BLYTHEWOOD – After a year of planning, a year of construction and a year of searching for a buyer, the Town of Blythewood has found a potential purchaser for the Doko Depot, and if the sale goes through as expected, it may come with a bonus – Freeway Music.
The music company, which offers lessons for guitar, piano and most other musical instruments as well as musical theater training, told The Voice in an exclusive interview last week that it is negotiating a contract to lease part of the building from Wheeler & Wheeler who is in the process of purchasing the shell building from the Town.
“We’re in a holding pattern right now,” Freeway Music owner Don Russo said.
“It’s a fantastic location if it works. We should know something soon,” Russo said.
The company has five locations in the Midlands and provides musicians for many of Blythewood’s events including the Christmas parade, Carol lighting and warm up for amphitheater productions in Doko Park.
Bravo Blythewood announced last month that it will be partnering with Russo to bring musical theater productions to the amphitheater this spring.
BLYTHEWOOD – While Town Council struck a deal more than two months ago to sell the Doko Depot building and the property it sits on to a Columbia developer, Wheeler & Wheeler, it turns out the deal is not done yet.
Council voted Dec. 16 to authorize Mayor J. Michael Ross to sign the contract which called for Wheeler & Wheeler to make a $16,250 earnest money deposit on the $325,000 sale prior to a 60-day inspection period. Now Wheeler’s lawyer has reported to the Town’s attorney Jim Meggs that Wheeler wants to back out of the original earnest money schedule.
“I had a call from Mr. Wheeler’s lawyer complaining about the $16,250 earnest money,” Meggs reported to Council Monday night. “He said Wheeler doesn’t want to tie up $16,250 for 60 days. [He wants to] split the earnest money into two chunks – $5,000 initially [5 days after receipt of a fully executed agreement] and the balance ($11,250) at the end of the 60-day inspection period, when the contract is closed,” Meggs said.
“But we’ve lost some time,” Meggs said.
While Meggs suggested the Town allow Wheeler & Wheeler to split the earnest money into two parts, he said the amended contract would shorten Wheeler’s inspection period to 45 days and would not be delayed for everybody to sign the contract or for second reading of the amended ordinance.
In regard to depositing the two earnest money payments, Meggs said, “We would specify that the effective date of the contract is tomorrow (Jan. 23) and that the 45 days inspection period commences tomorrow as well,” Meggs said.
Council voted unanimously to approve the amended contract.
BLYTHEWOOD – Town Council finalized the sale of the Doko Depot property Tuesday evening and issued information that showed the Town had a net income of $187,597 from the sale.
“From January, 2017 until September, 2017, we were involved in serious discussions with a local restaurateur to purchase the property,” Mayor J. Michael Ross said. “Unfortunately, those negotiations did not come to pass. So we approached a Columbia developer, Wheeler and Wheeler, LLC. After much consideration, Mr. Wheeler came up with a plan as well as prospective tenants and we are in the process of accepting his contract for sale,” Ross said.
Financial Summary
The proposed sale price is $325,000 for the building and land underneath and included covenants and restrictions on the current and future uses of the property. While the property is in the Town Center District (TCD), all of the TCD uses are not available to this property.
The previous Town Council and Administration approved the concept of designating a portion of the Doko Meadows Park as a business park. The first step in development was to attract an upscale restaurant which, Council hoped, would in turn stimulate other private developers to invest and construct office and/or retail in the area.
The initial plan was to construct a 5,000 square foot building and lease the facility to Sam Kendall’s, a successful restaurant in Camden. Next, the Town approached Fairfield Electric Cooperative and requested assistance through their grant program available through the Utility Tax Credit Program. The Town would borrow the balance needed to complete the building.
The Town’s received grants totaling $456,881.29 from annual Coop allocations in 2013 and 2014. Santee Cooper loaned the Town $900,000. That brought the project revenue to $1,356,881. While Town staff began pre-construction matters and final negotiations of the lease with Same Kendall that was to cover all costs borne to include the building, improvements and all other costs absorbed by the Town, there were other costs.
The Town paid $47,286 for architectural and design, $32,000 in attorney fees for the loan and $25,500 for site work. A contractor was selected and was prepared to begin.
In early 2014, newly elected Town Council members questioned the feasibility of the Town bearing the liability owning the debt and looked to the prospective buyer to do a take out at completion. Negotiations failed, and the Town elected to abandon the project as designed.
“We repaid the Santee Cooper loan principal as well as the interest payment for the year it held funds,” Ross said. “We paid $900,000 plus the $18,000 interest payment.”
The Utility Tax Credit assigned to the Town could not be returned without a severe penalty payment. In 2016, Council decided to use the $456,881 to build a spec shell building. A survey of the community concluded that a restaurant would be the most popular choice for the building.
The size of the building was reduced to meet the new budget. Lyn Rich Construction began work in the early fall of 2016 and the building was completed in late spring, 2017 at a final cost of $397,550.
BLYTHEWOOD – Failing after a year and a half to sell the Doko Depot shell building across from Town Hall as a restaurant, Council passed first reading Monday evening to authorize the sale of the building to a developer, Wheeler and Wheeler, LLC of Columbia for $325,000.
About five years ago, Town Council borrowed $900,000 from Santee Cooper Electric and received a $456,881 grant (free) from Fairfield Electric that had to be spent on economic development or returned.
The original intent of that Council was to build a restaurant on park property in front of Town Hall (for approximately $1.4 million) and lease it to an established restaurant operator. The loan was to have been repaid from the proceeds of lease payments.
In the interim, the proposed lessor was unable to obtain a performance guarantee to cover the Town’s expense and the lease was never finalized. As a result, the Town returned $900,000 to Santee Cooper, and a new council voted to construct a smaller, less expensive building with the $325,916 remaining from the $456,881 Fairfield Electric grant.
But the building could only be used for “economic development” such as an office building, start-up company or restaurant.
The Town budgeted $410,000 for the new building.
The winning base bid to build the shell building was $379,850 submitted by Lyn-Rich Contracting Co., Inc. of West Columbia. With options, which Council voted to accept, the bid came to $388,100. Those options included walkways and special fire protection equipment.
Town Administrator Gary Parker suggested that any costs over the $325,916 could probably be taken from Hospitality Tax revenue. He said the intent was to recover that revenue with the sale of the shell building.
When the Town broke ground on construction of the building in September, 2016, The Town’s economic development consultant, Ed Parler, said he expected to begin marketing the building in November and that he expected to have a buyer shortly after the first of 2017.
While Parler has had several prospects for a restaurant, none have materialized.
“We’ve been dealing with this for a long time,” Mayor J. Michael Ross told Council, “and we finally have a contract.”
“Since this company (Wheeler) is a developer, we still don’t know how this property is going to be used. Is that correct?” Councilman Malcolm Gordge asked.
“As part of the contract, the property is in the Town Center District (TCD) and there are certain activities in the TCD that would not be appropriate for use on that property,” Parler said. “The excluded uses and allowed uses are defined in the contract.
“Mr. Wheeler has indicated that the clients he is working with seem to be very conforming to the nature of the property’s intended use,” Parler said.
“If we decide not to go through with this on second reading, can we void the contract?” Councilman Larry Griffin asked.
“No,” Parler answered.
But Town Attorney Jim Meggs said that if the ordinance doesn’t get enacted on the second reading, the deal is off.”
Council voted 5-0 to authorize the mayor to sign the contract.
