Orangeburg County is purchasing a John C. Calhoun Drive restaurant and adjacent parking lot to make room for the future Orangeburg County Courthouse.
County Council unanimously voted Monday to spend $600,000 to purchase about .89 acres, including the A-Town Wings restaurant building, as part of its efforts to lock down property to make room for the new county courthouse.
The restaurant, at 886 John C. Calhoun Drive, occupies about .56 acres. Its adjacent parking lot covers about .33 acres.
Orangeburg County Administrator Harold Young said the purchase of A-Town Wings will square off the properties the county has purchased over the past year, giving the county more options for the exact placement of the new courthouse.
“We can decide now whether we want to face the building on John C. Calhoun or Russell Street,” Young said. “We’ve got the ability to do either way now.”
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It’s uncertain how the courthouse will be laid out at the present time.
Young noted A-Town Wings currently leases the building, but that the property’s owner has been looking to sell.
The demolition work is not expected to occur on the restaurant in the near future, and may be at least six months or more out.
A-Town Wings opened in the former Kentucky Fried Chicken in 2017.
The county has purchased a total of 5.5 acres for the future courthouse. The total cost has been about $3 million.
Last month, the Palmetto Inn and Suites on John C. Calhoun Drive was demolished. The county has also demolished the former Winn-Dixie on Russell Street and the former Thunderbird motel on Orange Street, behind the Dairy-O.
Orangeburg County announced plans to build a new courthouse in February 2022.
In April of this year, County Council approved borrowing $7.3 million for the first phase of construction. The money will go toward the demolition of existing structures, architecture, engineering and surveying costs, as well as additional capital projects.
The current courthouse on Amelia Street was built in 1928 and the building has extended past its useful life, according to county officials.
Officials have also said the current courthouse on Amelia Street is too small to meet community needs.
The estimated cost for a new courthouse is between $30 million and $50 million.
Contact the writer: gzaleski@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5551. Check out Zaleski on Twitter at @ZaleskiTD.
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