The Sheriff’s Sale for the former Paragon Electric property took place last Tuesday. The property was sold following a lengthy legal back and forth between the City of Two Rivers and Paragon Partners LLC, where Paragon failed to hold up their end of a $2.15 million loan which included a $750,000 economic development loan from the City and a $250,000 economic development loan from the County.
Paragon was supposed to create a bottling facility at the location in the 600 block of Parkway Boulevard back in 2014 and never did. The City ended up purchasing the property after posting an initial bid of $705,100 on behalf of Manitowoc County, and no other bids were posted.
City attorney Jack Bruce will be filing a motion for confirmation of the sale, and if that passes through the Manitowoc County Courts, the City will quickly put the property back on the market with a commercial broker.
Neither the City nor the County was required to present any funds along with their bid, as that bid was less than the amount of the judgment awarded by the court back in October.
The City also retains the right to take action against Daniel and Carol Wergin and Joseph Roberts, who were co-makers of the City loan, for any amounts still owed on the City.
In addition to principal and interest owed on the delinquent economic development loan, the City will seek to recover funds advanced for attorney fees, for utility costs, and for delinquent property taxes.
The City expects to continue cooperating with the County in this matter, with two goals in mind:
1. Recovering all monies owed to the the City, so those funds can be used for other community development activities; and
2. Returning this former manufacturing property to a productive business use
