The Redevelopment Agency renewed a one-year lease on a vacant lot being used for storage.

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Commissioners authorized (Res. 22-20) a lease agreement with Lokilot II, LLC, for 391 E. Inman Ave. (Block 277, Lot 22) during its monthly Redevelopment Agency meeting on Oct. 7.

The 2.6-acre lot has been used for open air storage by Leesville Auto. The $2,000 per month lease will run for 12 months, expiring Oct. 1, 2021.

Redevelopment Director and City Administrator Robert Landolfi recommended the board renew the lease for a year with an option to renew at the end of the term. In the meantime, the agency will determine  the best future long-term use of the property, whether to change the terms, uses or continue in the longer term.

There’s some contamination on the site and some files are incomplete, Landolfi said, adding: “We have some homework to do.”

The original lease was entered into sometime around 2005 but the tenant had become delinquent and then started making payments again, according to Landolfi. Finance Director Frank Ruggiero said a substantial payment was made recently but there was still some $7,500 in question.

As condition of the lease, the tenant would provide the agency with any outstanding funds, according to Redevelopment Agency General Counsel Anne Rowan.

The original tenant wanted to use it as storage and for parking, Commissioner Timothy Nash said, but he could not remember how the agency came to own the property some 15 years ago. It was vacant and not of much use, he added.

“It’s a piece of property we at the time couldn’t find any purposes for, it made sense to rent to the adjacent piece of property. If I remember right, there was nothing else we could do with property,” Nash said, but it was a way to make a few bucks.

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