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The Montgomery Building


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The City is requiring the owners of the Montgomery Building to repair the facade and install a protective canopy over the sidewalk on Church Street so the sidewalk can be reopened.  The City expects the owners to make long-term repairs or restoration.  They must notify the City of their intent by the end of October.

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  • 2 months later...

Well the scaffolding (if you can call it that) is up for the façade and canopy repair, but its hard to tell if any other improvements are going to be made. The building really looks like hell if you are headed up St John towards Pine St. The city really ought to look into razing it if there are no actual plans for it.

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Unfortunately the NRHP can't do anything to stop it. If the owner wants to tear it down, they can. I think the designation might allow for the City (or historic preservation board, etc) to delay demolition for a year. 

 

The historic district and historic building designations really serve more to recognize it as noteworthy and to some extent preserve its character. I hope that someone finds a way to rehab that building. There's absolutely no reason it should be torn down. I do think that office space would be more practical than apartments though.

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Unfortunately the NRHP can't do anything to stop it. If the owner wants to tear it down, they can. I think the designation might allow for the City (or historic preservation board, etc) to delay demolition for a year. 

 

The historic district and historic building designations really serve more to recognize it as noteworthy and to some extent preserve its character. I hope that someone finds a way to rehab that building. There's absolutely no reason it should be torn down. I do think that office space would be more practical than apartments though.

   

Wish someone would hurry on this or it will be too far gone to save.

Edited by drexel
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Being on the NRHP also makes the property eligible for Federal tax credits, which can be quite valuable.  There may be some state ones too.  However, there are also stringent regs that have to be followed in the renovations to get them, and also to not void the designation.   

 

I agree the building should be saved at all costs.  Has the city ever considered it for a city hall or other government offices?

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If the city were to get involved to save it, it would be a disaster. Where would the money come from to fix it? Also have you seen the majority of our city offices? They look like crap as they are all mostly old buildings that no one else wanted or were condemned.

 

The only way to do it is the right way with a developer who has a vision or for a local company to want to move downtown and renovate it. There is a reason GDJ or Gibbs won't touch this one.

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If the city were to get involved to save it, it would be a disaster. Where would the money come from to fix it? Also have you seen the majority of our city offices? They look like crap as they are all mostly old buildings that no one else wanted or were condemned.

 

The only way to do it is the right way with a developer who has a vision or for a local company to want to move downtown and renovate it. There is a reason GDJ or Gibbs won't touch this one.

Governments always find the money for the things they WANT to do.  I don't spend much time in Sburg and haven't been inside City Hall, but the current city hall is under review for replacement isn't it?  That building is very dated looking, but that is simply a product of it's architecture.  

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Governments always find the money for the things they WANT to do.  I don't spend much time in Sburg and haven't been inside City Hall, but the current city hall is under review for replacement isn't it?  That building is very dated looking, but that is simply a product of it's architecture.  

I doubt the city (or county) would ever be interested in the MB.  I have been hoping that USC-Upstate (SCC has already renovated the Evans Building) will turn it into classrooms / student housing, etc.   With demand for downtown apartments seemingly on the increase perhaps a developer could look into that option also. 

 

I still believe that the MB is an important element in downtown's long-term vitality.  But its a quality redevelopment that we want.  Agree?

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I actually like the idea of the County relocating their offices to the Montgomery Building. I think that the cost of renovating it would be pricey, but how much would it cost to build a new building altogether? Depending on their space needs, it could end up being much more expensive.

 

How big is the Montgomery Building in terms of square footage? How does that compare to the current County building? My guess is that there may not be enough room in the MB, simply because of all the County offices that are crammed into that old department store building. Old towers like the MB look large because of how prominent they are in the skyline, but in reality may not be that much space since it's fairly narrow. 

 

A great example of that is the Denny's Tower, which is less square footage as the One Morgan Square. (>200k sqft for Dennys, about 250k for 1MS)

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County GIS says Living Area = 121,000, Total Area = 146,000 for MB.  Not sure which one is the number we're looking for.  And I believe this number includes the theatre, which wouldn't be usable as office space.  GIS has no sq ft for the Courthouse, but square-footage on the Sears (Admin) building says 112,000-116,000.  So unfortunately, the MB would likely be too small for County offices.  Maybe new City offices?

 

A few extra bits of info: For reference, the Poinsett Hotel cost $19 million to renovate in 2000 (not sure what kind of shape it was in).  Accounting for inflation, maybe $25-45 million for MB reno?  The County has estimated a $79 million cost for a new courthouse (not sure what sq ft they're basing the estimate on).  I don't think the City has done any studies on the potential cost of a new City Hall.  Plus they just replaced the roof on the current one, so they seem to be further away from a new building than the County.

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A big historic renovation doesn't seem like something a mid-range chain like Hampton Inn would be interested in.  In a dream scenario, I'd love to see a 21c Museum Hotel.  They specialize in renovating historic buildings into high-end hotels with an art gallery component.  They're renovating the Hill Building in Durham right now.  Another awesome option would be Kimpton Hotels.  They're currently renovating the RJ Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem.  But back in reality, I realize both of these are likely too high-end/pricey for the Spartanburg market. (though the Kimpton in Savannah is $160-$220; not too much more than the Marriott).

 

Anyway, these or any other redevelopment options require a cooperative owner, which unfortunately I think we lack with the MB owner.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 months later...

The Herald-Journal had another of its periodic articles on the MB today, without much new info as usual.  Apparently the scaffolding should be coming down pretty soon.  And there may be a prospective buyer for the building (but I think we've heard that before).  The MB desperately needs a new owner to have any chance for redevelopment, as it's clear than Cypress has no intention to do anything with it themselves.

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  • 4 weeks later...
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A new section of the Go Upstate news has an interesting article on the Montgomery Building. It says that there is

a group hoping to qualify for Federal tax credits to redevelop the Montgomery Building. The article says that this is the

last effort to save that building and if the current prospect of redevelopment fails, the City will require immediate

demolition. If demolition falls on the City it would cost tax payers $800,000-$1,000,000 to tear it down.

I think this would be another big mistake for Spartanburg. Why not incent the developers with the $800000-$1000000

to get it redeveloped and let the property taxes recoup the incentive. Spartanburg has lost way too many of its

iconic structures, and it would be disastrous to loose this one. 

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On 12/6/2015, 11:49:05, spartanburgh said:

A new section of the Go Upstate news has an interesting article on the Montgomery Building. It says that there is

a group hoping to qualify for Federal tax credits to redevelop the Montgomery Building. The article says that this is the

last effort to save that building and if the current prospect of redevelopment fails, the City will require immediate

demolition. If demolition falls on the City it would cost tax payers $800,000-$1,000,000 to tear it down.

I think this would be another big mistake for Spartanburg. Why not incent the developers with the $800000-$1000000

to get it redeveloped and let the property taxes recoup the incentive. Spartanburg has lost way too many of its

iconic structures, and it would be disastrous to loose this one. 

I'm beginning to lose confidence in the city's, and [any] developer's efforts, to rehabilitate the MB. Rehabilitating and maybe re-purposing this building seems like a no-brainer but, in the real world, its much more complicated.  I think it would be a tragedy if it went down (remember the Andrews Building?).

The building, meanwhile, continues to deteriorate. 

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