Hartsville to buy Bank of America building for $200,000
By JIM FAILE
Hartsville will soon get a new city hall.
Hartsville City Council took less than two minutes during a special called meeting Thursday to approve a resolution authorizing the expenditure of $200,000 to purchase the former Bank of America building in the heart of downtown from Bank of America.
The building sits on the northeastern corner of the intersection of Carolina Avenue and Fifth Street at 100 E. Carolina Ave. The bank closed for building, which served as its main branch office in Hartsville, on March 25.
City officials said when they learned that the building would be closing that they would like to buy it and renovate it for use as a new city hall.
The current city hall, located just down the street at 133 W. Carolina Ave., is overcrowded, and city officials have long expressed a desire for more space and to put as many city administrative offices as possible under one roof.
In January, shortly after learning of the impending closing of the building, council authorized City Manager Natalie Zeigler to begin negotiating with Bank of America officials for the possible purchase of the building. “The negotiations are complete. The city made them an offer and they have accepted the offer,” Zeigler told council.
Zeigler said Bank of America officials are expected to be in town Monday to meet with city officials and provide a tour of the building for them.
“I’m excited. We’re getting a new city hall,” Mayor Mel Pennington said after the vote in a telephone conversation. Pennington was unable to attend the special meeting.
“From the moment we heard that Bank of America was leaving the building, we have worked diligently to protect our downtown. Making that building our city hall is an effective and efficient way of keeping our downtown secure,” Pennington said.
Zeigler said the city has to send 10 percent of the money to the seller on Friday under the terms of the agreement.
City Attorney Marty Driggers said closing on the purchase will happen soon. “It’s going to be closed on within 30 days easy,” he said.
For many years, the two-story building housed the Bank of Hartsville. The building is well-known locally not only for its central location but for the large clock mounted on the corner of the building above the sidewalk. The clock had remained inoperable for nearly 14 years until Bank of America had it repaired and returned to working order last fall.
Zeigler said that plans are to move city administrative offices into the bank building and move the police department from the two buildings that it currently occupies into the current city hall to put the entire department in one location. The police department is currently located next door to city hall, with the Investigations Division housed in the former water department building on North Fourth Street.
Moving the administrative offices into the bank building will allow for the redevelopment of the current police department building and the city planning office, also on West Carolina, for retail use, officials said.
Pennington said in January that buying the building could save the city as much as $12 million in construction costs estimated to build a new city hall.
Bank of America still operates two branch offices in Hartsville, one at 825 S. Fifth St. in the Hartsville Mall, and one at 712 N. Fifth St.