ESCANABA — The city of Escanaba’s plans to redevelop the sites of the former Delta County Jail and Chamber of Commerce through the use of a request for qualifications (RFQ) process was scrapped Thursday in favor of a more direct sale of the properties.

“My opinion is … that these parcels would be better sold and marketed directly by the city, pursuant to its policy on sale, lease or options of city property,” said Laura Vogler, the city’s recently hired attorney, during Thursday’s city council meeting.

Switching to a direct sale of the properties owned by the city side-steps a number of issues that have become pitfalls for developers.

Three local developers — North Shore Marine Terminal and Logistics, the Terrace Bay Hotel, and Swanee, Inc. — took interest in splitting the sites in a widely-supported move to keep the properties from being developed by a non-local developer. However, the new joint-proposal was submitted after the RFQs submitted by each developer individually were reviewed and a recommendation was made by City Manager Patrick Jordan to award to the project to the Red Deer Development Team, which is based downstate. The joint-proposal did not follow the RFQ process and it was unknown if the city could legally accept such a proposal when a valid RFQ was submitted by Red Deer.

Selling the city-owned parcels also avoids the possible entanglement issues that stem from the county being the owner of the majority of the former jail site. Despite being the owner of only the former Chamber site and a sliver of the jail property, the city took the helm of the redevelopment process — functionally placing the city in the position of marketing the property it does not own.

“It always becomes more complex, both legally and from the timeline and otherwise, to join forces with another municipality,” said Vogler, who also said it increased the city’s exposure to liability.

The decision to abandon the RFQ process was met with some pushback from the council, both because the city had offered the RFQ process to developers and because the city would need to further delay development to meet some of the requirements of its land sale policy.

“We offered this. We said to these developers, ‘Here’s an RFQ. If we chose you and award it to you, here’s what you can do. Here’s what you’re going to get,” said Council Member Tyler DuBord.

Both Council Member Ron Beauchamp and Mayor Mark Ammel criticized Jordan’s actions that led to the RFQ process being initiated in the first place, stating he did not bring the RFQ to the council for input.

“This is the second time that the city manger has been involved in trying to sell this property. This time around, after the first developer backed out, he did not consult council as to how this RFP, request for proposals, was being prepared. It was literally handed to us a week before one of our meetings,” said Beauchamp, adding he would have liked to split the properties into its separate parcels.

To sell the properties owned by the city, the city has to have a real estate review, which is completed by a number of city departments; a review of the property by the planning commission to determine if the sale is consistent with the city’s master plan; a review by council; and another joint review by the city manager and the planning commission to determine what the property would be zoned, as government properties are not subject to zoning.

“We are really not moving in any direction of quickly or essence of time because we skipped some steps that we now have to go back and do properly,” said Ammel.

After some discussion, the city council directed Jordan to pursue purchase agreements with the three interested developers in accordance with the advice of the city attorney to follow the city’s land use policy. He was also directed to work with the county’s administration to assist with property assemblage, which would include any necessary property divisions.

Jordan raised concerns that doing anything to market the property owned by the city would be going against Vogler’s recommendations and could open the city to legal issues. The council, however, felt the city’s working relationship with both the county and the three developers was positive enough for Jordan to proceed.

“You’re not selling it. You’re bringing (Delta County Administrator Emily DeSalvo) on board. You’re bringing the county on board so she can bring it to the commission, if that’s required,” said DuBord.