<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Who?</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><img src="cid:1280B07C-FE3D-4C3D-9313-291EBEB6183E" alt="image.jpeg" id="1280B07C-FE3D-4C3D-9313-291EBEB6183E" width="728" height="582"></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Courtesy of today's (October 15, 2012) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">-------------------------------------</div><div><h1 style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; "><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Federal Building sells for $2.38 million</span></font></h1><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Moscow Federal Building officially came off the auction block at 11 a.m. on Sunday with a winning bid of $2.38 million, according to the General Service Administration's real estate sales website.</span></p><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The winning bid is close to $500,000 more than the $1.9 million the GSA wanted from Latah County for the property during a yearlong negotiation.</span></p><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The winning bidder will not be identified until the agency receives a deposit for the property, which is $238,000. The deposit must be received in cash within 120 days of the sale.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The building on the block bounded by Jefferson, Washington, Fourth and Fifth streets houses the main Moscow post office and several Latah County offices, among others.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The 90-day auction opened in early August for the 74,000-square-foot property that includes the 48,400-square-foot building and an adjacent parking lot. After the auction opened, potential investors were allowed to tour the building and ask questions about details of the property.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As the close of bidding neared, several bids under $1 million were placed. Then, a $1 million bid for the property had held steady through most of the final week before a bid of $2.02 million was received about 10 minutes before the auction was set to close on Friday.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A glitch with the GSA's online auction system caused that bid to appear to be accepted Friday morning. Auction rules, however, required that the auction roll over for another 24 hours. That error was soon corrected. The bid that preceded the winning price was $2.36 million before the winning bid came in on Saturday.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The government anounced in August 2011 that it intended to put the building up for sale.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: left; "><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; outline: 0px; float: none !important; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The lengthy bureaucratic process that involved a back-and-forth battle between the GSA and Latah County commissioners ended with the building going to public sale because they could not reach a mutually agreeable amount. Frustration was also expressed by county commissioners during that time because of the estimated $1.6 million in deferred maintenance that the building's new owner will need to remedy.</span></p></div></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">-------------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br><div>Seeya at the polls, Moscow, because . . .</div><div><br></div><div>"Moscow Cares"</div><div><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div> </div><div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."</div><div><br></div><div>- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div> </div></div></div></div></body></html>