AMHERST – It’s official.
The Town of Amherst council met at the old town hall yesterday and passed a motion authorizing council to enter an agreement for the former Amherst police station at 45 Victoria Street to be sold to J.E. Bembridge Enterprises for $2.
The motion says in part “…Council authorizes the Mayor and CAO to execute a deed of conveyance transferring ownership of the property to J.E. Bembridge Enterprises Limited contingent on the purchaser satisfying their obligations contained within Section 6 of the Agreement of Purchase of Sale.”
Four proposals were submitted by from four different parties interested in developing the property during a special meeting on Oct. 31.
Council accepted the Bembridge proposal because they plan to develop the property immediately.
Conditions of the sale include that, “the purchaser will commence work on clean up and renovations of the building immediately after the sale is complete.”
In a previous interview with the Amherst Daily News, Jeff Bembridge, who owns Duncan’s Pub, said, "I'm looking forward to doing something with the building as soon as we can.”
During the same interview Bembridge said he plans to put a new restaurant in the building. Breakfast at Brittany's, named for his stepdaughter, will be open from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. and will feature affordable breakfast specials as well as menu items like Belgian waffles and eggs benedict.
You never got anything for your money eh. Well let me see. The taxpayers got a really good settlement for the building, and now the council has saved you the tax payer the very high price tag of demolition and site remediation by accepting $2 for the property to a local developer. By doing this, the tax payer is no longer on the hook for the property. And an what has become and eyesore downtown will soon be cleaned up and be a productive part of town again. While you can slice it anyway you choose the town came out very good on this. So maybe you should say thank you. Mr. Bembrigde has helped a lot of people in town including other small businesses and he will continue to do so, and I and a lot of others wish him all the best and congratulate him on having the fortitude to actually do things that better himself and his town.