14-05-2025
JRC considers sales of property acquired after Joplin tornado
Members of the Joplin Redevelopment Corp. on Tuesday discussed the sale of remaining properties the corporation bought after the 2011 tornado for the purpose of spurring redevelopment after the tornado destroyed about a third of the city.
Nine tracts are available. One has frontage on 20th Street. It is more than half an acre at 1921 E. 20th St.
There are five lots north of 19th Street and Delaware Avenue. Three are quarter-acre tracts at 1820, 1830 and 1840 Delaware Ave., and two are about a third of an acre at 1907 and 1930 E. 19th St.
Across the street are three large tracts: over 2 acres at 1811 Delaware Ave.; more than 1.5 acres at 1811 1/2 S. Delaware Ave., and more than 1.6 acres at 1801 Delaware Ave.
Commission chairman Stephen Fuller suggested speaking to a real estate agent about the highest and best use of the properties for marketing because some of them could be combined into a larger parcel or sold individually.
"This is good property; it's in a great part of town," Fuller said.
The properties currently are all zoned as commercial because developers have had an interest in the past in acquiring the properties for commercial use but those prospects fell through, the JRC members were told.
Other members of the board discussed the city selling the properties by advertising it for bids.
The properties have been held by the JRC for 12 years. City officials were asked if they wanted to sell just to get the lots off the JRC's balance sheet.
City Attorney Peter Edwards said, "It's not so much to get it off the balance sheet, but to get it back onto the tax rolls."
The commission also voted to go into closed session.
The agenda cited reasons for the closed meeting. One was for causes of action or litigation involving a public governmental body and any confidential or privileged communications between a public governmental body or its representatives. Another was the leasing, purchasing or sale of real estate by a public governmental body where public knowledge of the transaction might adversely affect the legal consideration.
The Missouri Open Records Law allows votes regarding those items of business to take place in closed meetings.
