Sunday, December 16, 2007

$1.2M for NHPR building

I found out earlier this week that the WEVO/NHPR building on North Main Street in Concord is going for $1.2 million, according to a realtor familiar with the property. There have been some nibbles on the property, but nothing solid yet.
The property is assessed at $1,218,300, according to the city's online assessment database, so the asking price is slightly below the assessed value [and I'm sure there is some wiggle room on the sale price too, considering the network already has the other property lined up]. NHPR purchased the building in 1990 for $735,000.
A lot of people have been wondering what is taking so long for the transfer to the new facility, which was supposed to happen earlier this year [Even some employees, I hear, are wondering why it is taking so long].
The new facility will have a space large enough to host presidential primary events and debates with a live audience ... but the primary is almost over. It looks like they missed that goal. Let's hope, for their sake and ours, the New Hampshire primary still exists in 2012 so that they can use the room. Although, they can host all kinds of events in the room so it will probably work out fine.
As I said in a previous post, the current property on North Main Street is a great location, although the driveway to the back parking lot is a bit funky. A potential buyer also cannot really put a dollar value on having its front door sign seen by literally thousands of people going through the extremely busy intersection of N. Main, I-393, and Route 3. It would be the most looked at billboard in town [Speaking of billboards, I wonder if you could build one on the roof of the building and charge a fee. That would help a business pay for the mortgage right there]. Also, with so many non-profits in the city and the need for more commercial real estate taxes, one could hope the building would be sold to a for-profit entity, in order to yield more in tax revenue for the city.
Meanwhile, the begging continues. This week I received another letter from the network, a standard holiday mailer which all non-profits do this time of the year, asking for money. Then, on Thursday, an NHPR Extra notice was sent out, again, asking for money, with a couple of programming notes. The postal mailer is probably the fifth or sixth one I have received this year. But I must ask, does anyone else long for the days when the begging for public radio and television was done just a few times a year instead of all the time? It seems like the fundraising never ends. I understand the need for fundraising, I got my start in non-profit/community radio. But the constant mantra of fundraising is a turnoff.
Interestingly, I took a look at the city's database assessment system to see what the building is appraised at but I couldn't find the property listed in either parcel look up or street listing [I went to parcel look up first and when that didn't work, I tried street listing. Nothing came up for Main Street which is a tad odd].

Update: I figured it out. You can't put periods [.] on the end of N. Main St. or North Main St. You must search N MAIN ST in order to get anything. Damn, that was a good waste of 15 minutes.

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