Wayne County officials are in talks to buy back the Old Wayne County Building, more than two years after leaving the landmark and suing its owners, according to Joel Kurth of the Detroit News.
The private partnership that owns the historic building has approached the county with offers to end the suit and its countersuit. Kurth reports the offers involve either a 20-year, lease-to-own plan for about $4 million a year or a purchase for $15 million or more.
Some commissioners briefed on the offers in recent weeks are skeptical, especially since the county left the building on Randolph in December 2009 and spent $57 million to buy and renovate the Guardian Building. The Old Wayne County Building has been vacant since.
"We just don't have the resources to buy that building back," Commissioner Bernard Parker, D-Detroit, told Kurth.
The owners, the Old Wayne County Limited Partnership, acquired the building in the mid-1980s from the county, renovated it and charged the county some $100 million in rent and fees over the years.
Discussions about a purchase have been ongoing since 2010, and Deputy Executive Jeffrey Collins said no deal is imminent.
