By Eric Curl
Oct. 15, 2023 – The property owners planning an office complex and underground parking garage west of Forsyth Park’s south end recently submitted applications to demolish their three buildings to clear the way for the project.
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The applications come after a majority of the Savannah City Council recently voted down an effort to designate the buildings as “contributing” structures to the Victorian Historic District, which could have blocked their demolition.
If approved, the permits would be conditional and the demolitions would not be able to proceed until the property owners’ plan passes the review process.
The plans will probably take at least six months to be completed, said David Paddison, president of Sterling Seacrest Pritchard, which owns one of the buildings set to be demolished.
“We don’t have a preconceived notion,” Paddison said. “We’re just trying to do it in a way that is pleasing to the neighborhood, is pleasing to the business community, is pleasing to the city and has an economically sustainable model.”
The property owners say the development will create office space for local companies and their employees, while helping to address area parking challenges, as more downtown office buildings are set to become hotels.
“This is a titanic shift in the fabric and complexity of our downtown environment and we’re trying to prevent the complete exodus of our core white-collar professional business employees,” Paddison said.
Paddison discussed the project last Wednesday after Savannah Agenda broke the news that a Charleston-based developer was set to convert a historic 15-story building overlooking Johnson Square into a Ritz-Carlton hotel. That plan comes soon after news of similar projects, including New York-based LEFT LANE’s plan to convert the Manger building across the square into a hotel. In addition, Marriott recently purchased the HunterMacLean building a few blocks away at 200 East Saint Julian St. The historic Realty Building at 24 Drayton St. was also recently sold for $14.2 million, although plans have not been publicly announced by the buyer.
Paddison said it was important for Savannah’s downtown not to become just a “one dimensional” tourist destination.
“We have to have a vibrant functioning business district,” he said.
The Savannah City Council voted against the Historic Preservation’s recommendation to designate the buildings as “contributing” structures at their meeting on Sept. 14, as reported by the Savannah Morning News. The vote came at the recommendation of City Manager Jay Melder, who said he based his recommendation on opposition by the property owners, the Victorian Neighborhood Association and area business owners. Melder said in a memo to the council that they should also consider the opportunity the parcels have for future uses that would benefit the neighborhood and broader community.
“I fully respect the work of Historic Preservation staff and thoughtful recommendation of the Commission regarding this item; however, I believe Council should consider this issue more broadly,” he said.
In addition, a letter in opposition to the historic designation was submitted by David Campbell, the owner of the Campbell & Sons Funeral Home, which leases out one of the buildings poised for demolition at 124 W. Park Avenue.
“In the event that we elect to stay in this location, the building is in need of extensive repairs and improvements and making this a contributing structure would make it more difficult to maintain our operations in this location and would severely impact the options we have available to serve our clients in the future,” Campbell said. “We would like to go on record and state that Campbell & Sons Funeral Home fully supports the efforts of the building owner as he explores uses for this location and we are working collaboratively with him as we contemplate our future needs.”
Cambell’s letter was submitted after concerns were voiced about the loss of what some consider an important site of Black history in Savannah, as reported by The Current.
The funeral home is located in a 2-story building that dates back to 1885, although it was built as two identical residential structures that were combined into one building that was then covered in bricks. Seabolt’s building, originally the IBM Eastern Region Office, was constructed in 1961 and is significant at as an example of an early 1960s commercial office building and as an excellent example of the New Formalist style of modern architecture, according to Metropolitan Planning Commission officials.
The third building poised for demolition is at 1015 Whitaker St., a one story Art Deco style building built in 1957 that was purchased in 2020 by Savannah-based Dulany Industries, which plans to relocate its employees to the new building.
In addition to Dulany and Sterling Seacrest, Evans General Contractors is “quarterbacking” the office project and would move their office from Chatham Parkway to the site, Paddison said. Many of the businesses being displaced due to the hotel conversions would also be a perfect fit for the location, he said.
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