ACTION, Inc. Building – History of a Crisis

12/19/07 - ACTION Building/Oconee Street School Feasibility Study" completed and available for download. For a summary of the findings, please read the Executive Summary.

The ACTION Building is located at 594 Oconee Street in the historic Carr’s Hill area east of the Oconee River overlooking downtown Athens and The University of Georgia campus.

The ACTION Building is a historically and architecturally significant, c.1908 school. It was built as part of an early twentieth century public initiative to build three new Athens city schools; the first was the College Avenue School (demolished March 2005); the second was this school; and the third was to be a high school which was never built. Instead, the Clarke County Courthouse on Prince Avenue (where the Captain D’s and Wendy’s now stand) was eventually converted into the high school. When originally built, the ACTION Building was called the East Athens Public School. Sometime between 1918 and 1926 it became the Oconee Street School, which is the name by which it is best known. The ACTION Building is not locally designated as a historic landmark nor is it currently listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It was owned by the Clarke County School District into the 1980s and then purchased by ACTION in 1989, neither of which pursued designations. Despite not being formally designated, the building is eligible for listing for its historic and architectural significance.

The ACTION Building is currently endangered. Early in 2007 it was the subject of a Special Use Permit Application which was reviewed and denied at the April 3, 2007, Mayor and Commission meeting. The proposed use for the site would have resulted in the building being demolished and replaced by 17 town homes. The building is still extremely vulnerable.

The crisis of the ACTION Building first hit ACHF’s radar screen in June of 2005 after several articles ran in the paper highlighting ACTION’s financial difficulties and their plans to sell the building to raise money.

In July of 2005, the Foundation sent a letter to ACTION informing them of the Foundation’s concern about the building and offering to assist them in finding a buyer interested in rehabilitating the building.

According to a letter from ACTION to the A-CC Mayor and Commission dated February 12, 2007, ACTION first began trying to sell their headquarters in January 2005 and received a Letter of Intent to Purchase that February. Eventually that offer was rejected by the ACTION Board.

2/12/07 Letter from ACTION to A-CC Mayor & Commission(link coming soon)

Over the summer of 2005, ACTION fired their CEO/President Walter Butler and replaced him with Acting CEO/President John Scoggins. ACHF established contact with John Scoggins during this period and proceeded to work informally with Mr. Scoggins, including identifying several potential developers. The 2/21/07 letter states that ACTION issued a Request for Property Acquisition Quotes on January 17, 2006 and, as a result, heard from thirteen developers/individuals and received five quotes ranging from $600,000 to $1,060,000. ACTION accepted a quote from Parkside Partners, Inc., (www.parksidepartners.com) and gave them 45 days to perform inspections and gather data on the building. The deadline was later extended 30 days to June 15, 2006. The ACHF met with Parkside Partners representatives several times to talk about historic rehabilitation tax credits and the history of the building. Parkside Partners eventually reduced their offer to an unknown amount which was rejected by ACTION. ACTION’s letter states that Parkside “found it was not economically feasible to continue the process and withdrew their offer on June 26, 2006.”

On June 28, 2006 ACTION reissued its Request for Property Acquisition Quotes In late August 2006 Mr. Robert D. Pease, III, made an offer and ACTION entered into an agreement with Mr. Pease on September 26, 2006 for an undisclosed amount. The offer included the condition that the property be rezoned. When asked about the possibility of continuing to look for a developer sympathetic to the building, ACTION responded that the building was under contract and, while other offers would be accepted, they were bound to Mr. Pease.

In December of 2006, ACHF became aware that ACTION had filed an application for a Special Use Permit which asked that the applicant be allowed to waive the requirement for ground floor commercial to build 17 townhomes which would require the demolition of the building. A Special Use Permit must be reviewed by the Planning Commission which then sends its recommendation for approval or denial to the Mayor and Commission.

The Planning Commission reviewed the application at its March 1, 2007 meeting and voted unanimously to recommend denial. ACHF Executive Director Amy Kissane and Trustee Blair Dorminey spoke at the meeting in opposition to the application. Kissane also provided the Commission with historical information on the building.

The Planning Commission vote attracted both media and public attention as evidenced by an Athens Banner-Herald editorial on March 5th and several letters to the editor leading up to the A-CC Commission vote on April 3rd.

In anticipation of the April 3rd Commission meeting, ACHF contacted several professionals familiar with the ACTION Building and asked for letters supporting ACHF’s contention that the building could be adaptively used and did support a mixed use market. ACTION was contending that the building was structurally unsound and that mixed use was not a viable option in that location. ACHF submitted a memo, the letters of support, and a brochure developed by the Georgia Historic Preservation Division on Historic Rehabilitation of Historic School Buildings.

On April 3rd, the Mayor and Commission voted to deny ACTION’s Special Use Permit. Again, ACHF Executive Director Amy Kissane and Trustee Blair Dorminey spoke at the meeting in opposition to the application along with neighborhood representatives and representatives from the Oconee Methodist Church, located across Oconee Street from the school building. Clarke Central Principal and Oconee Street area resident Maxine Easom shared the 10-minute opposition period with Kissane.

Again, the Mayor and Commission’s vote, in particular, their emphasis on wanting to preserve the land use plan’s goal for mixed use in this area, created considerable interest.

The Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation will be launching a formal study of the ACTION Building on May 1, 2007. They have hired the Atlanta architectural firm of Lord Aeck Sargent (www.lordaecksargent.com) to prepare the study. LAS is a well-known and highly qualified architectural firm with considerable expertise in the field of historic preservation. Past projects have included the restoration of the Governor’s Mansion in Milledgeville as well as several local projects including the rehabilitation of Old College on the historic UGA North Campus. LAS was also the architectural firm used by Parkside Partners in their unsuccessful bid for the ACTION property in 2006.

The project will cost up to $10,000 to complete, and ACHF is using monies from its Revolving Fund to pay for the study. The Foundation has also applied to the National Trust for Historic Preservation for a grant to help pay for the study.

determine the adaptive use potential of the building;
make a formal determination of eligibility for listing in the National Register of Historic Places;
provide information on tax credits and other economic incentives for rehabilitation; and
develop reuse concepts for the site that include rehabilitation of the building.

The purpose of the study is to provide ACTION, Inc., the Mayor and Commission, and the community-at-large with a factual, documented assessment of the historic and architectural significance of the ACTION Building and its potential for reuse. The final study could also be used as a marketing tool to attract buyers interested in taking advantage of the Federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits and other economic incentives

If the findings are positive and in favor of adaptive use, ACHF hopes to work with ACTION and A-CC to find a solution for the dilemma facing ACTION and this building.