While the News & Record is reporting that Skip Alston, Shahzad Akbar and Shehzad Quamar have backed out of the deal to buy the Bessemer Shopping Center, what the News & Record fails to report that Item 9 on Tuesday night's City Council agenda is a deal to sell Alston, Quamar and Akbar 0.09 acres of City owned commercial property located at 1704 Freeman Mill Road for the grand total of $2,000.
Imagine, an acre of commercial property in Greensboro, North Carolina for only $2 thousand dollars. An acre is more than enough to build another convenience store where Shahzad Akbar and Shehzad Quamar can sell beer and wine for food stamps just like they do at their Phillips Avenue store.
It's time the City of Greensboro audited Shahzad Akbar and Shehzad Quamar before doing any more business with them and allowing this scourge to our communities to continue to grow.
Update:
According to the Guilford County Register of Deeds, 1704 Freeman Mill is valued at $5,300 http://taxweb.co.guilford.nc.us/CamaPublicAccess/PropertySummary.aspx?REID=0008623&pageIndex=0
Next door, 1702 Freeman Mill, also vacant and owned by the City of Greensboro, is valued at $5,300 http://taxweb.co.guilford.nc.us/CamaPublicAccess/PropertySummary.aspx?REID=0008622&pageIndex=0
Next door to that, at 1700 Freeman Mill is another small tract of land valued at $5,300 http://taxweb.co.guilford.nc.us/CamaPublicAccess/PropertySummary.aspx?REID=0008621&pageIndex=0
The City is claiming the property located at 1704 Freeman Mill has no governmental or other public need and while it is small, when combined with the 2 vacant city owned properties on either then its value and possible uses increase exponentially. For example: Next door, 1706 Freeman Mill was sold by the City for $109, 099 to Shahzad Akbar and Shehzad Quamar. http://www.realtytrac.com/property/nc/greensboro/27406/1706-freeman-mill-rd/176629374 This figure is also confirmed by the Register of Deeds.
By selling this parcel the other parcels will be rendered worthless.
Also, was this property sold at public auction or as is usually the case in Greensboro, are City owned surplus properties kept secret until connected developers express an interest in them then sold at bargain basement prices?
The answer: The City of Greensboro bought this property in 1968.
