COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – Last Wednesday, the City of College Station announced it will accept sealed bids from those looking to purchase the old Macy’s building at Post Oak Mall.

Macy’s closed its doors in 2021, and the city bought the building in 2022 for $7.3 million. After that, the city was in talks with Texas A&M University about a possible lease to turn the building into an esports facility.

KBTX confirmed that those plans ended in June.

When those plans fell through, council member Bob Yancy told KBTX he was looking for deals that would bring the most value to taxpayers.

“For it to be redeveloped in a way that we think best benefits the taxpayer or develop into a public asset that could benefit all citizens of our community,” Yancy said.

Now, any party interested in purchasing the property has until December 16 to submit an offer for Brazos Valley Electronic Market.

“Asking the market what they think they would support, what they think they would like to see put in there. We don’t have too many preconceived notions at this point, we’re just trying to see what the market suggests,” said board member Elizabeth Cunha.

According to Cunha, she hopes to see new life breathed into the storefront and the mall as a whole.

“We are invested in supporting this project and making sure the mall has new life and continues to be an asset to our community,” she added.

After that Dec. 16 deadline, city staff will then present those options to the city council.

According to the city’s development director, the sealed bid process encourages a wide range of options for the future of the space.

The old Macy’s building isn’t the only piece of land the city is looking to see revitalized. In Northgate, I could see some movement soon in the parking lot behind Dixie Chicken.

That request from the city had much more rigid guidelines for potential bidders.

“I think its 120 spaces remain available for our businesses and then you can build on top. And we also asked for a police station, a police substation,” Cunha said.

Cunha explained that we can anticipate the project around the surface lot to be about student housing.

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