GREENFIELD — The bus maintenance facility at 382 Deerfield St. appears to be headed back onto the city’s tax rolls, with final signatures on a $400,000 purchase and sale agreement.

The brick garage is owned by the city and overseen by the Greenfield Montague Transportation Authority, which Montague Town Administrator Steve Ellis said at this week’s Selectboard meeting “is a largely defunct organization that has existed for the sole purpose of maintaining” the facility.

The GMTA’s board of directors recently voted unanimously to sell the building to JimBob Realty LLC, an entity owned by local businessman Bob Cartelli, who also owns Toyota & Ford of Greenfield, Bob Cartelli’s The Body Shop in Greenfield, and Fathers & Sons Auto Group in West Springfield.

“It was a fairly long process and discussion that brought us to that price,” Ellis told the Montague Selectboard. “[It’s a] very good price, relative to the value.”

GMTA leases the Deerfield Street facility to the Franklin Regional Transit Authority (FRTA), which this summer opened its new maintenance and operations facility at 3 Sandy Lane in Turners Falls.

The GMTA board of directors is reportedly made up of Ellis, Montague Town Accountant Carolyn Olsen, Greenfield City Accountant Angelica Desorches and Dani Letourneau, who earlier this month resigned as Mayor Roxann Wedegartner’s chief of staff. Wedegartner said the sale, once completed, will enhance the vitality of that end of the city.

“I think it’s a great economic development opportunity for Greenfield,” she said. “It’s an expansion of their business and I know it’ll be a nice addition to that end of Deerfield Street.”

Ellis explained that JimBob Realty assumes all the facility’s future costs, including underground storage tank removal. He said Greenfield owns 70% of the facility and Montague owns 30% — and that is how all costs and all benefits are distributed. He said neither Greenfield nor Montague have a need for the 1.361-acre property.

Cartelli said he plans to move The Body Shop from the 7,000-square-foot space at 38 Hope St. to the Deerfield Street location. He said he likely has a buyer lined up for the Hope Street shop but declined to go into further detail at this time. He hopes to close on the Deerfield Street property by Aug. 17.

“Basically it’s a done deal,” he said this week. “It’s just a matter of paperwork.”

The Sunderland resident said the size of the 17,000-square-foot bus facility, with its high ceilings and tall doors, made it appealing. He said the deal has been in the works for about two years.

“We want to build a large body shop that can accommodate commercial vehicles as well as customer cars,” Cartelli said. “It’s just a perfect facility.”

Cartelli acknowledged the structure needs a great deal of repairs. He said he plans to install a new roof and air conditioning, rehabilitate the floors, gut the interior, and bring in “a massive amount of new equipment” that he estimates will cost at least $800,000.

“It’s going to be quite an undertaking,” he said, adding that he expects renovations to begin in about four months.

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com.

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