Washington County submitting offer to buy Crossroads Center
Washington County is submitting an offer to purchase the Crossroads Center office building across West Beau Street from its current quarters at Courthouse Square.
“We received a draft letter that we are to review and sign later today to submit an offer to Millcraft Industries,” commission Chairman Diana Irey Vaughan said Thursday morning after the conclusion of the commissioners’ meeting.
The purchase price will be revealed when a tentative agreement has been signed by both parties, she said.
“We’ll see what’s best for the taxpayers of Washington County,” said Commissioner Nick Sherman.
The cost of repairing several aspects of the nearly 40-year-old Courthouse Square and the parking garage that serves as the foundation has been estimated at $10.3 million.
The discussion took place after a split vote at the meeting Thursday, when Washington County government took another step toward replacing the Courthouse Square office building.
Irey Vaughan and Sherman voted to enter into an agreement with the Pittsburgh law firm Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote to provide legal services related to the purchase of the Crossroads Center. If the sale goes through, the firm’s flat fee will be $5,000.
“You always have an attorney review the documents, and they were recommended by JLL,” Irey Vaughan said.
Commission Vice Chairman Larry Maggi last month voted against entering into a $90,000 agreement with a commercial real estate firm, JLL, to be paid only if the county buys the Crossroads Center.
At an agenda-setting session Wednesday, he had several questions about hiring Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote, including why his colleagues did not choose a Washington County law firm.
Irey Vaughan said the action is not unusual. The county’s labor attorneys have been “based in Pittsburgh since probably the mid-’90s, as are the county’s litigation attorneys.
“We’re really concerned about getting the right individuals to do the job,” Irey Vaughan said, pointing out that the Eckert Seamans law firm of Pittsburgh and Harrisburg handled the privatization of the Washington County Health Center in 2017 when Maggi was commission chairman of a majority-Democratic board.
With Sherman’s election last year, control shifted to Republicans for the first time in this century.
Maggi said he was not aware that Irey Vaughan and Sherman were preparing an offer or if a price had been decided on the Crossroads Center.
“It’s all up in the air,” he said Thursday. “And of course, I’ve been against it from the get-go,” echoing a sentiment he expressed at the agenda-setting session.
The federal Social Security office is a tenant in the Crossroads Center, as are some private enterprises, and Maggi said he does not want to see the county taking on the responsibilities of landlord.
He also advocates gathering additional information from other consultants about the cost of saving the Courthouse Square building, which is likely to be demolished if the county purchases the Crossroads Center.