Ware Shoals eyes 2024 CPST projects

The “Big Friendly” building in Ware Shoals could get hollowed out and prepped for a new use, if Ware Shoals moves forward with plans to propose that project for the 2024 Capital Project Sales Tax.

Across Greenwood County, municipalities and groups are preparing their project applications for possible funding through a 2024 CPST. The penny sales tax will be up for vote in November, and will include a list of projects to be funded using the tax’s revenues.

In the meantime, the commission in charge of selecting the projects that will make that list is soliciting applications. On Monday, the Ware Shoals properties and economic development committee discussed some ideas to get the town its piece of the CPST pie.

Kyle Campbell, the owner of Preservation South who Ware Shoals selected to manage the renovation of Katherine Hall under the 2016 CPST, spoke with the committee Monday to find out what it wants from the current town hall building. Formerly known as the “Big Friendly,” the building served as a company store for Riegel Mill and, in the 1930s, was a commercial center near Katherine Hall.

Campbell, who did an assessment of the building, said its lowered ceiling and partitioned internal rooms don’t make it particularly suitable for commercial use as it stands. The building offers a lot of square footage for a town hall that sees, at most, a half-dozen people in the building.

Campbell told the committee he saw the potential for the building, if hollowed out and refit, to house commercial space on its main floor, a boutique hotel or Airbnb-style rental space on the second floor and a grocery store or climate-controlled storage in the basement. The basement could also house municipal court, once town hall’s other functions are relocated to the renovated Katherine Hall.

If this were proposed as a CPST project, Campbell said he’d focus on stripping the building’s façade back to its pre-1950s brick front and remove all other non-historic elements.

“You’re thinking on the same page as I am,” said Mayor Bryan Ross.

Ross said he sees a path forward moving town hall’s functions into the soon-to-be renovated Katherine Hall while the city simultaneously pursues a new CPST project to prepare the “Big Friendly” building for a new purpose. He made a motion to condense and move the city’s offices.

“We have an opportunity here to get the town into a building that’s up to code,” Ross said. “We’re not even up to code here.”

Councilman Micheal Powell had his doubts. If Ware Shoals doesn’t get CPST approval for this project, what would become of the now-empty building? Powell said he was concerned a future council would sell the building in that case, and the town would lose the opportunity to shape the development at its center.

“Whether you get the next penny sales tax funding here or not, there’s other things you could be doing with this building,” Campbell said.

Ross’ motion failed, but Councilman Brandon White made a similar motion to consolidate and move town hall, contingent on the town getting draft architectural plans for what to do with the current town hall building, to be used in a CPST project application. This passed despite Powell’s dissent, and will go to the full town council for consideration at its next meeting.

Ross brought up another prospective CPST project: finishing elements of the town’s amphitheater. He told the committee he’d like to see a CPST project application to fund a restroom facility and a concessions stand.

The deadline for CPST project applications is Feb. 5.

Originally Published by Index-Journal on:Jan 11, 2024

 By DAMIAN DOMINGUEZ ddominguez@indexjournal.com

Article Link: https://www.indexjournal.com/news/ware-shoals-eyes-2024-cpst-projects/article_5d5f8da8-afe5-11ee-9f78-239d788b2ba6.html