Tallulah Falls shifts Highway 441 building sale to new bidder after original winner withdraws

Tallulah Falls redirected its planned sale of the city-owned building at 11785 Hwy. 441 on Jan. 14, 2021, unanimously ending the purchase-and-sale agreement with original sealed-bid winner Paul Burns after his withdrawal and returning his earnest money. In the same action, the City Council unanimously awarded the bid for the surplus property to Bill Turk of Hudson River Trading Company.

The change matters because the building is a city surplus asset, and the council’s actions determined who would have the chance to buy it and whether the city’s disposition effort could proceed without starting over. The bid award moved the proposed transfer to a new buyer, but an award alone is not the same as an executed purchase agreement or a closing.

Burns had emerged as the winning bidder in the city’s sealed-bid process, but his withdrawal forced the council to address the existing agreement before it could advance another buyer. The Jan. 14 minutes record both the termination and the new award to Turk. Eleven days later, a Jan. 25 council agenda listed approval of a purchase-and-sale agreement for the same surplus Highway 441 property, a proposed follow-through step after the award rather than proof that the deal had been completed.

The public record identifies Burns as the bidder who withdrew and whose earnest money the council voted to return. It identifies Turk, of Hudson River Trading Company, as the recipient of the replacement bid award. Council members, acting unanimously according to the Jan. 14 minutes, chose to sever the Burns agreement and move the proposed sale to Turk; the records do not describe either bidder’s reasons beyond Burns’ withdrawal or set out the terms of Turk’s anticipated purchase.

What is completed in the documented record is the council’s unanimous Jan. 14 termination of the Burns agreement, return of earnest money and award to Turk. What remains unconfirmed is whether council approved or executed the purchase-and-sale agreement placed on the Jan. 25 agenda, whether a transaction closed, or whether the property later changed hands. A Feb. 11 agenda packet restated the withdrawal, termination and Turk award, but did not record a new council decision.

The next public step that would settle the matter is a later council minute, signed purchase-and-sale agreement, deed or other transaction record showing whether Tallulah Falls carried out the award to Turk. Until such a record appears, residents cannot tell from these proceedings whether the city completed a replacement sale, reopened the property to other buyers or retained the building.