City Seeking to Collect $410K For Demolition Costs Following President Street Warehouse Fire on Future Development Site

Oct. 21, 2025 – The city of Savannah is seeking to collect the costs associated with the emergency demolition of a vacant warehouse at 925 E. President Street after a fire in April necessitated the razing of the structure for safety reasons.

“During the incident, efforts were made to contact the property owner to facilitate and coordinate the demolition process, however, despite multiple attempts, we were unable to reach the property owner,” City Manager Jay Melder wrote in an Oct. 6 memo to the Savannah City Council.

The city council approved staff’s notification of the emergency $410,610 demolition at their Oct. 9 meeting after the structure had already been torn down by a city contractor to address the safety threat. Masterful Enterprises carried out the emergency demolition after fire caused extensive damage, including roof and wall collapse, and rendered the building unsafe and a danger to public safety.

Fire investigators were unable to determine the cause of the fire due to the structural collapse that prevented a full investigation at the time of the fire, a Savannah Fire spokesperson told Savannah Agenda in June.

The vacant warehouse at 925 E. President St. posed a safety risk following the fire., as seen here on April 15, 2025. Photo courtesy of City of Savannah.

The warehouse at 925 E. President St. had been condemned and cited for code violations prior to the fire. Sept. 11, 2024, photo courtesy of City of Savannah

The 16-acre site is located on the south side of President Street across from the Eastern Wharf development east of downtown. The parcel where the fire occurred is listed as a future development area with a commercial outparcel in plans submitted in April by the property owner, Riverview President Street LLC. The plans were submitted to the Metropolitan Planning Commission as part of a variance petition related to the construction of an apartment building containing 377 units on the parcel adjacent to the site of the fire.

In March 2022, the city council authorized the city manager to enter a development/settlement agreement with Riverview, covering 925 E. President St. and the adjacent parcel, 1303 E. President, to resolve litigation and set terms for redevelopment on the parcels. The agreement included the city’s dismissal of a blight lawsuit against Riverview and the waiving of unpaid blight related tax assessments, fees and penalties in return for Riverview’s agreement to demolish the warehouse. The agreement also included a land exchange in which the city received property from Riverview needed to widen the Bilbo Canal for drainage improvements along with $2 million toward the canal construction.

Records obtained by Savannah Agenda via an open-records request, as well as past litigation, show code violations and condemnations related to the warehouse on the property date back to at least 2019. Records also include multiple notifications sent by the city calling for the demolition of the warehouse following this year’s fire and subsequent attempts to reach the owner and its representatives.

Savannah Agenda emailed Riverview’s representatives on Monday, and this article will be updated if a response is obtained.

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