Maverik purchase hanging in the balance

WALLACE –– Many Shoshone County residents are excited about the prospect of having a new gas station in the Valley, bringing new jobs and hopefully some price competition.

But that may be in jeopardy.

Last June the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) awarded the bid for the county-owned property in Smelterville, which sits at the intersection of Airport Road and Commerce Drive, to the Utah-based company Maverik, Inc., whose bid was close to $300,000 more than the next highest bid, from local company Beamis Property Management (BPM), a primary gasoline provider in Shoshone County.

A recent email from Taylor Gibbons, a commercial real estate advisor that is under contract with Maverik, expressed some concerns about the sale, to which the BOCC met on March 15 in an executive session to discuss their concerns, which included flood plains, contaminated soil, and the sale price.

Heidi Klein, the Smelterville city clerk, confirmed that the property lies entirely within a flood zone, which is an area determined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). According to the FEMA.gov website, “Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA) are defined as the area that will be inundated by the flood event having a one-percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year. The one-percent annual chance flood is also referred to as the 100-year flood.”

These maps are used to set minimum building requirements, which can make bringing a new business to the area exponentially more difficult, especially if the maps are outdated.

Many feel the designation of floodplain lands within the cities of Kellogg and Smelterville are inaccurate and costly, forcing hundreds of homeowners to pay premiums to insurance companies every year for lands they feel should not be designated as such.

The city of Kellogg submitted a request almost two years ago asking FEMA to validate a new study from engineering firm ALTA Engineers for the cities of Kellogg and Smelterville.

According to Klein, their request is currently “in review,” but the process could still take years to complete.

In addition to the floodplain concerns, because the property resides within the Bunker Hill Superfund Site, which was openly stated in the Purchase and Sale Agreement between the county and Maverik – Maverik will be required to ensure that their property and any structures that are built on the property are up to both public health and safety standards as well as up to code structurally.

The property currently has a clean, six-inch barrier of gravel on top of it – however, any development on the property would require them to dig down below that.

While they wouldn’t be required to remove all of the contaminated soil (soil containing harmful heavy metals) from the property, they would have to properly cap the property. Capping can be anything from asphalt to concrete, and for landscaped areas, it would require a fabric barrier to be placed 12 inches below the surface with clean soil on top.

According to Panhandle Health, the current ground at the site is not structurally sound for the intended development.

This means that in order to develop the land, Maverik will need to remove the structurally unsound ground and then build it back up with rock that meets construction standards. Similarly, this process was required when the nearby O’Reilly Auto Parts began the process of building their store in the southeast corner of the Walmart parking lot.

While the actual disposal of any contaminated soils that get removed does not cost Maverik anything (Panhandle Health handles that process themselves), the process of removing them from the property and transporting it to a repository for disposal comes with a higher price tag.

In the email sent by Gibbons, he asks the county to reduce the cost of the land by at least $500,000 to help offset the costs of getting the property ready for development – which would take the sale price below the bid that the county had received from Beamis last summer.

The BOCC does not have the authority to reduce the price and according to Klein, the only way to legally change the price is for Maverik to back out of the deal and start the bidding process again.

The purchase agreement gave the buyer a feasibility period of 150 days from the “effective date,” with two 30-day extensions, which, according to Gibbons, have both been used.

During that “feasibility period” time frame, the buyer is able to conduct any investigations, inspections, tests, analyses, etc. over all aspects of the site. With the feasibility period coming to an end, Maverik has requested an extension through fall of this year. It seems, however, they are committed to seeing this through.

“We want to make it work,” assured Gibbons.

The BOCC and representatives from Maverik, Inc. have a meeting set for later this week.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been edited for clarity, specifically concerning the property owner's responsibility within the Bunker Hill Superfund Site.