SALEM — Nearly a dozen interested buyers showed up Wednesday for a pre-auction tour of the Flynntan property on Boston Street.
The two-acre former tannery site, which the city recently acquired through a court proceeding, will be sold at auction on March 22.
It sits at the junction of Boston, Bridge and Goodhue streets and anchors one end of the new North River Canal Corridor, a former manufacturing and industrial district the city recently rezoned in the hope of encouraging and controlling development.
Local real estate agent Julianna Tache, the auctioneer, led a tour of the property, which sits on a steep hillside at the busy intersection. She said she has handed out more than 20 information packets to prospective bidders.
Among those on Wednesday's brief tour was Phil Singleton, a residential developer who recently completed the historic renovation of the old police station on Central Street. Singleton said he plans to attend the auction and may be a bidder. Like others, however, he has serious questions about the site.
"I think the uncertainty of (the environmental issues) is the great concern," he said.
The Environmental Protection Agency did a hazardous waste cleanup of parts of the site in 1998. It is expected, however, that the buyer will have to do additional work.