Some property owned by the County of Essex has been sold well above market value.
The property at 970 County Rd. 41, formerly known as the Harrow Yard, has been sold for $555,000. It was previously used as storage, but the county declared it redundant in 2017.
According to a report, the county had the 7 acre property with several buildings appraised at $418,000 in the summer of 2017.
County Warden Tom Bain says the offer coming in well over the estimated price was too good to pass up. "When we saw it as surplus property we decided with the market the way it is, and we don't have a need for it, now's the time to move it on," he says. "Especially when there were those who were interested in it."
Bain says the money will go back into public works. "Certainly it will sit in the public works reserve and as needs come up for road patching and we're working on roads and you see that we could extend it, those are things that we'll look at using that money.
The new owner of the property was not made public.