A conditional offer has been made for the purchase of the former Holmes Foundry property in Point Edward.
Village Chief Administrative Officer Jim Burns verified to BlackburnNews.com Thursday that there is an offer on the table.
"I can confirm the owners and the real estate agent have told me they have a signed, accepted, conditional offer," said Burns. "It's the next step in the process. A big step was getting the ownership straightened out and this is the next logical step, getting someone in there that's wanting to develop the property and then we move forward from here. Every step forward we take is a good thing, not just for Point Edward, but for the entire community."
A local ownership group called Point Edward Gateway Inc. took possession of the property late in 2017, after 17 years of costly legal wrangling, and listed the site for sale for $7 million.
Burns said they're looking forward to working with whoever the developer may be.
"We haven't had any contact yet from the potential developer, that I know of," he said. We have met with a number of people that have asked questions about that property over the last six months or so, so, it could be one of those people, I don't really know. But, there has been a significant amount of interest in the property to see what could happen there, and we just look forward to moving forward and making it a much more positive part of the community."
Burns said he wouldn't be surprised if it takes several months to sort out the conditions of the sale.
"I would assume for anybody purchasing that property, that one of the conditions would be an environmental assessment, to me that's common sense that if you're buying a property with the history that property has, that you're going to do an environmental assessment on it before you take ownership," he said.
The village turned down a request to help pay for an environmental assessment of the 16-acre property in 2018.
The site, which has direct frontage on Highway 402, between Christina and Front Streets, is commercially zoned for a wide range of uses including retail and hotels and motels.