City to buy former AMPI property
If all goes well, the dormant AMPI building in north Hillsboro will soon be owned by the city.
At a special City Council meeting last Thursday, July 25, council members voted to allow city attorney Dan Baldwin to draw up a contract that would purchase the Associated Milk Producers International building on north Ash Street.
The purchase would include the building, the surrounding lot, and the private sewer and gas lines on the property, said City Administrator Steve Garrett.
The contract includes several contingencies, or "loopholes," to ensure that the sale only goes through if the building and land are free of health hazards.
That would include possible asbestos, sewage problems, or gas line problems, Garrett said.
Garrett said that he didn't know when the sale would be complete.
"The ball is in their court," he said.
Garrett declined to discuss any specific uses the city might have for the property, but he did say that he was more interested in developing the lot area, not just the building.
"I immediately see potential uses in the lot," Garrett said. Many of the council members see uses for the building.
Purchasing the old AMPI has always been something the city has considered, he said.
"It's been discussed since before I got here," Garrett said.
Mayor Delores Dalke, who is representing the city's interests in the transaction, didn't want to reveal the cost of the 30-acre property until the deal was complete.
"It's at a very reasonable price," Dalke said.
Dalke had been trying to find a buyer, through her real estate business, for the property since the dairy plant closed in 1998.
Finally, the company, now officially known as Dairy Farmers of America, asked Dalke if the city would be interested in buying it.
"They approached me," Dalke said.
The dairy business had been known by several names during its tenure in Hillsboro. It was eventually called Associated Milk Producers in the mid-1990s, until it merged with DFA in '98. That's when the plant closed.
The city has no official plans for possible uses of the property, but Dalke said the city would be open to negotiating with a company who might want to relocate there.
If no one is interested, she said, the city will form a committee to study possible uses of the area.
But nothing's certain — the city wants to wait and make sure that any concerns about health hazards and other problems are cleared up before the deal is closed.
"We don't want the city to buy a problem," Dalke said.
