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06/07/2010
Owner cites economy as reason to sell the three-story building
Jim Gabler, owner of the Sterling Centers building and CEO of Verifacts Inc., and Rick Levin, of Rick Levin and Associates, walk through the 301 Third St. property before inspections began with potential buyers Friday. The building will be auctioned June 23.
STERLING - Creating 500 jobs was a dream for Jim Gabler.
Reaching that goal prompted the Gabler Family Corp. to buy what’s been known as Sterling Centers in July 2008, after the building sat vacant for 10 years.
Now the 490,000-square-foot site in the 300 block of Third Street will be auctioned June 23.
Franz Manufacturing, Wayne-Dalton Corp. and Hustler Toy Co. once called Sterling Centers home. If Gabler had his druthers, a technology center would have occupied the three-story structure. Reality threw a monkey wrench into those plans.
“The economy took a significant downturn,” Gabler said.
The Sterling businessman founded Verifacts – a skip-tracing company downtown with Fortune 500 companies for clients. It searches for customers who skip payments to various retail stores like Target. Developing Sterling Centers and guiding Verifacts, 204 First Ave., proved too taxing.
Gabler enlisted Rick Levin and Associates of Chicago to auction and market the building. He hopes a Sauk Valley resident makes the successful bid and fulfills his job-creation dream.
The minimum bid is $900,000, and marketing materials peg its replacement value at $24 million. Gabler and Levin said the building could be insured for $40 million, though.
“The building is built like a fort and will probably stand for the next 100 years,” Gabler said.
Hustler Toy occupied it as early as December 1926, followed by Franz and Wayne-Dalton, so the building has seen many changes. That includes the renovation of its heating system, which Gabler said cut heating costs from $28,000 to $7,000 a year.
Rentals generate some income for building
Most of the building – 470,000 square feet – is devoted to manufacturing and storage space, the rest is office space.
An open inspection Friday, hosted by Levin and Associates, provided a look inside, where Wal-Mart employees were busily working. Wal-Mart, Wahl Clipper and two other tenants rent 73,000 square feet of storage space, generating $115,000 in annual income.
Levin hinted that those considering buying the building usually play coy.
“The folks that are interested usually tell me they’re not,” Levin said.
The city of Sterling toured the building, Gabler said.
Sterling City Manager Scott Shumard said officials only accepted an invitation from Gabler.
The city is obligated to maintain Sterling Coliseum, which has its own dedicated tax body, so buying the center “wasn’t a real option,” Shumard said.
“It didn’t make sense for us to try to maintain [the Coliseum] and another [facility].”
Jason Carson Wilson, Daily Gazette
Daily Gazette, Sterling, IL
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