Demolish or develop is question for ADM properties

Jun. 15—The City Council is considering demolishing the city-owned Archer-Daniels-Midland buildings near downtown, but possible interest from developers in the historic structures is complicating the decision.

Kelly Thomas, executive director of Decatur Downtown Redevelopment Authority, said developers may be interested in the two almost 25,000-square-foot former cotton-oil warehouses built in 1900 off West Moulton Street.

The property for years has been seen as a potential anchor to a proposed Decatur Downtown Commons stretching north from West Moulton Street.

City Purchasing Agent Charles Booth presented a proposed resolution at Monday's council work session to award a contract to Virginia Wrecking Co., of Daphne, to demolish the two ADM buildings and two more on the site and clear the overgrowth on the 7.4-acre property.

The smallest building is a 5,150-square-foot storage shed near the street. The other is a 16,520-square-foot building in the northeast corner of the property that ADM built in 1901 as its original facility. ADM at one time pressed cotton seed in the buildings to get cotton oil.

Mayor Tab Bowling said they would like to market the property "but it's just unattractive. We're putting an emphasis on cleaning up the city and this is part of that. Someone might be interested in the property, but first we've got to get it cleaned off so you can see what's in there."

Thomas said Tuesday that developers have recently expressed interest in the ADM buildings "because of their cool look. A lot of people now like that rough, historic look like the Stove House or Lowe Mill" in Huntsville.

The Stove House is a 100-year-old building on Governor's Drive that was once the Martin Stove Factory and is now a mixed-use campus of restaurants, live music, shopping, office space and bars.

Lowe Mill was built in 1901 as a textile mill and then converted to Lowe Mill Arts & Entertainment in 2001. The building is now a privately owned facility with 150 studios and more than 200 artists.

Thomas said she spoke to Council President Jacob Ladner about the possibility of cleaning up the properties but leaving the buildings intact.

"It's about developer preference," Thomas said. "It really should be up to the developer of the property on whether they want the buildings or not."

Gauging interest in buildings

Councilman Kyle Pike said he knows there's been interest in the ADM property for some time but he wasn't aware of any recent interest and he would need an update from Thomas if there is.

"Some developers may want to retrofit the old buildings and some may not want them (still there)," Pike said. "If we don't have any interest, I know people love older buildings, but if a building has been vacant a long time I would rather remove it and allow something new to go up."

Ladner said the decision on whether to demolish the ADM buildings is a tough one.

"My inclination usually for an old, blighted building is to remove it and clean up the property but, on this one, it sounds like there may be some opportunities to make those buildings useful," Ladner said.

Ladner said he needs to conduct research and talk to people to find out if there really is interest in the ADM buildings.

"The city owns the property so we have a responsibility to make sure it's cleaned up," Ladner said.

Councilman Carlton McMasters said he wasn't aware that there may be developer interest in ADM property.

"Those old buildings are cool," McMasters said. "We do need to knock down the overgrowth, cut the grass and clean up the site."

Scrap metal prices a plus

David Lee, chief code enforcement officer, said this may be the time to remove the buildings because scrap metal recycling values are high.

Virginia Wrecking, which submitted the lowest of three bids, set the cost of demolition at $263,143, but that amount would be partially offset by $190,000 that Virginia would receive in recycling the scrap metal. The city's cost would be $73,143.

One of the other bidders estimated it could get $10,000 from the scrap metal and the other estimated $60,000. One of those bidders submitted a net bid of $124,000 and the other a net bid of $573,040.

"We may have a golden opportunity to get maximum value for the scrap metal and keep our costs down when maybe something like that doesn't happen again," Lee said.

Pike said Lee's idea of taking advantage of scrap metal prices "is a good point that I haven't considered, especially if we can recover some of our cost."

Councilman Billy Jackson said it appears "somebody's got a plan for that property," and he would like to know what that plan is before the city spends $73,143 from the unassigned fund balance on the demolition.

"If there's a plan, then every elected official should know that plan, especially the person whose district it resides in," Jackson said. The ADM property is in his District 1.

The Decatur Downtown Commons project was initially a centerpiece of the Envision Decatur comprehensive plan written in 1999 and was taken forward to the One Decatur comprehensive plan approved in 2018.

As originally conceived, it would be a mixed-use development with a high-tech business park and recreation area on 50 acres along Dry Creek. Archer- Daniels-Midland gave the city the long-vacant 7.4-acre West Moulton parcel that would be at the southern end of the Commons.

A number of possible developments have been considered for the property just west of the railroad tracks. Among the ideas considered over the years: a high school, when Decatur City Schools was considering consolidating the two high schools; an arts and entertainment center; a high-tech science center for Athens State University; a whiskey distillery; and a residential development.

Earlier this year, the city considered building a new recreation center on the property to replace the Aquadome, which will be demolished as part of a $98.4 million settlement with 3M Co. involving chemical contamination.

The city bought 14 additional acres near ADM for $149,000, but city officials wanted more property for the recreation center project than they were able to purchase because an owner didn't want to sell.

The council recently hired an architect for a new recreation center to be located at Wilson Morgan Park.

— bayne.hughes@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2432. Twitter @DD_BayneHughes.