Merchants To Canton: Encourage School Board To Remain Downtown

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While many Cherokee County residents have weighed in on the future of Buildings A and B, many business owners in downtown Canton have mostly remained silent on the topic.

That was the case until late Wednesday afternoon when three entrepreneurs made their feelings known during a called meeting the Canton City Council held to go into executive session to discuss a real estate matter.

Council members did not go into detail about what would be discussed, as that information is not made public until formal action is taken.

Before adjourning into executive session, council members heard from the downtown business owners who expressed varying opinions on whether the Cherokee County School Board should renovate the buildings or demolish them to build a new central office building.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Frank Petruzielo has recommended the board demolish both buildings and build a new facility on the site. The school board on Thursday will consider moving forward with the plan during its meeting at 7 p.m. at the historic Canton High School/School Board Auditorium.

Before its meeting, the school board will hold a called meeting at 6 p.m. to go into executive session to discuss a real estate matter, possibly an offer from the Cherokee County Historical Society to purchase both buildings for $300,000.

Chamberhouse owner Cleveland Chambers said he did not want to see the city encourage the school board to leave downtown Canton. Additionally, the system’s plans to allow the city to utilize its new parking lot — which would include over 200 spaces — that would come with the new facility would be a bonus for Canton.

“We will always be a historic downtown Canton, no matter what,” he said. “Please don’t make it a historic ghost town of Canton.”

Bill Kell, an investor with Downtown Kitchen, added he felt the issue was more of an economic development topic than a political or historic preservation battle.

The success of downtown Canton “ebbs and flows” with the number of people who come into the area whether by choice or on official matters, Kell added. When the Cherokee County government relocated its offices from the Jones Building to its new facility in the Bluffs, Downtown Kitchen took a hit.

Subsequently, they had to shutter its lunch service at the eatery. Keeping the Cherokee County School District’s central offices in downtown ”would give us, I think, what we need to get over the hump and indeed have a developed downtown,” Kell stated.

Mike DeLuca, whose parents opened R&M Sandwich Shoppe over 40 years ago, added the relocation of the Cherokee County Tax Commissioner’s office to Marietta Highway and other county operations to the Bluffs were “devastating” to the family business.

The sandwich shop and other businesses have taken “hit after hit,” and if the school board were to leave downtown Canton, it would create yet another vacant space in the central business district.

“I don’t want to see two more Jones Buildings (in) downtown,” he added.

Since the county left downtown Canton in 2008, the Jones Building has been mostly vacant. The United States Postal Service operated on the ground floor of the facility until 2011 when it closed that outpost and moved operations to its post office on Riverstone Boulevard.

In August 2013, the county commission approved a contract with Westbridge Partners to sell the building for $1.8 million. However, the company later that year backed out of the agreement.

At least one business owner encouraged the school board to preserve and renovate Buildings A and B.

Doug Flint of Flint, Connolly & Walker LLP, said it’s a “fallacious” argument to say the city is faced with an either-or situation: either the school board demolishes both buildings to build a new facility or move from downtown Canton and build somewhere else.

Flint said he spoke to a downtown property owner of three parcels that sit adjacent to the school board’s property and said the owner is “more than willing” to sell his land to the system to use for a new building.

Renovating and preserving historic buildings ”is good business.” For example, Flint said he renovated 12 buildings in downtown Canton, which he said led to companies brining over 150 employees to historic downtown Canton as a result of those projects.

“Had I torn them down..there wouldn’t be the downtown Canton that we know of today,” he added.

Cherokee County Historical Society Executive Director Stefanie Joyner added she also appreciates anything the city can do to help keep the school board in downtown Canton, a goal she said the organization’s board of directors has had all along.

The historical society realizes the impact of having the board remain in downtown Canton, which is why it requested the school system incorporate either Building A or Building B into its designs for its new administrative building.

“That was not an easy decision for us to come to,” she stated.

She reiterated her concerns about the system’s proposed design, noting it would be out of scale, too large and have “too much glass.”

“It’s going to ruin the streetscape and that concerns me,” she said.

However, if the board decides to move ahead with its plans to demolish both buildings, Joyner added she hopes there will be some compromise on the design.

She also took issue with some of the merchants who voiced concerns about the potential negative impacts their businesses would feel if the district leaves downtown.

School system employees, she added, most likely won’t stay after 5 p.m. to shop at the downtown stores or eat at the restaurants.

It appears the merchants, she said, “have been getting along” fine without the school system employees now.

Comparing the Jones Building situation with the current debate, Councilman Hooky Huffman asked Joyner what could the historical society do “better” when it came to finding an investor or occupant for Buildings A and B.

Joyner added it’s the society’s “mission” to promote the viability of historic properties in Canton and Cherokee County and those properties’ ability to contribute to quality economic development in the area. 

The organization has been pre-approved for a loan of $300,000 to purchase the structures and they have ”verbal” commitments from potential sources who could donate towards the renovation of the buildings.

“We are putting our money where our mouth is,” she added.