News

Divided county commission votes to buy Grove Street property for $2½ million

County commissioners voted to buy the Carr Blackwell law office building and another parcel on South Grove between East Allen Street and First Avenue West for $2½ million.

By Bill Moss, Published: July 20, 2024

Over the strong objections of two members, the Henderson County Board of Commissioners voted to buy a block of property on South Grove Street for use as swing space during construction of the $160 million courthouse-jail expansion and for courthouse parking.

Commissioners voted 3-2 during their regular mid-month meeting Wednesday to buy the Carr, Blackwell & Associates law office at 285 E. Allen St. and a second parcel containing buildings leased to two nonprofits at 101 and 103 South Grove for a total of $2,477,310. After closing on the purchase on Aug. 5, the county commits to leasing back the law office to the firm for $1,800 a month until Aug. 31, 2025. At that point, the county would be close to the time that it would need the space to temporarily relocate county offices from the Grove Street courthouse during renovation and new construction and for parking. The current owner, Barrister Properties, rents (or has rented) office space at 101 and 103 S. Grove St. to the Hope Coalition and Mediation Center for $1,650 and $1,500 a month, respectively. The two-story law office is valued for tax purposes at $1.21 million.

Commissioners Rebecca McCall, Bill Lapsley and Michael Edney voted for the purchase; commissioners Daniel Andreotta and David Hill voted no. That was the same breakdown when commissioners voted in May to make the Judicial Center Addition and Renovation — known as JCAR — the most expensive capital project in the county's history, eclipsing the $60 million Hendersonville High School renovation/expansion by $100 million.

“I have said from the beginning of the conversations that I am not in favor of purchasing this property," Andreotta said. "I do not see the need. I know the reason that is being said is that we would need it for a swing space … for parking during construction of the new courthouse. That means that more money would have to be spent to take some structures down and level it out, which is driving the cost of that project up even higher. I think it's already higher than it should be.”

He said he favored other, cheaper options.

"There are quite a bit of spaces directly across the street in one direction or another from the existing courthouse that could possibly be leased for parking or staging and then when the project is over, we're done," he said. "I don't think the county ought to own real estate without a purpose and a legitimate need.”

The land purchase, Hill said, sinks more money into a project that's already too expensive.

“I don't support it and the reason is we're going down the road to spend $160 million in debt on the JCAR, which by the end of it is gonna be $240 million (with) interest out of the taxpayers’ pocket," he said. "My understanding of the JCAR project is this is a 50-year building. We don't need all this space immediately. I thought this thing was being built to expand over the next 50 years and grow. It's not like we're gonna move in and fill up all four floors."

McCall defended the purchase as a cheaper way to meet all the needs consultants identified for the district attorney, public defender, clerk of court, courtrooms and judges' offices.

“We initially started with five stories on the new addition for the courthouse and with a lot of discussion and a lot of back and forth we narrowed that down to four," she said. "And the reason that's important is because the addition of a fifth floor was going to cost $12 million. The purchase of this building is $2½ million, so the math just makes sense and we can still have the space that we need for the departments that need to do their job.”

Edney said the block-long property would serve mulitple purposes in the coming years.

“The tower will take away the north parking lot so we're gonna have to have some parking somewhere,” he said. “We are at some point going to renovate-tear down-whatever the King Street building. We're going to have to have parking and/or swing space during that process.” County commissioners had in the past declined opportunities to buy land near the courthouse. “We've been pennywise-pound foolish in the past," he said. "We've got to take advantage of the situation at this point."