Angus Council could be poised to offload historical offices in the heart of Forfar to pub giant JD Wetherspoon at a knockdown price.
The Courier can reveal councillors will this week be asked to sell the buildings at The Cross in a deal for £350,000 £50,000 less than Wetherspoon’s offer last year.
It triggered a major row over the possible disposal of property described as Forfar’s “family silver”.
The hostelry chain’s interest in creating a town superpub came out of the blue last summer with a £400,000 bid for the sprawling offices at 5-7 The Cross.
Councillors agreed to press ahead with the private deal, but were forced into an embarrassing U-turn just weeks later when a second offer of £450,000 was tabled by Angus businessman Ken Parke.
That led to a decision being taken to put the 150-year-old, three-storey property on the open market.
However, documents seen by The Courier disclose that no formal offers were received for the 9,500 square feet accommodation by the closing date of December 12.
JD Wetherspoon subsequently made another approach with a reduced £350,000 bid.
On Thursday a full meeting of Angus Council will be presented with the stark choice of accepting the offer, or having to find more than £400,000 in the next three years to maintain buildings due to be vacated by councillors and officials.
The possible disposal of the property, which includes the office of the Angus Provost, has been a major talking point since Wetherspoon’s interest in developing a town centre bar, restaurant and hotel emerged.
Late last year, Forfar councillor Colin Brown said he would be against any move to “sell the family silver at a knockdown price” when the decision was taken to put the property on the open market.
The controversy surrounding the planned closed-doors JD Wetherspoon deal also led to comparisons with the decade-old debacle over the sale of the former St James House council HQ.
The authority was going to offload the building privately to a developer for £700,000 but ultimately got £1.8 million from the same bidder for the site of what is now the town’s Asda store.
The future of The Cross is marked as a private item on Thursday’s full council agenda due to the “likely disclosure of exempt information” under the heading of Proposed Sale of a Council Building.
The Courier has obtained the bombshell report in which council chief executive Richard Stiff sets out the two options sale and a £350,000 windfall for the authority to direct towards other projects, or retention and a £400,000 black hole in the council’s finances.
“Option A is to advise JDW that Angus Council is no longer prepared to sell the property,” the chief executive will tell councillors.
“This means that the council would have to find ways to address maintenance requirements of the building envisaged at £417,500 over the years to 2017-18.
“Although some of these costs may be capable of deferral in the short term they cannot be avoided indefinitely and the council should be mindful that at present there is no identified funding source for these maintenance works.”
Wetherspoon’s offer remains conditional on planning consent, building warrants and the relevant licences being obtained.
Mr Stiff’s private report describes the JDW offer of £350,000 as “a reasonable offer for the building given its condition, but is £50,000 lower than the first offer received from JDW in August 2014”.
The confidential papers give no indication of the current estimated market value of the buildings at The Cross.