The City Council unanimously voted Tuesday to put a dilapidated former AIDS hospice named for a hero of San Diego’s gay and lesbian community up for sale, but reserved the right to approval of a final deal.

The caveat was designed to address concerns over the eventual fate of the Truax House, at Laurel and Union streets in Bankers Hill. The home was named for Brad Truax, a doctor who spread awareness of AIDS in the 1980s. He died of the disease in 1988.

“The Truax House is sacred ground to many of us,” said local LGBT community leader Nicole Murray Ramirez.

The ex-hospice is one of a pair of aging structures on about two-thirds of an acre. The property was appraised at $2.4 million, but will require about $1.8 million in repairs to be made livable, according to city staff.

Councilman Todd Gloria, who is gay and represents the area, said he hopes an eventual purchaser will restore the house and make it available as a public meeting space.

Proceeds from the sale are required to go into the city’s Gas Tax fund, because of the manner in which the land was acquired 56 years ago.

However, a similar amount of money from the city’s general fund could be used to create an AIDS memorial and nearby park projects, according to the mayor’s office. A nonprofit group formed last year is raising funds for such a memorial.

Real estate assets Director Cybele Thompson said it will take about a month before the city’s real estate brokers are ready to market the property. She said she could come back to the City Council with a prospective deal by the end of this year.

In other actions Tuesday, the City Council:

— unanimously approved early termination of a lease held by the nonprofit that operated the Epicentre, a teen music venue in Mira Mesa that once hosted Maroon 5 and other groups early in their careers. Councilman Chris Cate said a committee has been formed to study the facility’s future use, which is restricted by the federal government to community service; and

— unanimously approved an incremental increase over five years of the city’s reserves from 14 percent of the general fund to 16.7 percent, including $16 million in excess money from this fiscal year to be set aside for expected future hikes in the city’s contribution to its employee retirement fund.

According to the Chief Financial Officer Mary Lewis, the pension systems investment portfolio is running well below an assumed return of 7.25 percent, and was recently in negative territory, which will require a higher payment from the city on July 1 of next year.

–City News Service