Anybody want to buy a firehouse?

Sonoma’s old Patten Street firehouse is still up for grabs, but for a more permanent basis, following a closed session Wednesday night of the Sonoma Community Development Agency.
The firehouse was decommissioned in October 2002, and recently housed on a temporary basis the police station and City Council chambers. Four applicants would like to turn the 1960s-era building into either retail shops topped by offices, a boutique winery or hotel, or a demonstration center for sustainable architecture.
The CDA – with the Sonoma City Council as boardmembers and the City Manager as CEO – oversees property development and blight removal in the city’s downtown commercial corridor. At its March 19 public session, the agency approved a “request for qualifications” for firehouse-interested parties; the next step in the long legal process involved a closed session to meet with those parties prior to the May 21 council meeting.
The change means the city is “casting its net wider,” City Manager Linda Kelly said after Wednesday night’s council meeting. She said the property was assessed at $3.1 million but that the sale price has yet to be set. She added that should the applicants submit purchase proposals, another closed session would be called for negotiations.
Kelly said last week that the open-ended process could take months, and will eventually result in a public hearing on any potential agreement between city and developer.