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41 °F Forecast | Road Cams Wednesday, February 23, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classifieds Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend February 11, 2005 Forest Service takes bids for prime parcel By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune FOR SALE: Prime 5-acre- plus parcel in Medford with huge warehouse, automotive shop, radio shop, survey office, covered parking and plenty of storage. Bidding begins at $3.5 million. The U.S. Forest Service announced Thursday that it would begin taking bids March 21 for its McAndrews Service Center at 1319 E. McAndrews Road one block east of Biddle Road at Poplar Drive. The announcement was made early to allow would-be bidders to obtain a real estate packet on the property, officials said. Minimum bid for the property will be $3.5 million, according to Eric Hodnett, administrative officer for the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. The parcel, which includes six administrative buildings, was appraised at $3.8 million in January of 2004, officials said. Advertisement "There is a lot of value in that property," Hodnett said. "We’re interested in how it will play out." Proceeds from the sale will be used to relocate the forest supervisor’s office now in downtown Medford to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Medford BLM District office building at 3040 Biddle Road in Medford, Hodnett said. The Forest Service acquired the McAndrews site in the 1930s at a time when the immediate area was surrounded by orchards. The surrounding property is now developed in a retail and professional corridor. The property will be sold through a process similar to an oral auction, although the bids must be written. Bids can be submitted by mail, fax or over the Internet. On-line bidding is available at the General Services Administration’s property disposal Web site: auctionrp.com/auctions2. Bidders can find out when new bids come in and what the high bids are by calling a 24-hour recorded message at 253-931-7962 or via the Web site. A bidding package can be obtained by contacting the GSA at 253-931-7547 or the forest headquarters at 858-2200. A package can also be obtained on the Web site. After bidding begins on March 21, it will continue until bidding stops. "It’s really open ended at this point," Hodnett said, adding, "They don’t want to stop the bidding until all the bids are in." For more information on the auction, call Hodnett at 858-2212. Congress approved the plan to sell the property and relocate the forest headquarters to the BLM facility in the fall of 1998. The move is intended to allow the agencies to serve the public better while providing more opportunities for the agencies to work together while reducing costs, officials said. The plan calls for remodeling the existing BLM building to house employees from both agencies. Thus far, completed projects include a vehicle wash facility, replacing the air conditioning systems and a new fire alarm systems, parking and access road improvements. An interagency fire dispatch communication center has also been built at the Biddle Road site. Forest maintenance activities currently being relocated include road maintenance, cadastral survey (determining public/private property lines), fleet, law enforcement and radio telecommunications. Work planned for this spring includes remodeling a warehouse, construction of a fire equipment cache and construction of an interagency radio shop. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg Slippers Student Loans afsa teleconferencing Memory Foam Mattress Advertisement s