Controversial Bath property back on the market
Property the city of Bath sold to Robert Smith of Phippsburg for $799,000 this spring is now back on the market for double that amount. The sales listing, reported today by The Times Record, comes on the heels of a city council vote Wednesday to hire a former Superior Court justice to investigate that sale.
The newspaper reported that Keller Williams Realty is offering the building occupied by Southern Maine Community College for $1,650,000. Smith told the newspaper he is selling the property because of the negative publicity surrounding his transaction with the city.
The city’s assessment of the property put the value at $6.5 million, but city officials have defended their April sale price, noting that the assessed valuation did not reflect the market value for the former hospital building the city purchased a decade ago for $1.That sale, unanimously approved by the city council on April 17, triggered an outcry from residents who questioned why the property was sold for significantly below its assessed valuation.
In response to those critics, the city council appointed former Maine Superior Court Justice Robert Crowley on Wednesday to investigate the sale.
The Forecaster reported that Bath City Council, in a unanimous vote on Wednesday, approved spending up to $7,500 for Crowley’s investigation. In a letter to the council, Crowley said he’d agree to do the investigation so long as he could conduct it without any outside influence and be allowed to follow the evidence wherever it might lead, the paper reported.
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