May 3—DANVILLE — Local officials are urging only responsible parties to bid on the upcoming auction of the Village Mall.
"This structure is very important to our community, and it is imperative that it ends up in the right hands," said Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. "We will be taking this very seriously because Danville has made too much forward progress to allow a cornerstone in our community to deteriorate."
The 35-plus-acre property, located at 2917 N. Vermilion St., is being divided into three parcels that will be auctioned off from May 13 to May 15 at . Williams said that the site has been put up for sale by the current property owner, which is the AZT Corporation.
"Two of the three parcels are being sold as an absolute auction with opening bids of just one dollar, meaning they will be sold to the highest bidder no matter how low the price," Danville officials said. "This means that anyone with a dollar or more could gain ownership of a very large, highly important structure in our city. Time and time again, we have seen what happens when these cornerstone buildings in our community end up in the wrong hands."
One of the parcels, listed as a "grocery anchored retail center," will have a starting bid of $1.75 million.
"This part of the offering includes 126,513 square feet spread across four fully occupied units," the listing states. "Tenants at this location include the County Market, Pet Supplies Plus, Ross Stores, and Dunham's Sports."
On the other hand, the approximately 280,000-square-foot "interior corridor shopping mall" and a 1.24-acre outparcel lot are both being sold as absolute auctions. The listing states that the interior mall is currently 24 percent occupied.
The news comes after multiple mall tenants had their leases cut short by AZT Corp. City leaders said in February that they attempted to reach out to the company but were not able to get ahold of them.
Williams said that the company had, at one time, asked if the city would be willing to buy the site. AZT was later unresponsive when the city sought its engagement on a feasibility study of the property's potential uses.
In discussing the upcoming auction, city officials said that Danville invests over $1 million annually toward reducing blight, due to factors such as a reduction in the local population and ongoing issues with "mismanaged residential and commercial properties and a lack of maintenance and preservation efforts from their owners."
Officials pointed to Bresee Tower, the Sears building and the Adams building as examples of this problem.