By Eric Curl
July 16, 2023 – The resumed demolition of a former school building as part of a long planned mixed-use development in the Starland District led to the power outage of about 20 customers on Thursday, according to Georgia Power.
The outage surrounding the property at 2201 Bull St. began at about 6:15 p.m. and power was restored at about 9:45 p.m. after Georgia Power repaired the damage from the demolition, according to a company spokesperson.
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The building is being demolished to make way for a 5-story, 58-unit apartment building being built by Foram Development as part of a long planned development dubbed Starland Village.
The demolition work, as well as the development, which has been planned since at least 2017, has been taking longer than anticipated.
Earlier this year, a partner said that the demolition of the school building would be complete in May and construction would begin in July, as previously reported. The partner, Victor Apat, with Equus Development Partners, did not immediately respond to a call for comment on Friday. Up until Thursday, the building has sat partially demolished with an earth mover sitting upon a large pile of debris, with little movement over a period of weeks. A significant portion of the structure was knocked down Thursday, resulting in some debris making contact with the power lines and the power outage, according to social media posts and a video submitted by a nearby resident.
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Located on a two-block stretch of Bull Street in the area also known as the Starland District south of downtown, the planned development includes the construction of two apartment buildings and renovation of a historic church. Foram has been planning the development since at least 2017. An updated plan was approved earlier this year.
The revised plan eliminated the event venue use for the historic church at the site, with expectations that the space would instead be developed as commercial, retail and office space.
Apat said in February that the use for the church space was still “up in the air” at the time.
The development also includes the construction of a 5-story, 59-unit building on the north side of the church, across 38th Street, where a former Savannah police building was demolished for the project.
Both buildings include parking – a total of 95 spaces – in addition to a 24-space surface parking lot behind the church.
Foram recently submitted plans to build another mixed-use apartment complex along East Broad Street on nine parcels between East Gwinnett and East Bolton streets, as previously reported. The petition to rezone the site for the project is expected to go before the MPC on July 25.
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