LEXINGTON
More than two years after the City of Lexington bought it, Lexington Home Brands' Plant 1 is clear for redevelopment.
But city officials are still trying to figure out what to do with the sprawling 566,786-square-foot building.
"I said since we started the process of purchasing, it would take 10 years (to redevelop)," said City Manager John Gray. "We're in year two."
On Monday, the Lexington City Council will consider entering into an agreement with the Piedmont Triad Council of Governments to provide technical assistance to help in redeveloping the property.
The Lexington City Council closed on a deal in 2007 to buy the plant for $1.05 million. The plant sits on about 18 acres near downtown Lexington and has a total property-tax value of about $9 million.
It operated as a wood-furniture plant until it closed in 2003. Since then, residents, elected officials and Uptown Lexington boosters have worried about what would happen to it.
Complicating matters was the fact that there were environmental concerns about the property.
City officials ordered a two-phased environmental assessment of the property. Results from the second phase of that assessment came last month. According to the assessment, the property can be redeveloped for residential use.
Assistant City Manager Alan Carson said that the one restriction is that the groundwater can't be used, but that should be no problem because the property would have access to public water.
The plant is a critical component in a master plant to redevelop what is known as the Depot District. There's a master plan for the 24-square-block area, which is bounded by East Center Street, East Eighth Street, Main Street and the railroad tracks.
City officials are working to renovate an old freight depot, which was built in the 1900s and was a place where people picked up and dropped off items that were to be transported by train.
In that same area, the Landmark Group, a Winston-Salem company, wants to transform the former United Furniture Plant into a 94-unit, mixed-use development.
And some community leaders want to build an amphitheater in the area.
Davidson County officials are also considering the property as a possible site for a new jail.
Gray said that the city council will consider forming a redevelopment commission to consider ideas for redeveloping the plant. And the property is in the N.C. Brownfields Program, which should help get the city access to state and federal grants for the project.
"We're trying to check off as many of these things as possible so it can be more attractive to a developer," Gray said. "We could have marketed the property to a private developer and said you work this out the best you can."
But that would have run counter to the goal of getting the property into productive use, he said. City officials already know that the property won't be used for manufacturing. There was a time when about 60 percent of the jobs in Lexington was manufacturing, but that just isn't true anymore, he said.
"We're on the right track and I feel good where it's going," he said. "Our ultimate goal is to put this property back into productive use and back on the tax books."
■ Michael Hewlett can be reached at 727-7326 or at mhewlett@wsjournal.com.
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