The former Federal Building in downtown Fort Dodge has been sold for the second time in about four years.
Frye Property Management, a firm led by Dale Frye, of Fort Dodge, is the new owner, according to Rick Peters of Coldwell Banker Associated Realtors.
That firm bought the vacant building at 205 S. Eighth St. from Benjamin ''Bing'' Minerva, of San Diego, Calif. Terms of the sale, which happened last week, were not disclosed.
Calls seeking comment from Frye and Minerva weren't immediately returned. Peters said Frye was away on vacation.
Frye Property Management has not announced its plans for the building.
Minerva bought the building from the federal government for $755,000 in late 2004. He soon decided that it is too far from California for him to manage effectively. He unsuccessfully attempted to sell it during a May 24, 2006, auction. When the high bidder, whose identity was never released, couldn't close the deal, the property went back on the market.
The four-story building, erected in 1959, encompasses 88,662 square feet.
It was once the center of federal government services in Webster County, but it was gradually emptied over the last eight years.
The United States Postal Service's last facilities in the building abruptly closed at the end of February 2007 during a dispute over who was responsible for paying the utility bills. Government officials claimed Minerva was responsible for the bills. Minerva said the government's General Services Administration was to pay them.
Fearing that the electricity would be shut off, postal officials quickly moved the retail counter, where people used to buy stamps and mail packages, out of the building. That counter was relocated to the mail processing facility at 3440 Maple Drive, leaving Fort Dodge without a downtown post office. The mailboxes were moved to a storefront in the 600 block of Central Avenue.
In addition to the postal facilities, the building once housed offices of the Internal Revenue Service, Mine Safety and Health Administration, Small Business Administration, Social Security Administration, and a rarely used federal courtroom with its accompanying judge's chambers and jury room.
The building at the corner of Eighth Street and First Avenue South would be about one block away from a large new downtown park envisioned in the downtown master plan created by the consulting firm Camiros of Chicago.
Contact Bill Shea at (515) 573-2141 or bshea@messengernews.net
