Company Negotiating To Avoid Collapse Of Tower Plaza Condos Plan
Company negotiating to avoid collapse of Tower Plaza condos plan
By PAUL JUDGE
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
The company that is trying to convert apartments into condominiums at Tower Plaza is negotiating this weekend to keep its deal from collapsing.
Nearly six months after PreMark Associates Inc. announced it had bought the 26-story apartment building located at 555 E. William St. in downtown Ann Arbor, the company has yet to complete the purchase.
PreMark officials said they are trying to extend the deadline for closing the deal, which was supposed to be completed April 1.
“We’re negotiating right through the weekend,” said PreMark executive vice president Jay Fisher.
Fisher would not say whether the purchase price had risen in the interim, nor would he comment on the closing Thursday of PreMark’s sales office in Tower Plaza.
Susan England, who manages the Tower Plaza building for the William Street Co., declined comment on whether PreMark was still the sales agent for condominiums in Tower Plaza.
The uncertainty surrounding PreMark’s role is the latest in a series of pitfalls in the company’s plan to convert the Tower Plaza apartments into condominiums.
Fisher blamed the delays in closing the deal on modifications and repairs to the building’s roof and heating and cooling system, required by the Ann Arbor building department before it would issue a certificate of occupancy.
Those repairs have been completed, and William Yadlosky of the city building department confirmed that Tower Plaza has a full certificate of occupancy, which expires in December.
PreMark faces the additional complication of a lawsuit filed in December by University Properties Inc. against PreMark President J. Mark Caldwell, who was an employee of URP Inc. until he resigned last October.
The suit alleges that Caldwell never informed his former employer of the Tower Plaza business opportunity and spent at least three months while still a salaried employee of URP Inc. developing the Tower Plaza project before resigning.
On March 27, a circuit court judge ruled that PreMark could receive any profits from the sale of Tower Plaza condominiums, pending a decision in the case.
Fisher acknowledged that PreMark had not made any money so far from the Tower Plaza project.
About one-third of the units have already been sold, contingent on PreMark’s closing the deal, he said.
Fisher admitted that PreMark made some serious mistakes last summer by not adequately informing community and governmental agencies about their plans for Ann Arbor’s tallest building.
“Unfortunately we were under tremendous time constraints at the time,” he said.
PreMark officials started negotiations to buy the building from the William Street Co. last June, Fisher said, and concentrated all its efforts on trying to close the sale by Dec. 31. A year-end closing was important because the federal tax law in effect until Jan. 1 allowed some condominium buyers to depreciate their investment more quickly.