How Much Are They Worth?

When the single bid on the police and court building came in $1.5 million over budget, the discussion turned to finding other sources of money to pay for the project if it happened that an item by item analysis of the bid and value engineering failed to bring the cost down to what had been budgeted. It was then that, for the first time, the potential income from the sale of the two buildings in the 400 block of Warren Street, where the police department and city court are now located, was mentioned.

Council president Don Moore speculated that the two buildings might sell for more than $1 million. The City ordered appraisals on the buildings, which were received last week. According to those appraisals, 427 Warren Street, the one-story 1950s police station that sits on what was originally the site of three buildings, is worth $300,000, and 429 Warren Street, the 19th-century three-story town house where the office of the city court clerk and the code enforcement office are located, is worth $350,000.

It's interesting to compare those appraisals with what some buildings on the same block of Warren Street have sold for in the past couple of years.

422 Warren Street sold for $515,000 in October 2013.

446 Warren Street sold for $585,000 in June 2013.

433 Warren Street sold for $1.2 million in October 2014.

444 Warren Street sold for $610,000 in June 2013.

424 Warren Street sold for $380,000 in August 2014.

431 Warren Street sold for $571,000 in January 2014.

445-447 Warren Street sold for $950,000 in December 2014.

405 Warren Street, which the City seized for nonpayment of property taxes and sold at auction, went for $450,000 in July 2014.

And a block away in the 300 block of Warren Street . . . 

330-336 Warren Street--a one-story building constructed in the late 1960s, a 19th-century town house, and the two vacant lots in between--sold for $1.7 million in September 2014.

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