Chapter 296

My plan was to spend Wednesday doing nothing more involved than arranging to have the Sears Building Evaluated. I had Kate come down before noon with a key to the buildings, so that I could get some ideas.

My first choice was the old radio studio of course. As I remembered the first floor, it was all one big open room. All of the electronics from the sixties and earlier were gone, of course. That was fine with me, I would never have known what to do with them.

Kate let me look all around before she sprang it on me. "The Hart kids want to talk again about selling those houses."

"What the fuck does one have to do with the other?" I asked.

"I don't know how you are fixed for capitol or what you would want to tackle first, if it came to that. I just wanted to let you know they might both be available at the same time," she informed me.

"Well, I can't deal with all this at the same time. I will work on one project till it is done, then if the next one is available I will work on it. We already have the preliminary designs and plans for the houses so lets see what we can do very quickly with that. If we can't make some real progress on it by close of business tomorrow, we will shift everything to this project.

"So you want to look around this site now?" Kate asked.

"Sure, let's take the walk through, then we can restart the negotiations after we settle up on the single family houses at heartland." I said it as I opened the car door expecting Kate to follow me with the key.

I fell madly in love with the radio building. I wanted to move in the next day. It was that spectacular. There were three floors and each had a unique appeal to it. The first floor was going to make a spectacular formal living room. There was plenty of room for a special purpose area. It would be perfect for a person with a fancy hobby. The first floor also had partitions made of glass blocks sitting around.

The second floor would make a great kitchen, with plenty of room left over for both, casual and formal dinning. There would be room available for pantries, utility rooms, and storage areas. There was plenty of room for special purpose areas there as well. The building would make one hellishly expensive and thoroughly custom townhouse. It was without doubt a mini mansion in the making. It wasn't my kind of place to live but I was sure the admiral had someone in mind for a place like it. The radio building could easily be transformed into the mini mansion in my imagination. I wanted to be the one to do it.

Walking around to the retail store I was expecting to be disappointed. Since that was the case, I wasn't disappointed at all. The bottom two floors were approximately 10,000 square feet of empty space. each

The third floor was mostly chopped up space, which had been used as offices and special projects areas. Things like a shops and probably space to build displays was included in there I expected.

The complete forth floor had been stock room. At the very rear of the 1st floor was a receiving dock with freight elevators that went up to the top stopping on each floor along the way. The elevator was shut down but Kate informed me that it was still in place. Even I knew enough to know that it had certainly been de-certified.

I liked the space but I had no idea how I could use it. I was all about creating downtown housing units and the former retail building just didn't look as though it would fly as one of those.

"Kate, I'm gonna be honest. I love the radio building, but I have no use for the Sears building that I can see right now. Do you have any ideas?" I asked.

"Actually I do," she said.

"Let's hear it," I suggested.

"Have you ever heard of Simmons Technical Institute?" Kate asked.

"I see them on TV at 2AM now and then," I said.

"Yes you do," Kate agreed. "STI is looking for a campus in this area. With the parking here and the access to the major highways the building would be ideal."

"Then sell it to them," I suggested.

"They want to lease a space not purchase," she said.

"When people go that route it is usually because they are afraid of the long term commitment," I suggested. "Not sure they are a viable concern."

"Absolutely," Kate agreed. "It's a gamble."

"I'm a little shaky on that kind of venture." I was pretty sure I would say no to the STI deal.

"Let me make a call to the Hart kids then. Let's see if they want to cut the houses loose at a discount. The should be ready, since the state hasn't made an offer on the mill yet." Kate suggested.

"Offer to do it in those three phases we talked about earlier. The first phase would be the part between the rear of the mill and the creek. The kids wanted what 15K per repairable house."

"No Maxine that's what you wanted to give them. They want a lump some that is more than that per unit," Kate said.

"Get me a price I can live with based on phases. I'll give them a five year guarantee between the phases. If I don't pick up the next phase before five years they can sell for anything they want to anyone they want. As I go along, the adjacent houses will be worth more, if I don't exercise my option."

"I'll make the offer and see what happens. This time we are going to put it in writing?" she asked.

"Sure why not, but see what you can do and I will only go 13,500 each, period. If I have to take them all" I said.

Kate went off and I let my mind slip to the impending up grade to the body. I expected something new in the computer program, there almost always was when Eve went in.

Thursday was filled with my usual routines. It was noon before Kate called me. Within thirty minutes Jen was on the phone adding her two cents worth. With Kate it was pure greed. Jen had taken a civic minded approach lately. I had no earthly idea what had gotten into her.