Washington County has asked the Washington Parking Authority to reconsider its decision Wednesday to reject a $4 million offer to purchase the Crossroads Parking Garage.

The county wants to purchase the garage as parking for its employees who currently park in the Courthouse Square garage, which is slated for demolition to make way for construction of a new public safety complex.

In a letter to the parks board, commission chairman Nick Sherman expressed his disappointment and frustration that the county’s offer was not accepted.

“The decision not to reach an agreement will force us to build our own parking garage on county property, which will place a significant financial burden on the residents of the City of Washington and the taxpayers of the school district,” Sherman said in the letter. “In addition, the lack of revenue from the existing parking garage will result in further structural damage and further loss of revenue to the city.”

Sherman said he believes agreement has been reached on an appraisal value of just over $4 million, which was set earlier this year.

“My team and I had a series of productive negotiations with Washington Mayor JoJo Burgess and other city and school officials and were optimistic that we had reached an agreement to acquire the property,” Sherman wrote. “Unfortunately, the situation took an unexpected turn (on Wednesday) when the Parks Department did not accept our proposed agreement.”

The parking garage is owned and operated by the Parks Authority, but money from a sale would be distributed among the city, Washington School District and county, since the garage’s construction in 2007 was based on a tax increment financing plan. The majority of the revenue would go to the city, which owns 50% of the garage, and the school district (43%). The county owns the rest.

Burgess said if debt service was taken into account, the $4 million would be reduced to $2.7 million, and the county would also receive its 7% share.

“That would significantly undercut anything the city and school district would have made from the deal. It just wasn’t worth it,” Burgess said Friday. “When we got the money breakdown on paper from their attorney, there were a lot of inaccuracies about how the money was to be spent and divided.”

“(County Chief of Staff) Daryl Price is telling us if we don’t play along the way they want, they’re going to take the parking garage. I’m not going to be intimidated and pressured into doing something just because I don’t get what I want. I’ve talked to our attorney and my council members and we’re on the same page. If we don’t get a fair deal, the parking garage will not be sold to the county.”

When contacted Friday, Sherman said the county was under time pressure because it would use some of the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for the purchase and plans had to be submitted by Dec. 31.

“We had to get this done by August,” Sherman said. “I don’t think it was a priority (for the city). They sat idly by for three months. The county reminded them of our deadline and now we’re at the deadline and they’re saying we want to negotiate and give us more time. We’ve been talking about this for six months.”

Sherman also said the garage could not be sold for more than the appraisal price.

“I thought we had everything signed, sealed and delivered, but then I went to the parking board meeting and (the mayor) said the city was no longer interested in selling the parking garage,” Sherman said. “If I hadn’t gone to that meeting, when would they have told us they had withdrawn their offer?”

The mayor said that only Sherman and Price were involved in the negotiations, not the other two commissioners.

“We need to get everyone in the room,” Burgess said. “All we’re asking is that the county be transparent, get everyone in the room and let us know what’s going on so we can make a decision.”

The garage opened in May 2007 at an estimated cost of $14.1 million. Since then, the garage has been losing money. Sherman said an audit by the parks department found the garage was losing $350,000 in value annually.

“Not only would they have gotten rid of the debt they have on the garage, a building that is losing money, but we could have taken over the building, invested capital in it, renovated it and used it,” Sherman said.