AUBURN — Councilors on Monday gave a developer interested in taking over the old Auburn police station at 1 Minot Ave. another 30 days to get his business plan together.
Auburn Economic Development Assistant Keith McBride said Building Solutions Inc. of Oxford needed more time to settle some questions about how they would use the space if they take over.
“I don’t even think a decision has been made on if they’ll use the existing building or if they’ll just use the land and build a new structure,” McBride said. “If they use the building, they don’t know yet if they can build additional floors on top, and how many floors determines how many tenants they can have. Those are major decisions.”
Councilors agreed and gave the developer until May 23 to reach a decision.
Councilors first gave the company an option on the building in February, which gave the developer until Monday to investigate the site to see if the plans were feasible.
According to Monday’s decision, the developer can walk away in May and take back a $5,000 option earnest payment. The developer also can decide to pay an additional $5,000 and extend the option agreement another 120 days, or it can close the sale.
Once the developer decided to purchase property, the city and Building Solutions will negotiate a price. The building’s value is currently assessed at $1.3 million.
“This is a very positive step,” McBride said. “The company is very interested, but just needs more time to determine the size and scope of their development.”
Joe Casalinova, president of Oxford-based Building Solutions, said in February that he envisions multiple stories on the site. The first floor would be retail space for a financial institution, possibly a bank or a credit union, he said.
Upper floors would be office space, and Casalinova said he envisions up to four floors on the building with windows overlooking Auburn’s downtown.
Casalinova said he’d like to relocate his company’s headquarters to the building eventually. Company headquarters are at 248 King St. in Oxford.
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