“Its the last land available to basically have parking along William Avenue,” Tomson said.
“From the level of William Avenue up needs to be torn down eventually, “Tomson said.
By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
The Town of Davis Council has voted to move forward with the purchase of the Old Shop n’ Save building in Davis. The vacant building has been the center of several proposals for renovation over the past few years, with none coming to fruition. Mayor Al Tomson made the announcement at the Town of Davis Council meeting on March 27th. “The Town Council at the last meeting voted to allow me to negotiate with the owners of the property that is directly behind us,” Tomson said. “Its the old Shop n’ Save building and the big parking lot.”
Tomson said the Town wanted to save and preserve the large parking lot attached to the property. Tomson said the Town didn’t want the site to be developed into a building site and strove to protect what parking there was within Town. “Its the last land available to basically have parking along William Avenue and instead of a developer buying it to put buildings up, we wanted to preserve the parking lot,” Tomson said.
The building, located next to Davis Town Hall, has long been the location of the Davis Farmers Market with the building housing the event during inclement weather. The parking lot has been utilized for a number of civic events over the years, with the Farmers Market being the most notable along with Leaf Peepers and Art Spring.
Mayor Al Tomson said the intent is to preserve the site for future use by the residents with the intention to continue to utilize the established parking lot for parking and event use, as it has been in the past. “What we envision, the parking lot for intents and purposes will stay a parking lot,” Tomson said. “We need it for overflow parking on weekends. We also need it for events.”
Tomson said the Town intends to eventually tear down the building in the future, but has no immediate plans to do so. In the interim, Tomson said the building will be made available to the Farmers Market for use on days of ill weather. “The building itself is in terrible shape and we don’t have any plans for the building itself right now other than they can keep using it for the Davis Farmers Market during inclement weather,” Tomson said. “Eventually, the building will get torn down.”
According to Tomson, the building will need torn down from the base up. Tomson said the roof and walls are failing, but engineers have determined the base to be in good shape. When asked by a member of the public if the building would need to be torn down, Tomson said it would need torn down from the level of William Avenue up. “From the level of William Avenue up needs to be torn down eventually,” Tomson said. “The roof’s not in great shape, the walls aren’t in great shape, the concrete base has been looked at by engineers and they say that’s solid.”
Tomson was also asked by a member of the public whether the building could be salvaged. The public commentor referenced past engineering studies and plans to renovate the property, as well as stated that the building has a solid steel framework within it. Tomson said that those plans never came to fruition because it would be too costly and time consuming to renovate the building versus demolishing it and building new. However, Tomson said that before anything is done, the building would be examined. “In retrospect, what they are saying is, they should have torn the building down from the beginning and built new as opposed to trying to renovate what was there because of the costliness of it and also the time factor,” Tomson said. “As well as Covid and some other mitigating things made it not feasible.”
According to Tomson, there are no immediate plans for development on the site. When asked by a member of the public if the site will be used for additional parking, Tomson said it was possible another building would be put on the site. “Possibly another building,” Tomson said. “Don’t know. That is probably going to be decided by some other Town Council in the future.”
Tomson said there has already been interest in the location of the building. According to Tomson, the Town has already been contacted about organizations looking to relocate to the area. “There are already organizations that are knocking on the doors saying, ‘We want to relocate there,’” Tomson said. “So eventually there will be stuff there. Some of the businesses and organizations in the community may be there in the future. So we will see.”
No price for the property has been made available to the public due to ongoing legal negotiations on the property sale, according to Tomson. Attorneys for both sides are drafting final sale documents, Tomson said. “We concluded those negotiations with a willing seller and a willing buyer and we reached an agreement,” Tomson said. “We have not signed the contract yet, though, the lawyers are drafting it right now so I am not going to put out what the amount is, yet.”
Tomson said a Federal Earmark fund request for Federally Directed Funding for the property and park improvements has been submitted. However, according to Tomson, no word will be available on the request for a year. If the Federal funding is approved, the property would be paid for by the earmark funds. “We won’t hear about that for a year.,” Tomson said. “But if that comes through, the property is paid for by the earmark.”
When asked by the Parsons Advocate what the Town’s plan is to purchase the property if the earmark is not approved or what the plans are for the year that the Town awaits word on the funding, Tomson said the Town intends to us part of the Town’s 1% sales tax to finance the purchase. “We have a 1% sales tax for the Town of Davis and we would use part of that money to pay the bank note,” Tomson said. “And in the beginning we are going to do that anyway because the earmark takes a year before you hear about it.”
The Town of Davis Council meets the second and fourth Wednesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. Meeting Notices and Agendas are posted on the Town’s website.
