State-owned office building could be sold

Published: Thursday, 5/29/2014 - Updated: 1 minute ago

BY TOM TROY AND IGNAZIO MESSINA BLADE STAFF WRITERS

Toledos Michael V. DiSalle Government Center, the high-rise building that houses city, county, and state offices, is being offered for sale to the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority as one possible solution to a dispute about the cost of rent.

Port authority board members confirmed on Wednesday that they have been approached by the state government about acquiring the 22-story structure on Jackson Street between Erie and Huron streets.

The price could be as little as $1, but would saddle local officials with the $4 million annual operating expense, plus the cost of catching up with possible deferred maintenance.

Weve simply been approached just preliminarily about looking at the possibilities, said Nadeem Salem, chairman of the port authority board of trustees. We will evaluate to see if this is something really good for the port authority, for the community, if its something worthwhile. We dont know really the extent of what the buildings going to need.

Board member William Carroll said the buildings maintenance issues could include paint and improvements to the heating and air conditioning system.

I know theres a lot of deferred maintenance; I worked there, Mr. Carroll said, referring to his tenure as director of development under former Mayor Jack Ford.

Double the rent

The city was notified in March that the state Department of Administrative Services, which manages the building, intended to double the rent, from $6 per square foot to $13.01. The citys 172,000 square feet would cost more than $2.2 million annually. The rent hike outraged Toledo officials who said theyve already lost more than $17.2 million to cutbacks in state funds since 2011.

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State-owned office building could be sold