The Parking Authority plans to acquire the former Mangos property on Fulton Street for $400,000 and demolish the 7,800-square-foot building to provide for as many as 60 parking spaces.

The five-member Board of Commissioners approved a resolution (#34-18) at its May meeting to acquire the property for $400,000 — four months after approving a resolution (#17-18) to buy the site for $475,000.

Parking Authority General Counsel Michael Ash confirmed the final negotiated purchase price is $400,000. The closing will occur once “ongoing environmental due diligence is completed.” Property records still indicate the current owner as Hayden Asset II, LLC, which acquired the property (1349-51 Fulton St./Block 312, Lot 4.04) in December 2012 via bank transfer in lieu of foreclosure from an entity named G&T, Inc.

UPDATED: The Parking Authority closed on the parcel Dec. 31, 2018, with a purchase price of $350,000, according to property records.

Current plans are to demolish the building for a surface parking lot, according to Ash. At its May meeting, the Parking Authority also passed a resolution (#33-18) to award a (not to exceed) $17,000 contract to Impact Environmental for “Phase 1 and preliminary assessment environmental services” in connection with the Mangos property.”

The Parking Authority’s $2 million capital budget for 2018 includes $1.5 million for land acquisition.

Mangos closed several years ago and was for sale as early as 2013. Five years ago, DMR Construction, one of the developers partnering on The Gramercy, a 45-unit rental project that’s almost completed along East Cherry Street, had proposed an 88-unit building on the former Mangos property and some adjacent lots. The plan was tweaked in 2014 to 84 units.

The Redevelopment Agency had approved a resolution in 2014 to acquire the site via condemnation, but in 2016 tabled another resolution to authorize acquisition of the property. Environmental remediation at the time was estimated to be as much as $50,000 while the seller and contractor/buyer were about $500,000 apart.

The proposal was ultimately scrapped in 2016 after DMR was unable to come to terms on acquisition. Prior to Hayden Asset, the site last changed hands in January 2004 for $525,000, going from Moromisato Corporation to G&T, Inc.

The 0.7-acre property generated a property tax bill of about $36,000 last year, according to property records, based on its assessment of $518,300. Once owned by the Parking Authority, it would not generate any property taxes since it would be owned by a tax-exempt agency. And eventually it will become a city-owned property, once City Council and other final approvals — expected late this year — are granted to dissolve the Parking Authority and turn over parking operations to a Parking Utility within the city.