Council tours possible EMS location in ex-Coca-Cola plant
Aiken County Council members walked up, down and around the building on York Street that once housed a Coca-Cola bottling plant, gauging its potential to house emergency medical services (EMS).
Seven of the nine members of Council, County Administrator Clay Killian, Assistant Administrator Brian Sanders, Meybohm Commercial Properties listing agents and Aiken County Sheriff Michael Hunt toured the building Tuesday. Several present said offhand that the building is certainly better than what EMS has now, as it operates out of the County Complex basement on Richland Avenue.
Councilmen Scott Singer and Willar Hightower were not present for the tour.
Some Council members and the architecture firm hired to design the new County Complex think it would be best if EMS operations and the Aiken County Health Department were moved off-site from the main building. The former Coca-Cola building has been identified as a possible home for EMS.
"This is definitely better than what they've got," Councilwoman LaWana McKenzie said during the tour.
Killian said staff members have been eyeing the building for several months, even before the architecture firm McMillan Pazdan Smith got involved.
"It could lend itself to EMS," he said.
The former bottling plant sits on 2.6 fenced-in acres. There are 2,850 square feet of finished office space downstairs with 4,000 square feet of shop and maintenance area and four loading docks, which some theorized could be used for storage. Also, there is a detached warehouse of more than 8,000 square feet.
The second floor of unfinished space could be used as a training room, Killian said.
The building is zoned general business, and there are two acres next door bordering Columbia Avenue that could provide room to expand.
"Anything ya'll want to do to it, just give us a laundry list and we'll do it," said Meybohm Realtor Dean Newman, who is also co-owner of the building.
He said the structure has a good frame and, in the years it has been vacant, has not been vandalized.
A few showers would have to be installed to make it "EMS-friendly."
"How's the roof?" Councilman Sandy Haskell asked during the tour.
"Good, very good," Council Chairman Ronnie Young answered.
The asking price is $895,000.
Council has made no decision yet but directed Killian to do more due diligence on the property. He said Council could choose to buy the property outright or to option it, which would essentially take it off the real estate market while deliberations are ongoing.
"But we would have to pay them to (option it)," Killian said. "And that money would be forfeited if we decide not to do anything."
McMillan Pazdan Smith has suggested several sites for the Health Department, including the old Food Lion on Beaufort Street, the old Lowe's or Kroger, both on University Parkway, or the City of Aiken's spec building on Willow Run Road. Suggested sites on which to build include land at 1906 Richland Ave. E.
Last month, firm principal Brad Smith said the current building on Richland Avenue is a "wash" and recommended that it be torn down and a new building constructed in its place.