Save this historic Fremont building for just $1

Fremont doesn’t have much in the way of historic buildings, and unless a very motivated buyer has one dollar and a lot of ambition, it’s about to have even fewer, as redevelopment plans will soon extinguish the East Bay town’s old Centerville fire station.

On January 23, the city of Fremont alerted the public about a (pardon the term) hot deal:

“Silicon Sage Builders, owner of the fire station building and property located at 37412 Fremont Boulevard in the Centerville Community Plan Area, is offering to sell the fire station building for the price of $1.00 for a period of sixty (60) days to any party willing to move the fire station building off of the site.”

The developer, who has plans to build a mixed-use project with 165 new homes on the fire station’s land and surrounding parcels, has permission to demolish the firehouse, but first must put it up for sale to see if there are any (in this case literal) takers.

The offer is only good through March 21, at which point the property will face the wrecking ball, along with other buildings on the 4.5-acre project site.

According to the Fremont Planning Division, “the former fire station building has been evaluated as potentially eligible for the California Register of Historical Resources and National Register of Historic Places,” although it’s not currently listed on any such resource.

Built in 1954, the station went out of service in 2008. Fremont’s City Council was sharply divided for months on what’s to be done with it, eventually siding with demolition for the sake of the new project last March, but with the sales window included as a bone to preservationists.

San Jose Mercury-News estimates that just hauling it off the lot could cost up to $500,000.

And unlike, say, a classic home, it’s not immediately evident what someone would even do with the old place once they had it, so the most likely buyer would presumably be someone motivated mostly by the preservation mandate.

The clock is ticking.