County will sell building

Development Authority accepts option from warehouse company to buy speculative site for $2 million

Web posted Tuesday, November 14, 2000

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By Melissa Hall
Columbia County Bureau

What do a boat and Columbia County's speculative building have in common?

``They say the two happiest days of your life are when you buy it and when you sell it,'' said Charles Mills, a member of the Columbia County Development Authority.

On Monday the authority accepted an option from a warehouse-distribution company to buy its speculative building for $2 million.

The $20,000 option from the unnamed company will hold the building until closing, which is expected to take place around mid-February.

Local attorney William Trotter III represented the company. Development Authority Chairman Ron Thigpen said all he knows about the company is that it is expected to employ 40 to 50 workers and pay about $15 an hour.

The speculative building, which has been on the market for more than two years, cost the county $1.9 million to build. It had been on the market for $2.1 million with a commercial real estate company.

That contract expired in September, leaving the authority without obligation to pay real estate commissions.

The potential sale comes at a time when the authority was preparing to refinance the bonds it issued to build the structure, which is located in Horizon South Industrial Park.

County Attorney Doug Batchelor said he has talked with the bond company and was able to extend the agreement, saving the county from reissuing bonds and incurring $10,000 to $20,000 in financing costs.

``Two million dollars is a realistic and fair price for this property,'' Development Authority member Bill Coleman said. ``They are not overpaying, but they are not trying to steal the property either.''

The Development Authority has recently shifted attention to the Horizon North Industrial Park, a proposed public-private partnership to develop 260 acres off Chamblin Road at Interstate 20, because Horizon South is essentially full.

An anchor tenant in the new park is being discussed between private developers and the county.Columbia County's spec building saga began in November 1997, when the first shovels of dirt were turned.

First, rock excavation at the site caused cost overruns. Then drainage problems at the building created an ongoing struggle between the Development Authority and the contractor, problems that were not resolved until last month.

The building had initially been listed for $2.3 million, but the county dropped the price at the advice of the real estate company it hired last year to market the building.

``This has been a learning experience,'' authority member Bobby Culpepper said.

While some considered the building to be an albatross, others continue to see the value of speculative buildings to industrial recruitment.

``Statistics show that 80 percent of folks you first get to see come by virtue of a speculative building,'' Mr. Thigpen said.

Reach Melissa Hall at (706) 868-1222, Ext. 113 or melhall@augustachronicle.com.

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