WORTHINGTON — The investment group that purchased the former Runnings property on Humiston Avenue is now looking for a new buyer, after the Worthington Planning Commission unanimously denied a request to subdivide the property last month.
“We bought it for an investment,” said Henry Byl, one of the owners of Summer View Partners, out of Sioux Center, Iowa, which owns the property. “And we are looking to sell it again.”
Byl said Summer View’s plans had fallen through, and the company has no plans to build at this point. He added that anyone interested in purchasing the property could call NAI Sioux Falls — Summer View’s realtor.
NAI’s website shows the 4.1-acre lot for sale at $995,000.
Summer View bought the property at 1438 Humiston Ave. hoping to subdivide it into two pieces: the empty two acres at the north end, and the existing building that used to house Runnings.
ADVERTISEMENT
In order to subdivide the property, however, the company had to first address the parking issue, as the city code requires that retail stores have 1 off-street parking stall per 200 square feet of floor area. Because the former Runnings building has about 30,000 square feet of floor space, that means it needs 150 parking stalls.
The proposed subdivision of the property would have left the Runnings building property with just 34 stalls, and the request to the Planning Commission was that the requirement be changed to only 28 stalls so that the parking lot could be potentially reconfigured in the future.
While the parking requirement variance was denied, it wasn’t the only potential issue with the subdivision, explained Matt Selof, community development/city planner, as the city also has a rule regarding the ratio of floor to total property area.
Selof said the ratio requirement could potentially be eliminated city-wide in the future, “as it’s a very outdated requirement,” but it has not yet been brought to the Worthington City Council.
The Trust Project
