ANN ARBOR, MI – While the $10 million sale of the city-owned Library Lot in downtown Ann Arbor is now canceled, the city is still expected to pay a real estate broker more than $200,000 in fees.

The city is confirming the final calculation, but it’s likely going to be about $220,000, said Tom Crawford, the city’s chief financial officer.

CBRE, a Los Angeles-based commercial real estate services and investment firm with offices in Southfield, was hired by the city in 2014 to help market and sell the 0.8-acre property on Fifth Avenue.

The Library Lot is the surface of the city’s underground parking garage next to the downtown library where the city has been trying to facilitate a high-rise development for the past decade, going through two rounds of development proposals.

CBRE helped the city attract nine development proposals in 2015 and the city decided to go with the highest bidder, resulting in the $10 million deal to sell to Chicago developer Core Spaces and allow a 17-story high-rise and developer-funded plaza to be built.

The City Council approved the deal in April 2017, but Ann Arbor voters put up a roadblock this past November by approving a city charter amendment stipulating that the land can’t be sold and must be transformed into an urban park and civic center commons.

In light of that, the city informed Core Spaces this week that the $10 million deal is now off.

The city is now looking at what it may have to pay CBRE for its services in helping to line up the Core Spaces deal.

The contract between the city and CBRE dated Oct. 2, 2014, stated that, if a sale happened, the developer/purchaser would pay CBRE a fee equal to 3 percent of the overall project value, with a cap on the fee once the project value was better known.

But if the city canceled the project for any reason, the contract stated the city would have to pay CBRE a termination fee equal to $4,000 per month, and it’s now been 51 months.

The contract also allowed CBRE to charge the city fees for additional services and work by subcontractors as needed.

There’s still a chance Core Spaces could take legal action to challenge the city’s termination of the $10 million sale agreement.

Andrew Wiedner, chief acquisitions officer for Core Spaces, said the development team strongly objects to the city’s position and is evaluating its options.

An attorney for Core Spaces appeared before the City Council on Dec. 17, hinting at the possibility of “very expensive litigation.”

Crawford said the city doesn’t have a full tally of how much money the city has spent trying to facilitate development of the Library Lot over the past decade, counting legal fees and other costs.

The Ann Arbor News and MLive have filed a Freedom of Information Act request for records showing the city’s incurred costs.