WINNSBORO – The burned-out hull of what was once two of the town’s crown jewels – the Tavern and Thespian Hall – has been purchased by the Town with the purpose of restoring the property to its glory days.
On Tuesday night, the Winnsboro Town Council voted unanimously to purchase the one-acre property for $100,000 from current owner attorney Mike Kelly. Kelly purchased the property in June 2011, six months after it burned.
The purchase and project are the initial, but major step in the town council’s plan to revitalize the downtown.
“It fits in with our plan,” Winnsboro Mayor John McMeekin said. “I’m happy and proud that we’re moving in the right direction.”
“We’ve identified several properties over the last year that we’re trying to acquire,” Town Manager Jason Taylor said. “We’re targeting the worst of the worst. We need to step in and deal with these properties that are the most derelict, so we can mitigate their drain on the town.
“That’s the approach we’re taking and, obviously, the burned out Tavern is just about the worst we have,” he said. “Plus, its location is right next to the clock, the icon of the town. So that’s something we’re anxious to deal with. “No one wants to move next to a burned out building.”
Taylor, McMeekin and the council see the purchase as a significant redevelopment opportunity as it allows the town to own the whole block. The town currently owns the clock and the parking lot next to it back to the railroad track.
“We’re starting in the heart of the town,” Taylor said.
“Once we rehab these downtown eyesores, then the private sector is more likely to invest in our downtown. They’ll feel more comfortable when the risk is kind of mitigated and the worst of the properties are rehabbed,” Taylor said.
Using $500,000 the Town received from a legislative appropriation made possible by House Representative Annie McDaniel earlier this year, Taylor sallied forth to seek appraisals of four properties, initially, using a licensed appraiser to give a fair market value on the properties. Taylor is using those appraisals to make offers to the current property owners.
“The first one, the Thespian Hall/Tavern property, appraised for $100,000 and we purchased it for that amount. But we’re not just buying the burned-out Tavern and Thespian Hall section. The entire property also includes other spaces that were not burned, two of which are a law office suite that is paying rent and an apartment on the back side of Thespian Hall,” Taylor said. “We also acquired all the open property associated with the building.
“By council approving this, we can now close reasonably quickly and will start cleaning the property up and assessing our options as far as the route we’ll take. We have some ideas of how we want to move forward,” Taylor said. “Now that we have acquired the property, we will do some additional assessments.
“One of the options – and our preference – is to restore the buildings to what they were,” Taylor said. He estimates the restoration can be completed in less than two years, with the initial clearing and clean up being done in house.
The Town currently has offers on three other dilapidated, unused downtown buildings.
