What’s taking so long with Parcel 57 sale?

People generally have little sympathy for real estate developers, who,  like reporters, lawyers and politicians, are often suspected of being up to something.

Nevertheless, some pity is due builder/developer Palmer Gillis who, at the Town of Berlin’s invitation, has been trying  … and trying … to buy a piece of Heron Park. And, so far, he is failing.

Now in the middle of his second attempt to buy a parcel carved out of the former Tyson poultry plant tract — his first attempt fell apart when the town tried to sell him the land without access to wastewater utilities — Gillis and the town have yet to establish precisely what it is he’s buying.

Although the section Gillis wants to put a mixed-use project on is known as Parcel 57, the land’s exact metes and bounds have not been put on paper, leaving him with no plat to take to settlement for the legal record.

It’s anyone’s guess why, after all this time, there is no plat. Considering that the deal between the buyer and the seller was formally approved 11 months ago in April 2025, and that  the town first called for proposals to develop the property more than three years ago, in 2022, it does seem someone  at some point would have committed something — like a legal description of the the property — to paper.

At the same time, Gillis told the mayor and council Monday that his company has gotten nowhere after spending months attempting to resolve the parcel boundary issue with town staff and engineers. And he said he has had little success working through the planning and zoning processes he needs to complete for settlement.

The town needs to get on the stick, as they say, if it wants to cash in on this piece of property. Otherwise, Gillis would be excused if he concluded that the real problem here is that the town just isn’t that interested in selling anything.