Charles City terminates leasing agreement for neighborhood facility building

An agreement for the lease of Charles City’s Neighborhood Facility Building has been terminated.

Charles City’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to end an agreement with MIT for the rental of the facility at the request of Charles City County Administrator Keith Rogers. By terminating the agreement, the county waived approximately $70,000 owed for taxes as the company had contributed $200,000 for upgrades to the facility.

Terminating the agreement is the second substantial item county leaders have addressed in the last week, with Diode Ventures electing to pull their application to rezone several acres of land for the construction of a data center. Regarding the neighborhood facility building, public criticism and accusations has been lodged against District 3 Chairman Byron Adkins Sr., who allegedly had a conflict of interest in the agreement.

Rob Tyler, who has been an opponent of the agreement, commented on the matter after the decision was made.

“I presume it was Mr. Rogers who made that move,” Tyler said. “We didn’t see any movement on it before he was around.

“I think we can assume that it wasn’t Mr. Adkins because he stood up in front of us last December next to [Interim County Administrator] Mr. [Bill] Coada and gave us an hour-long sales pitch as to why it was such a wonderful deal,” Tyler concluded.

The property now reverts back into possession of the county.