If you want to bid on one of the 12 houses the City of Platteville is selling by Request for Proposal, and your bid is at least the minimum, your chances of winning the bid may be quite good.
With one day remaining until the Thursday 3 p.m. deadline on the RFP, the City of Platteville has not received one bid on any of the houses won in court from Darrel Kallembach, according to City Manager Larry Bierke.
"I'm confident we'll get bids," he said Tuesday morning.
The city’s Request for Proposal is available at http://216.56.16.162:808/RFP/Property%20Sale%20and%20Development%20Request%20for%20Proposal.pdf.
All of the houses are in R-2 or R-3 Residential zoning. The assessed value of the houses range from $49,800 at 185 Center St. to $104,200 at 260 S. Chestnut St. The RFP includes minimum prices for each house, ranging from $13,000 for Center Street to $30,000 for 1536 County B, which was recently annexed from the Town of Platteville into the city.
The RFP says the city seeks “qualified bidders who will remodel and improve the structures, as well as improve the exterior appearance of the properties. Alternatively, the bidders could remove the structures and construct new housing on the properties that is attractive and compatible with the surrounding neighborhoods.”
Bidders are required to complete work on the properties within 12 months of purchase, unless the owner plans “significant remodeling” or the house is being removed and replaced with a new buildings. Nonprofit purchasers are required to transfer the property to a taxpaying owner by Jan. 1, 2016.
The RFP document assesses points based on three criteria besides the bid — the plans for the property, home design, and the “bidder capacity and experience.” The document states that bids below minimum will be considered only “if the proposal provides some additional benefit to the community, such as the creation of affordable, owner-occupied housing, or the project adds a significant increase in value” upon completion.
The RFP states that bidders “should have a proven track record in housing development, redevelopment and/or rehabilitation.” In addition to “affordable, owner-occupied, single-family housing,” bonus points will be awarded for “a comprehensive redevelopment strategy for multiple building sites” and “significant ‘green’ building techniques and/or EnergyStar construction.”
The RFP states that the city may require a development agreement with successful bidders. The document states that the city “will honor confidentiality requests to the extent possible.”
Kallembach owned 19 houses, including the 12 houses in the RFP, as rentals before the city used more than $300,000 in fines assessed against Kallembach to purchase the houses in a sheriff’s sale.
The city used $288,341.96 of the $366,765.38 of fines and interest on Kallembach’s 19 properties in successfully bidding on 15 of them in the January 2013 sheriff’s sale. The $366,765.38 in fines and interest came from more than 100 citations Kallembach was issued for violations of city ordinances between 2008 and 2010.
Two bidding groups outbid the city on four of the houses, and three of the houses aren’t being sold by the city.
