|
|
| For sale: Former Calif. prison site |
| By mercurynews.com |
| Published: 10/02/2009 |
|
LOS ANGELES—California threw open the doors of a former prison on Thursday to drum up bidders' interest in the largest state-owned surplus property to hit the market in several years. The Fred C. Nelles Youth Correctional Institution, a 74-acre site in Whittier, was expected to draw some $70 million for state coffers, Department of General Services spokesman Jeffrey Young said. The state sells a handful of properties it no longer needs each year, but the prison was the biggest to go on sale since the mid-2000s, when a corrections department facility in the Silicon Valley was sold to Cisco Systems Inc., Young said. The state is accepting bids on the site about 13 miles southeast of Los Angeles until Nov. 20. "It's large enough that you could create an entire community in it," Young said. "A developer could build something extraordinary." The grassy campus that operated as a youth prison until 2004 is the current site of a 100-cell cement lockup with slit windows, dormitories, administration and church buildings. It closed after 113 years of operation. Developer Meruelo-Maddux Properties Inc. agreed to buy the parcel for $104 million in 2006, but state officials instead chose to use the space as a prison hospital that was never built. Other parcels on the state for-sale list include a 5,400-square-foot vacant lot near downtown Los Angeles that once contained two oil wells, and a 5.5-acre orchard in rural Humboldt County. Read More. |
advertise
|
privacy policy
|
add URL
|
about us
|
terms/disclaimer
|
contact us
|
join our team
|
help
Comments:
No comments have been posted for this article.
Login to let us know what you think