After a deadline extension, the historic A.J. Tucker building that went up for bid in March and is set to be moved finally has some potential buyers.
“We extended the deadline because we did have some interested parties and we wanted to make sure they had the time they needed to fully explore the opportunity,” Deschutes County Facilities Director, Lee Randall said.
Deschutes County, the current owner of the landmark since the 1960’s, put it up for sale to make room for the Deschutes County Courthouse expansion. Anyone who buys it must deconstruct the building and relocate it somewhere else.
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“I think the primary challenge in selling is the relocation requirement. We are taking this first step to meet the requirements for the City of Bend Planning Code to be able to re-purpose the building. Any entity that were to come forward and provide a sealed bid for the project would need to also have a plan to relocate it,” Randall said.
Those who have shown interest in buying the building have not yet brought forward an official bid.
“If we receive a sealed bid offer, then we’ll work with those parties to create a contract and to move forward with the sale,” Randall said.
If no one from the community brings a bid, the county says there are other options for deconstructing the building.
The current deadline for bids is Thursday.
