In 2007 a city lawyer offered to buy city hall from the city for $3.3 million and lease it back to the city for just over $20,000 per month. The plan, though it had some advantages for the city, also had sufficient disadvantages that the city rejected the offer. That story, published by
The Whitefish Pilot on September 13, 2007, is reproduced in part below.
At the time the city was considering raising $170,000 to remodel city hall. At present, in 2014, they are in the process of designing a new city hall which will replace the present one. This is causing much unrest in the city, with many citizens adamant about seeing the present city hall not demolished but repurposed instead.
City not yet ready to give up City Hall
By RICHARD HANNERS - Whitefish Pilot
The Whitefish City Council turned down an offer to sell its City Hall facility at their Sept. 4 meeting.
City manager Gary Marks said Billings attorney Clifford Edwards offered the city about $3.3 million for the property. He then offered to lease it back to the city for a little over $20,000 per month.
"That would add up to about a quarter million dollars at the end of the year for something we already own and don't have to pay for, other than utilities," Marks said.
The council agreed it didn't make sense to get the city into that kind of financial arrangement.
Marks pointed out that Edwards' offer indicates just how much the City Hall property is worth — not only money from the sale that can be used for other city projects, but also how much tax revenue can be made once the property goes on the tax rolls.
Edwards is a successful litigator who also owns a first-class bull ranch in north-central Montana. He successfully defended American Bank last year after the Montana Department of Transportation brought a condemnation suit against the bank.
Edwards set up Edwards Jet Center at Glacier Park International Airport in 2001 and added 48,000 square feet of hangar space. About 75 jets refuel there on busy days. He sold the Jet Center to Fortune 500 business mogul William Foley in July.
City attorney John Phelps speculated that Edwards needed a place to put all that money he made selling the Jet Center.
Read on at The Whitefish Pilot