City finds a buyer for Second Street building

• 701 Second St.

Nuclear Management Co. used the building at 701 Second St. for offices. Before that, it was a recording studio and guitar store. Farther back in time, it was the office for the lumberyard that occupied the block on Vine Street between First and Second street.
• Future owners

Sarah Atkins, president of Archovations Inc., and her husband, John Hoggatt, enjoy working in downtown Hudson. Their company has been located at 212 Walnut St. since 2001.

Talk about it

The city of Hudson has found a buyer for the 701 Second St. office building that it acquired last December along with the Nuclear Management Co. building.

Sarah Atkins and John Hoggatt of Archovations Inc. have entered into a purchase agreement to acquire the building for $260,000, Hudson Mayor Dean Knudson reported on June 14.

The smaller office building is on the same parcel of property as the former NMC building, which the city purchased for $2.5 million.

The Hudson Police Department is now located in the larger building at the corner of First and Vine streets, and it will soon be joined by the Hudson Area Joint Library.

Knudson said the sale of the 701 Second St. building is contingent upon committee and City Council approval of dividing the property.

A proposed survey line has been drawn just east of the city building parking lot. The city would retain ownership of the lot, but reserve three spaces in the northeast corner for Archovations to use exclusively.

Knudson said the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals also will need to approve a variance for the newly created Archovations parcel.

Finally, the Hudson Area Joint Library Board will need to agree to the deal since it has the option to buy the entire former NMC property from the city, the mayor said.

Knudson said the library board has already discussed the possible sale, and is supportive of it. But the library board hadn’t seen the purchase agreement yet or given formal approval to it.

The sale is scheduled to close no later than Aug. 27.

The city’s expectation when it bought the NMC building was to sell it to the library after five years.

The library’s purchase price will be reduced by the $260,000 the city gets for 701 Second St. building, Knudson said.

The plan is for the city to build a new public safety building within about five years that would house the police and fire departments, and rescue and emergency medical service.

Municipal Building sale is final

Knudson also reported that the city had just closed on the sale of the Hudson Municipal Building to Eden Prairie, Minn., real estate investor Steven Rorem.

The city got $475,000 for the building at 911 Fourth St., where the library has been located since 1995.

Former library board president Jim O’Connor reported to the library board on June 14 that renovations to the former NMC building to get it ready to house the library have cost $639,000 so far.

“We’ll be well under budget when it is done. I expect it will be under $650,000,” O’Connor said.

The board budgeted $697,000 for the project. The money came from donations and library impact fees collected over the years by the city of Hudson and village of North Hudson.

The library also expects to get a $147,000 federal grant to help cover the renovation costs.

Happy to be downtown

Sarah Atkins, president of Archovations Inc., said she and her husband feel fortunate to have found an office building in downtown Hudson that meets their company’s needs.

Archovations has been leasing the building at 212 Walnut St. since 2001.

The company markets a plastic mesh used in the construction of brick buildings. Its CavClear Masonry Mats and Insulation Systems maintain air space between the brick and the structural wall behind it, preventing moisture problems.

Atkins said she and Hoggatt have wanted to buy their own office building for a long, but were unable to find the right one in downtown Hudson.

“We’ve hunted down places (elsewhere) and gotten almost to the signing point and chickened out because we wanted to stay in downtown Hudson so much,” she said. “We love downtown Hudson.”

Atkins is planning to use the lower level of the 701 Second St. building and 400 to 500 square feet of the main level for her company.

She hopes to lease most of the street-level space to another business.

“In a perfect world, I would be able to find that leaseholder quickly,” she said. “Because then, if they intended to do leasehold improvements, they would be able to do those improvements at the same time as we’re doing ours.”

Atkins said the heavy traffic past the building makes it a good spot for either a retail business or an office.

“It has lots of possibilities,” she said.

She plans to renovate the lower level of the building to accommodate six offices and a mail/storage room for her company.

Archovations also will have a couple of offices and a conference room on the main level.

“We’re shooting for November to be settled in,” Atkins said.

Tags: local news, business, hudson