THORNTON — A bruising land fight between a long-time local business and the Adams 12 Five Star School District is over with no declared winner.
Auto-trol Technology says its reputation and standing among clients is tarnished after the school district began, and then dropped, eminent domain proceedings against the company’s property at 126th Avenue and Washington Street.
The school district, meanwhile, is now stuck with an aging and costly transportation hub and no prospects for immediate improvement.
“It’s been a chaotic process,” said Danny Stroud, Auto-trol Technology managing director.
Auto-trol, said Stroud, originally welcomed the idea of the district buying its building and surrounding 19 acres for use as shelter and garage for the district’s 135 buses.
“We’ve been involved in the community for years and many of the people who work here have children or did have children in the district,” said Stroud.
Auto-trol — a software company with 300 customers including the U.S. military — has been at the Washington Street site since 1978. But since manufacturing no longer takes place at the 127,000-square-foot building, the company put the building up for sale in January, Stroud said.
The building was appraised at the time at $13.1 million, he said.
But the school district told the company it would have to accept the district’s $8.4 million offer or face condemnation under the state’s eminent domain law.
The offer came in March, and the district said it was $1.5 million higher than a previous offer in August 2007.
Auto-trol refused the $8.4 million, hoping to get $12 million. The district then made good on its promise and began eminent domain proceedings. Eminent domain means a public entity can take possession of private property for public use.
“Once they started that, we knew our goose was cooked,” Stroud said.
The company began dismantling its business and looked for a new home. The district received possession of the property in June but extended the time the company could remain in the building through October 2008.
In the meantime, an engineering firm working for the district found $6.9 million of needed maintenance in the building as well as an asbestos problem.
The company denies there are any problems with the building.
Last week the district announced it would no longer buy the Auto-trol building and instead use the current bus barn built in 1973.
“We will continue to use our transportation facility, which is aging and in need of upgrades,” said District 12 Chief of Staff Constance Spenko.
Auto-trol — moving in September to an office park in Westminster — is now doing damage control with customers and trying to sell its building, listed at $12.6 million.
“As news of this gets back to our customers, we keep hearing ‘What the heck is going on?’ It’s created a firestorm,” Stroud said, “and nothing good has come from it.”
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
