The commercial real estate website Loopnet.com lists 200 E. Water St. for sale for $53 million as City Council went behind closed doors February 16 to discuss with counsel acquisition or conveyance of its parking spaces in the Water Street Garage.
Just a coincidence, according to Charlottesville Parking Center owner Mark Brown, who says his real estate agent routinely puts his properties on Loopnet to generate contacts from out-of-towners looking to buy property in Charlottesville. The $53 million listing is “just a teaser,” says Brown.
The parking garage is on City Council’s agenda, says Brown, because of its “very complicated structure” in which the city owns 629 spaces in the garage and CPC owns 390, as well as the ground underneath. “It is as convoluted as humanly possible,” says Brown. “The city and I are looking at a way to simplify. Either they buy it or I buy it.”
And those wondering about another listing on Loopnet, the $7 million property near West Main and Ridge Street, should know that’s the ice park, another Brown property that’s another teaser.
“The only thing I’m actively trying to sell is the Whiskey Jar building,” he says.