Beaufort County Committee of 100, Impressions and Hamilton Beach regarding the sale of the building to the Committee of 100, leasing the building to Impressions Marketing Group and continuing environmental-contamination responsibilities on the part of Hamilton Beach.
That proposal has not been realized.