Wasilla council favors selling Meta Rose Square

WASILLA — The city needs to be out of the property management business and should sell the downtown Meta Rose Square.

That was the consensus of Wasilla City Council Monday when Councilman Brandon Wall proposed selling the building, which the city originally agreed to purchase in late 2009 in hopes it could become a new home for the Wasilla Public Library.

“When the council originally decided to purchase Meta Rose Square, I was not on the council, but I really liked the idea that we were using a landmark of the city for a municipal purpose,” Wall said. More than three years later, “We’re not using it as a library, and we’re obviously moving down a path (to build a new library), and it’s my opinion the city probably shouldn’t be in the business of property management.”

Wall’s sentiment was echoed by other council members, including Dianne Woodruff, who was on the council that voted to purchase Meta Rose Square.

The city paid nearly $1.5 million for the property, which was appraised at about $2 million, mayor Vern Rupright said. Wasilla bought Meta Rose Square for about $500,000 less than its appraised value with the stipulation that “Meta Rose” be included with the name of the city’s municipal library, now called the Wasilla Meta Rose Library, whether the library was located in Meta Rose or not.

Now with the city moving forward on securing funding to build a new 23,500-square-foot library on property at the intersection of Crusey and Swanson streets, Woodruff said Monday that buying Meta Rose Square was a mistake.

“I have regretted very few votes, but that one I regret the most,” she said. “I think it was a mistake to buy it and I wish I had not voted to do so.”

At the time, Woodruff said she also thought parts of the shopping center could be used for other public purposes, like hosting Youth Court in the basement or other events on the mezzanine.

“None of those things have come to pass, so it’s just a commercial building in its originally intended purpose,” she said. “At this point, I think it would be good to sell it and designate the proceeds in one form or another to support the (new) library.”

That’s actually a stipulation of the original purchase, Rupright said.

While city council talked about selling the building, Meta Rose Square tenants are experiencing some déjà vu. Some proprietors expressed concern before the 2009 sale about what could happen to their businesses if the city turned the building into a library or decided not to rent the commercial space.

On Monday, that’s still a concern for one of the center’s tenants.

“I am a little nervous about the sale of the building,” said Megan Vincent, owner of Younique Boutique. “I don’t want to even consider moving. You just never really know what a new landlord might do. They might just want to level it.”

Vincent said she’s concerned not only about a potential drop in clientele that could come with a move, but about the cost of making such a move.

“I can’t afford to move,” she said. “It was a big investment to move into this place.”

Annual rents collected from Meta Rose Square tenants tally about $200,000 for the city, which spends about $100,000 a year to operate it, Rupright said. But with that also comes a strain on city staff time and resources required to be a landlord, he said.

“I know what staff goes through with tenant complaints and they would love to unload that,” he said, adding that with the council’s blessing, he plans to move forward with the necessary steps to sell the complex.

Council also debated about how to set a potential asking price for Meta Rose Square. City code allows using either the Mat-Su Borough’s annual property assessment or securing an independent appraisal. While the borough’s assessment is free and an appraisal could cost in the neighborhood of $6,000, the former isn’t something city staff is comfortable with.

“The borough doesn’t pay a lot of attention to government-owned property to try and give it a real good value,” said Archie Giddings, the city’s director of Public Works. “That may be different with Meta Rose Square since there are leases. I would question any borough appraisal.”

In the end, Councilwoman Leone Harris, who is a residential real estate agent, recommended the city first get an opinion from a commercial broker and compare that to the borough’s assessment. That could then help decide whether or not to go forward and pay for an appraisal.

Another option, Councilman Clark Buswell said, would be to wait until the planned Wasilla Couplet is built. The one-way traffic roundabout through downtown would bring many more cars past Meta Rose Square and make it a more valuable property.

“If we don’t rush this and we wait until the couplet is built, you’ll have 5,000 cars a day passing in front of that,” he said. “Obviously, it will be worth a lot more money than it is now.”

Harris said that may be true, but the couplet could also be an incentive to sell now as well.

“I understand what councilmember (Buswell) is saying, but that could also be an incentive to buy. … I think what you just said would be the perfect incentive for somebody to buy it and take it off our hands now.”

Contact reporter Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.