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Ford Park
After nearly two years of negotiating and renegotiating a deal to sell Ford Park, one which never materialized, Jefferson County commissioners are set to consider a motion to “formally cancel the contract” for sale of the property.
The Jefferson County Commissioners Court is set to, “consider and possibly approve action by the Commissioners Court to formally cancel the contract for sale of Ford Park for default by purchase,” according to an agenda item for its March 29 meeting.
Previous reporting by The Examiner revealed that attempted buyer Renaissance Development Group failed to provide promised funding to purchase the park on numerous occasions.
From a March 10 report by Managing Editor Jennifer Johnson:
Yet another deadline has come and gone – the last, according to Jefferson County Attorney Kathleen Kennedy – in the long lingering contract sale of the county-owned Ford Park Entertainment Complex. Buyer Renaissance Development Group, led by front man Kevin Johnson, bid $22.2 million to secure the $43 million property in 2020, but, to date, only put up $440,000 in earnest money toward the purchase price.
Despite multiple deadlines placed on the buyer since the March 2021 deadline to pay, Johnson et al’s failure to fork up another $560,000 in earnest money by Friday, March 4, of this year, sealed the deal’s doom.
During a meeting of Commissioners Court held in advance of the March 4 drop-dead deadline, Jefferson County Commissioners and County Judge Jeff Branick voted to cut off further negotiations without revisiting the topic again should Johnson not come through as he had assured time and time again.
“If they don’t come up with the money, the deal is off,” Branick said in the days leading up to March 4. Also, according to County Auditor Patrick Swain, the $440,000 already produced as earnest money on the Ford Park sale will forfeit to the county.
Read the full story here.