The city of Galva spent more than $1 million recently on real estate purchases, hoping to attract new businesses and residents to the city.
City Administrator David Dyer said the city paid $981,903 for a 44-plus acre tract directly east of the Galva Park District, and $275,000 for a former auto dealership downtown.
Both of the properties are within the city’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district, he said.
Dyer said the City Council hasn’t formally decided what to do with what’s now a soybean field within the city limits that borders the park facility on the east. He said one idea is to develop a 60-lot residential subdivision there. “We think we can get about 60 homes in there,” Dyer said.
Water and sewer lines are next to the site, he said, and having the park next door would make it an ideal place for families to live.
Dyer said Galva’s housing stock doesn’t offer many of the kinds of homes people — especially young people with families — want to buy. Such people are looking for three-bedroom homes on one level, with attached garages, in the $250,000 price range. But many of the Galva homes are multi-story houses with detached garages.
Developing a subdivision would be a big project which could be several years in the making, he said.
More immediate results may come from the city’s purchase of the former Fred Lord Chevrolet property in downtown Galva.
The property includes the main showroom building, a Morton building behind it that apparently was the service department and a vacant residential lot across the street to the south.
Dyer said “a couple of people are looking at” the property. He said those potential buyers are “business service organizations,” but he couldn’t give any further details due to nondisclosure agreements.
