Jonesboro, AR – JonesboroRightNow.com – A resolution was put before the Finance and Administration Council Committee for the City of Jonesboro to resolve a lien involving property where the former Citizens Bank building once stood.
The committee voted 4-to-1 to forward the resolution to the full city council, with David McClain being the dissenting vote.
According to the resolution, the city would accept an offer to settle the litigation involving a $3 million lien that the city council voted in early September 2025 to place on the property, in an effort to recoup the building’s demolition costs.
That decision was appealed by the owner of the land on which the building once stood, Laurel Park LLC, in the Craighead County Circuit Court in September 2025, according to court records. The resolution would terminate that litigation.
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In exchange for the city settling the lien, Laurel Park LLC would pay the city $110,000. Once those funds are received, the city will remove its lien claims on the land. Part of that money will go toward paying the city’s legal fees incurred by the lien litigation, with city attorney Carol Duncan saying that amount was currently around $13,000.
During the discussion of the resolution, McClain said he thought the city’s acceptance of the $110,000 settlement was too low, especially once legal fees were taken into account.
“I think $110,000 is too low for us to take,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a good deal, and I don’t think we should accept this offer.”
Duncan said right now, the city has filed a motion to remove the council as a party named in the litigation. If the resolution was rejected, she said the next steps would be for the city to file a counterclaim and a foreclosure, where the issue would then be placed on the circuit court’s calendar. She added that even if the city won the litigation in circuit court, there was the possibility of an appeal.
“As we expressed to council before, it’s 100% up to you guys what y’all accept or don’t accept as far as a settlement,” Duncan told committee members. “When the mayor and I had a discussion about it, we both agreed there was no point in bringing anything under six figures to you guys to even review and determine. We knew that wasn’t gonna be anything that y’all would accept. But anything above six figures, we agreed to bring to you guys for your consideration.”
She said that previous settlement offers were around $50,000, $55,000, and later $70,000 to $75,000.
In December, the Jonesboro city council considered action to resolve the lien litigation, which involved buying the land where the building once was, as well as two surrounding lots, for $750,000 from Laurel Park LLC.
It was “essentially” killed when the council unanimously voted to send that resolution back to the Finance and Administration Council Committee, citing the little time they had to consider the offer and the land’s high price tag.
| READ MORE: Potential purchase of former Citizens Bank land ‘essentially’ killed by Jonesboro city council
Part of Main Street was shut down in September 2024 when a bulge was noticed on the side of the former Citizens Bank building, and it was declared a public safety hazard. It was condemned in December 2024.
The city council voted in January 2025 to approve the building’s demolition. Demolition officially began in March 2025, and all streets affected by the project reopened to traffic in May 2025.
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