Big chunk of revenue from O’Brien Court sale spoken for

The pot of money that will be available from the pending sale of O’Brien Court won’t be as full as many people have assumed.

The sale of the EDA-owned building for a proposed $1.2 million is nearing fruition, but according to the City Charter, before those monies are disbursed to various needs, the City must pay off certain debt — in this case, Orchard Lane. As of last week, $945,000 is owed on the bond for the housing facility, meaning there will be potentially somewhere between $225,000-$255,000 left for the City to spend elsewhere.

Tracy City Administrator Erik Hansen said, per the passage of a resolution by the Tracy City Council approving the purchase agreement, the revenue from the sale of O’Brien Court will be put into the City’s Public Housing Fund.

“It says that the city council will have a discussion about the use of those funds, but at this point (the revenue) hasn’t been designated for anything specific,” he said. “I will tell you — and the city council is already aware of this — the City Charter has a provision in it that says that anytime you sell real property … there is a requirement that you pay any debt associated with the real property, or any other debt of similar uses.”

See the rest of this story in this week’s paper!