news article
Upper New York Conference Center acquisition update
April 8, 2015 / By Wendy Deichmann
The Upper New York Conference Board of Trustees has released a statement regarding the potential purchase of property located at 7481 Henry Clay Blvd. in Liverpool that would serve as a new Conference Center. Read below the full statement from property acquisition task force chair the Rev. Dr. Wendy J. Deichmann:
At a special session of the Upper New York Annual Conference held on Oct. 18, 2014, the trustees were authorized to obtain a property to serve as a new Conference Center, which will house offices of the episcopacy and the Conference and provide space for other Conference activities and functions.
At that time, a candidate property had been identified, and with your approval, the trustees made an offer that was acceptable to the seller. The resulting contract was contingent upon the Conference investigating the property thoroughly and determining it to be satisfactory for the Conference’s purpose. The trustees conducted an extensive due diligence investigation of the property over a three month period that revealed a number of unacceptable structural and environmental conditions, none of which could have been known to us at the time of the special session or when we entered the purchase contract on Dec. 4, 2014. The estimated costs to remedy these conditions, mostly the environmental discrepancies, are substantial and reveal the market value of the property to be significantly less than what had been asked or offered.
The discrepancies can be remedied, and we offered to purchase this same property, but only at a significantly reduced price commensurate with the need to correct these discrepancies. However, our proposal was not accepted.
Your trustees have a duty to you to assure our negotiations and decisions are conducted in a manner that serves the best interests of the Conference. In accordance with our acknowledged duty to the Conference and its constituents, we are proceeding to identify another property to serve as our Conference Center.
Wendy J. Deichmann,
Task Force Chair