Luzerne County receives $2.42 million bid to purchase Broad Street Business Exchange in downtown Hazleton

Luzerne County received a bid above the asking price to purchase the Broad Street Business Exchange in downtown Hazleton.

County Council set the starting bid at the $2.1 million appraised value, and proposals were due Friday.

YMSF Family Partnership LP submitted the lone bid for $2.42 million through its managing partner, Susan Friedman, county officials said.

The bid included a $125,000 deposit and agrees the property would be purchased as-is. The limited partnership plans to continue operating the property as a commercial office and mixed-use building, it said.

YMSF is based in Brooklyn, New York, and Blakely, Pennsylvania.

Council had voted last month to advertise the property because several prospective buyers expressed interest.

After the request for purchase officers was publicly posted, county Councilman Jimmy Sabatino asked his council colleagues to reconsider the process already underway.

Sabatino had said he was requesting council reconsideration because several southern county community leaders have subsequently reached out to him about “potential opportunities and plans for the Luzerne County Community College’s use of the building.”

The college is the primary tenant in the building.

Sabatino had said he was informed a “seven-figure investment” has been pledged to the college from the Luzerne Foundation and other sources to expand degree programs at the Hazleton campus, but that funding hinges on college ownership of the property.

Council Chairman John Lombardo had said the county is not ultimately required to accept bids, but he said offers should be considered because the property belongs to county taxpayers.

Others agreed with letting the bid process play out, and seven of 10 members present voted in support of accepting offers.

The four-story property at 100 W. Broad St. in Hazleton, which contains an attached wing, was constructed in the 1930s and once housed the Deisroth department store.

The county had accepted ownership of the structure in 2009 from the nonprofit Alliance to Revitalize Center City Hazleton, so it would not risk losing more than $1.8 million the county had loaned to that entity.

Those loans are still connected to the property as liens, officials said. That means sale proceeds would not benefit the county’s general fund operating budget unless money remains after the loans are repaid to community development, officials said. Hazleton also has a $290,000 lien on the property that must be repaid, according to past reporting.

County Council will convene again to address business in January, following a Jan. 5 reorganization that will replace four members.

Past published reports indicate YMSF Family Partnership LP purchased the former Meyers High School Building in Wilkes-Barre, through Carey Holdings LLC, to create a multi-use space housing apartments and businesses.

City Mayor George Brown said he is extremely pleased with the progression of the Meyers project.

“It’s going to be a beautiful complex,” Brown said Friday.