Front Royal gives final approval to old FRPD building sale

On November 14th the gave a final, unanimous AND enthusiastic approval to the sale of the old Town Police headquarters at 24 West Main Street. The sale price is $275,000.

The old Front Royal Police Headquarters at 24 W. Main St. is looking at a new incarnation as a Restaurant-Brew Pub.

After approving a Resolution of Support for the sale three weeks earlier, and final wording of the Sales Document a month prior to that, at least one member of Council had hoped to move the sale forward last month – “Can we vote on the sale tonight?” Bébhinn Egger had asked following the October 24th unanimous vote of support for the sale. However, legal technicalities held the Vote and Closing up until mid-November.

The hurry to move forward and get one derelict building rehabilitated, and on the commercial tax roles appeared shared by all of Egger’s colleagues. The old FRPD headquarters has been vacant since renovations uncovered asbestos and other environmental and safety issues, leading to the department’s September 2013 move into the former Warren County Sheriff’s Office headquarters about two blocks away on Jackson Street.

The September rewording of the Sales Document specified that the sale would be made “as is” relieving the Town of any additional responsibility for removal of asbestos or any other remaining nastiness from the premises.

An investment group headed by Gerald W. Welcome Jr. plans to renovate the 4,032-square-foot building into a restaurant and Brew Pub. The group’s real estate agent, Bill Barnett of Ogletree Realty, assured Council the buyers plan to be good neighbors to the surrounding community, which includes two churches and a funeral home.