Albany Commission, ADICA OK purchase of downtown Pine Avenue/Front Street property

ALBANY — The Albany-Dougherty Inner City Authority, working in partnership with City Manager Sharon Subadan’s office, gave the final approval Wednesday needed for the purchase of downtown property vital to the city’s redevelopment master plan.

The ADICA board voted unanimously to accept terms of a contract that will allow the city/ADICA partnership to purchase tracts of land located at 115-133 Front Street and 100-112 Pine Avenue — the so-called “Wurst Property” — for $619,000. That amount, City Attorney Nathan Davis told the board, is the value of the property on Dougherty County tax rolls.

Subadan, who is serving as downtown manager/ADICA president while the search continues for a replacement for former interim Downtown Manager Sharlene Cannon, said $400,000 of the purchase price would come from the Inner City Authority’s previously approved Riverfront Retail Fund and $219,000 would come from the city’s Job-Investment Fund.

The Albany City Commission last month gave Subadan the authority to use up to $5 million of the almost $19 million job fund to spur downtown development.

“I made it clear when I came here that once we had an opportunity to move forward with downtown redevelopment, we would take it,” the city manager said after Wednesday’s ADICA board meeting. “It became clear that Mr. (John) Wurst was interested in selling the property quickly. I don’t think this (contract) comes as a surprise to anyone.”

Subadan’s office sent out a release after the meeting saying, “The property will be used to incentivize small businesses in starting and/or expanding in the downtown area. The goal is to help facilitate the creation and expansion of business opportunities for the citizens of Albany by incentivizing real estate opportunities in the area.

“The property will be used to spur private investment and business growth through private business development opportunities.”

Subadan’s release also noted that negotiations are under way with potential businesses to move into the properties once the city completes the purchase. Every project, by City Commission agreement, must have a job creation element tied to it.

“It’s too early to talk about job numbers now,” Subadan said. “Certainly that will depend on the types of businesses that locate in the property.”

Wurst, the president of GFA Realty Services Inc. of Tallahassee, Fla., accepted $5,000 in earnest money from the city, which has 30 days to complete an environmental assessment of the property.

“I’ve been assured by Assistant City Manager (Stephen) Collier that he has begun the process of hiring two companies to complete the review within the allotted time,” Davis said.

Told that Subadan would oversee the results of the review, board member Jimmy Lindsey said, “I’m satisfied with that. I just wanted to make sure we had someone who would be made aware if there were some kind of nuclear issue with the property.”

Also at the ADICA meeting, Subadan briefed the board on action taken by the City Commission during a special called meeting earlier in the day. The commission approved a proposal that will remove its second lien from the Hilton Garden Inn property and allow Albany Holdings LLC to refinance that establishment in anticipation of building a second hotel on the 2.5-acre site along Front Street and Oglethorpe Boulevard.

Subadan said Albany Holdings plans to complete all requirements to start construction of a Home2 Suites in 34 months.

“This will impact ADICA because part of the agreement is that a OneGeorgia loan that this organization served as a pass-through agent for will be paid off,” Subadan said. “Also, while it is not the only option, we are looking at the (Holman) Mule Barn property to provide parking for both hotels.

“I’ve talked with (County Administrator) Richard Crowdis, and he assures me that is proper use of the SPLOST funding that was used to purchase the (Mule Barn) property. If we do use that property, there will be some facade preservation involved. The hotel management company will be responsible for any parking spaces used for the hotels, and any spaces above their requirements will be funded by ADICA. That may be one space, two spaces, 10 spaces or no spaces.”

Assistant to the Downtown Manager John Howard told the board the Waffle House restaurant adjacent to the Hilton Garden Inn on Oglethorpe would open Aug. 20.