It’s a done deal.
Aiken County is the new owner of the City of Aiken’s old Municipal Building at 214 Park Ave. S.W.
The county and the city finalized the $2.4 million transaction April 2.
“I am very pleased that we were able to close on that facility,” said County Council Chairman Gary Bunker. “I really want to thank Mayor [Teddy] Milner and former Mayor [Rick] Osbon for their support of this. Aiken City Council and [City Manager] Stuart Bedenbaugh and his staff have been very easy to work with.”
The old Municipal Building will be the new headquarters for South Carolina Second Judicial Circuit Solicitor Bill Weeks and his staff.
They currently work in several different locations in Aiken, including the Aiken County Judicial Center, which also is on Park Avenue.
“This is a good opportunity for us to consolidate their operations into a single facility close to the courthouse,” Bunker said.
Freeing up the space occupied by the solicitor’s staff at the Judicial Center will help ease an overcrowding problem there, Bunker added.
The Second Judicial Circuit also has offices in Bamberg and Barnwell counties, according to scsolicitor2.org.
“I am pleased that we finalized the sale,” said Bedenbaugh of the old Municipal Building deal. “The city has owned the property since 1884. I can’t think of a better entity to sell it to than Aiken County.”
Bedenbaugh also mentioned some of the details of the deal.
“The city retained ownership of the patio adjacent to The Alley as well as the property to the east, which we purchased from the Brinkley family in 2008,” he said. “The city also negotiated with the county a right of first refusal should they choose to sell it (the old Municipal Building) between now and March of 2049.”
The old Municipal Building was constructed on the Park Avenue property around 1938, according to Bedenbaugh.
City of Aiken government officials and staff moved to their new headquarters at 111 Chesterfield St. South in the spring of 2022.
The county’s purchase of the old Municipal Building is part of a plan to extend the life of the Judicial Center, which doesn’t have enough work or storage space.
Bunker formed an ad hoc County Council committee two years ago to explore various options because the construction of a new Judicial Center would be very expensive.
“What we are spending on purchasing city hall (the old Municipal Building) is only a fraction of what a new courthouse would cost,” Bunker said.
The county also is in the process of acquiring the Charles E. Simons Jr. Federal Courthouse at 223 Park Ave. S.W.
