Wilmington leaders will consider contracts with four commercial real estate firms on Tuesday to help sell off the city's surplus properties.

The Wilmington City Council will consider “on-call contracts” with the real estate companies, which range from locally-based brokers to global firms, at its Tuesday meeting. Ahead of the city’s $68 million purchase of the former Thermo Fisher Scientific campus last summer, city officials declared nine city-owned office buildings and other properties as surplus with hopes of selling them to offset the cost of the new campus.

While the city has sold off some of its smaller surplus parcels, several downtown office buildings remain under city ownership. In April, city leaders issued a request for proposals for “qualified brokerage firms that could be called upon on an as-needed or on-call basis to facilitate the sale of surplus City property,” according to the council’s agenda documents.

Nine firms responded by the May 16 deadline. The firms were evaluated based on a demonstration of prior success with similar services, qualifications and experience of the team along with the quality and detail of the submittal, among other considerations.

Council members will consider contracts with the four highest-scoring firms. Those include TJT Management Company, Jones Lang Lasalle IP or JLL, a commercial real estate firm with a global presence along with Wilmington-based firms Sun Coast Partners and Cape Fear Commercial.

Last summer, city leaders also awarded Cape Fear Commercial the leasing services contract for the city's new 12-story office building at 929 N. Front St. after purchasing it from Thermo Fisher Scientific.

The selected firms would be directed by staff on a task order basis to provide services needed to sell the city’s surplus property, the agenda documents state.

“Services are expected to include property assessments, valuation analyses, development of marketing strategies, performance buyer identification, negotiation of initial offers, and performance transaction management,” according to agenda documents.

Task orders are expected to take the form of “traditional property listing agreements.” Staff would seek proposals for each task order from the four firms, choosing the firm based on qualifications, proposed compensation and capacity to take on the workload. 

“No compensation to any firm would be rendered unless a transaction was approved by Council and then successfully closed,” agenda documents state.

City staff recommend an initial two-year contract with the option to negotiate and renew the contracts. The resolution would also authorize Wilmington City Manager Tony Caudle to “execute task orders in the form of traditional property listing agreements,” according to agenda documents.

In a related issue, the council is also set to consider an unsolicited $16 million bid on Tuesday for a surplus property – an office building at 115 N. Third St. – and two city-owned parking decks.