The Grant County Redevelopment Commission voted on Jan. 5 to reopen the request for proposals (RFP) for the 400 South Miller Avenue property and set a new submission deadline of March 2, 2026, pending review by legal counsel.

The decision follows a multi-commissioner discussion about the three top-ranked proposals, the adequacy of proposal documentation and whether reopening the RFP would attract additional, better-suited respondents. "The motion is to open the RFPs, for the 400 South Miller Avenue, to March 2," the chair said when stating the motion before the voice vote.

Why it matters: commissioners emphasized two primary goals for the site: securing long-term funding for the Redevelopment Commission (RDC) and seeing the property cleaned and marketed for productive reuse. The chair said the RDC needs sustained funding and cited figures in the range of "half a million to a million dollars" as illustrative of the scale needed to support the commission's efforts.

What was discussed: staff and commissioners said the RFP had been advertised for roughly 60 days and the property had been on the market about six months. Mister Bookout, who led the scoring effort, told the commission he had reached out to local businesses and statewide developers to generate interest and recommended an executive session to perform deeper due diligence on the top respondents. "The next step would be to have that executive session and do that due diligence," Bookout said, recommending verification of proposers' financial capacity and project plans before any final selection.

Commissioners also questioned some scoring results. One commissioner noted that American Research and Aluminum, which asserted it would create the most jobs, received a relatively low score; staff and other commissioners said some proposers did not submit balance sheets or other documentation that would show the capacity to deliver their proposals. The commission retained the option to reject proposals even after further vetting.

Outcome and next steps: after discussion an unnamed commissioner moved to reopen the RFP for an additional period; another commissioner seconded. The chair called for a voice vote; commissioners responded "aye," and the chair announced the motion carried. The extension is expressly "pending legal counsel review," and staff said the commission will consider further outreach and advertising — including local legal ads and a national project leaderboard — while preparing for possible executive-session vetting of finalists.

The commission asked staff to circulate the reopened solicitation broadly and to accept names of potential respondents from commissioners for targeted outreach. The matter was tabled until the March 2 deadline to allow the additional solicitation and due diligence to proceed.