Year after downtown fire, building with hole in roof, damaged walls owned by town awaits getting ‘on track’

ELIZABETHTOWN — Five months into ownership, the Town Council’s plan for a burned downtown building is not “on track.”

At its April meeting, the board is expected to make an attempt at regaining steering. And if the council follows the mayor’s lead, they’ll likely steer the future owners with stipulations placed into the deed for 112 W. Broad St.

That’s the site of the former C.A. Nails, a building that burned a year ago on Sunday. A quick call to 911 for the afternoon fire was credited in potentially saving a city block of businesses, due in part to the age of the structures and how they intertwine from Poplar Street to MLK Avenue.

It’s the heart of downtown, and March’s meeting of the Town Council gave insight to just what the board was planning when in October it became the owner.

“It was my understanding that the board didn’t want to spend any money on this project, but instead to put it on the market as quickly as we could possibly do so,” said Town Manager Eddie Madden, who leaves today and begins Monday as manager of Columbus County.

Madden said he and Fire Chief Nick West met in October, immediately after the transfer, with a contractor specializing in working on burned buildings. The contractor was only being consulted.

Madden confirmed to the Bladen Journal that the town can’t sell the building until it is declared a surplus. Five months after taking ownership, that hasn’t happened.

Councilman Rich Glenn said Madden’s recollection of the board’s wishes is correct.

“I do recall that conversation,” he said. “I think the quicker the better, to get back on track or get it sold.”

Councilwoman Paula Greene voiced different concerns than Mayor Sylvia Campbell, and perhaps others who didn’t speak up in a March 9 meeting.

“As long as it fits one of the permitted uses, I don’t have that much of a concern about restricting or placing conditions on the property,” she said. “My concern was that the prior owner indicated that she may just choose to leave the property in its current condition. I’m more interested in specifying some period of time in which at least it would be closed in or something so it doesn’t cause problems for the adjacent property owners.”

Campbell had begun the discussion for an agenda item to declare surplus property and advertise for sealed bids by saying, “I think all of you remember the discussion we had. We would like to add special conditions, one of them being that there was a minimum bid of $104,380. That is the assessed value of that property. And that the use be in keeping with our downtown facade and uses. And that a potential construction date to be started within so many months.

“Now, I think we said 12 months, I don’t know if you want to extend that to 24 months. It’s sort of hard to get anything started quickly this day and time.”

She opened the floor for discussion but silence followed until she asked Councilman Howell Clark for his thoughts.

“My thought is we didn’t need to buy it,” he said. “And if we’re going to sell it, and you’re going to put terms on it, I don’t know legally what we can do. It’s got the zoning on it. You set a minimum bid, and the documents presented here say they need to include the intended use of the property and a construction date. Once we sell it, we can’t control it.”

The board then dove into a discussion on legalities with attorney Goldston Womble, who is also mayor of White Lake. Womble explained the pros and cons of a sealed bid process, and that there was another way to sell the property as provided in the state statutes.

With a sealed bid process, the town can ask about intended uses, but can’t enforce anything. It can reject all bids, but if it takes any one of them, it must be the highest bid, Womble explained.

The other method utilizes the property deed, both for the present and the future.

“There is a way to tie up the property not only because of the manner in which we sell it, but those restrictions can be put in a deed and that would be binding on the person buying it, and on the subsequent purchasers from that buyer,” Womble said. “So, you’ve got two ways you can go about this.”

The building has remained vacant since the March 29, 2020 fire that came four days after Gov. Roy Cooper had closed personal care businesses. The tenant in the building ran a personal care business. It was the day before Cooper’s executive order went into effect for a 30-day stay-at-home order, one that got extended all the way to May.

Next door, at 116 W. Broad St., the Bladen Journal newspaper was forced out by smoke damage. It has relocated to a temporary spot in a Bladen’s Bloomin’ Agri-Industrial incubator at 207 E. Broad St., known to many as the old post office on the corner of Cypress and Broad next to the library.

The newspaper was a tenant of the Leinwand family that includes Councilman Ricky Leinwand, who has recused himself from all discussions and votes on the burned property.

Madden confirmed there’s nothing that has been done. A large hole from the fire still exists in the roof, allowing rain inside. The Leinwand building next door shares a wall, one that is not a firewall, and without repair, occupancy isn’t possible.

The tenants’ contents in the building have been removed.

After Womble’s explanation of the two ways, Campbell said, “This is one advantage for us owning that property downtown. It’s a big part of our town. It’s probably the biggest other than Ricky’s place there. It covers the most downtown. As much money as we’ve spent downtown, I think we certainly want to protect it.

“Goldston, what I think I’m hearing you say is, your recommendation on this, if you were in our situation, which one would you choose?”

“It simply depends on whether you want to control the use of it,” he answered.

“That was the reason we decided to get the property,” she said.

The board accepted a motion to recuse Leinwand, and then tabled the matter until its April 19 meeting.

When it will be going on 13 months since the fire, roughly six months since taking ownership, and — as Glenn said — still awaiting getting “on track.”