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Archive for November 28th, 2007

Rockford Public Library trustees vote on move to former Barnes & Noble site

Add comment November 28th, 2007

The Rockford Public Library has moved one step closer to buying the former Barnes & Noble building on East State Street.

The library’s board of trustees voted in a meeting Mon., Nov. 26 to approve an amended version of a real estate purchase agreement for the property, at 6685 E. State St., Rockford. The purchase agreement is not yet available to the public because it is not yet signed and final; it still is waiting for the amendment to be completed, said Emily Hartzog, community relations officer for the library.  The amendment has to do with making certain dates in the agreement consistent so that if a defect were found in the building and cures were needed, those would be done prior to the closing on the sale.  As of yet there’s no official target date for the deal to be complete, said Hartzog.

The library had announced earlier this year that it was looking at buying the property and moving its northeast branch there. City officials had authorized a bond sale of about $3 million to help the library. Barnes & Noble moved out of the building in November and into new digs at The District At CherryVale, a new lifestyle addition to the CherryVale Mall, 7200 Harrison Ave., Cherry Valley.

Winnebago County records for the property shows its owner as “c/o Jay A. Lipe 6685 East State LLC” at an address of 1310 Ritchie Court, Unit 24B/C, Chicago IL 60610.  According to the Winnebago County Supervisor of Assessment Office, the property was sold for $2.85 million on May 10, 1996 by Sunil Puri of Rockford, to individuals Gladys B. Ross and Jay A. Lipe of 10 S. Wacker Drive, Chicago IL 60606.  The two quitclaimed the property to the current owner on April 15, 2004.

(A quitclaim deed is a written document that conveys the grantor’s interest in the property to the grantee. The term “LLC” stands for “limited liability company,” a type of business organization that may be treated as a partnership for federal tax purposes and restricts the partners’ potential losses to the amount invested.)

In its 2006 tax assessment, the Supervisor of Assessment Office determined the fair market value of the 1.83-acre property to be $2,860,497.