Two developers are interested in the former Sears property downtown, Mayor Randy Roach said Wednesday.
A resolution unanimously passed Wednesday by the City Council authorized city officials to advertise for bids to purchase
the 110,000-square-foot property.
Roach did not disclose who the developers are because such an announcement would be premature until each makes a presentation.
“Any developer is going to have a general interest until the actual preparations of the plans,” Roach said. “They want to
know before they start doing all this work that the city is willing to negotiate the process.”
The law requires the city to sell the property for its appraised value, a figure the city has yet to obtain.
The purchase price of the old Sears site was $800,000 in 2004.
“You have to go through this process by state law whenever you intend to sell property,” Roach said. “In this particular case,
we have received two letters of interest from two different developers, and they want to submit a bid on the property.”
He said the council is authorizing the solicitation of bids from not just those two parties, but from others as well.
“This is our first formal notice of our intent to go out and solicit offers and receive offers and take action in accordance
of state law,” Roach said.
Roach said the city is not looking for a particular type of development, but historically the downtown area has had “mixed
use” type developments.
Roach referred to the Muller’s Building and the Charleston Hotel as examples.
“Traditionally you have the type of
development which uses a three-, four-story plan for development, and in
that plan you
have commercial on the bottom and residential and office space on
the top,” Roach said. “Essentially, we’re not just looking
at what they want to use the property for, but the design and the
style of the architecture.”
Roach said he hopes the new building blends in with the pedestrian feel downtown.
The deadline for the bids is Oct. 8.