Talk about buyer’s remorse.
Central United Methodist Church Inc. of Fayetteville now regrets the $3.3 million purchase of a U.S. Post Office.
The church recently sued Barbstan Partners Ltd. of Dallas to undo the 2014 sale after the church discovered a mistake made when it bought the 12 W. Dickson St. property.
The post office has leased the land and main 39,000-SF building since the early 1970s.
The purchase of the property, though, allowed the church to own all the buildings on the block and provided it with annual rental income of $123,705, according to the church’s lawsuit filed by attorney Brandon B. Cate of Quattlebaum Grooms & Tull’s Springdale office.
The church said it and Barbstan made a “substantial and material mutual mistake” concerning the federal government’s option to buy the property.
The church said it thought the federal government had an option to buy the property at fair market value because of a 1981 lease amendment.
Instead, under the terms of a 1971 lease agreement, the government has the option to buy the building in 2021 for $1.2 million.
This is something the church said it didn’t learn until March.
Central UMC now finds itself in the position of owing about $2.75 million of the $3.3 million it paid and possibly having to sell it in 2021 for $1.2 million, according to the lawsuit.
The church wants a judge to cancel the sale. The case is pending in U.S. District Court in Fayetteville.
In its answer, Barbstan, a partnership of siblings Barbara Weissberger and Dr. Stanley Franklin, denies there was a “mutual mistake of material fact” and asked that the case be thrown out.
“Dr. Franklin and Ms. Weissberger obviously disagree with many of the allegations made by Central United Methodist Church in its complaint,” according to a statement from their attorney, Colin Johnson, a partner at Davis Clark Butt Carithers & Taylor of Fayetteville.
“They are disappointed that they are being pulled into formal litigation concerning a real estate transaction which was negotiated at arms-length, with full knowledge and access to all pertinent documents, and which closed nearly four years ago.”