Cleanup Progress Being Made At Century’s Alger Sullivan Property, And A Buyer May Be Interested

July 25, 2019

Cleanup is underway on the former Alger Sullivan Lumber Mill property in Century, and there’s at least one party possibly interested in acquiring the property.

The 38-acre abandoned industrial site was heavily damaged and, until recently, sat mostly untouched since 150 mph tornado winds the afternoon of February 15, 2016.

Brownfields Grant Cleanup

The current work is being funded with a $400,000 Brownfields grant, half of which is designated  for the cleanup of petroleum products.

Environmental testing has been done on the property, including testing around a large above ground storage tank that is believed to have contained diesel fuel, according to Debbie Nickles, the Century town planner. The large tank is leaking, and soil cleanup may be required.

The environmental test results from the tank are expected to be back in a few weeks.  There are also two propane tanks on the property that will be removed.

Testing was also done recently for asbestos and lead-based paints. Those results are also still pending.

Much of the property has been mowed (pictured above) and ground penetrating radar will be used next month to see what is lurking below the surface.

Interest In Acquiring The Property

“In addition to those grant funds that are at least going to fund part of the cleanup, there is beginning to be some interest in actually an acquisition, having a private party come and actually acquire the property,” Escambia County Commissioner Steven Barry said. “That would be a fantastic outcome, and I’m optimistic that would happen in the future.”

“Three buildings on the site could be rehabilitated,” Nickles said, “but it’s going to take some money.”

While work on the site has been slow until recently, Nickles said progress is being made.

“It’s coming,” she said. “It’s just taking a while to get everything together.”

Code Enforcement

The property owner — listed in county records as DMT Holdings LLC in Navarre –was cited years ago by Escambia County Code Enforcement. The limited liability company appeared to be dissolved in 2008. Back property taxes for 2015-2017 were paid through tax certificate sales, not by the holding company.

With no response from the owners to the code citations, a special magistrate for Escambia County issued an order against the property at One Lumber Road on October 4, 2016, giving the owners until November 1, 2016, to clean up the property. The county provides code enforcement services under an interlocal agreement within the town limits of Century.

Failing to comply, the property owners were assessed costs of $1,100, and fines of $50 per day have been accruing ever since. To date, the property owners, if they exist, owe fines nearing $50,000.

Escambia County crews entered the property in 2018 and performed some cutting and trimming, cleaned around a concrete ditch, removed four 30-yard dumpsters of debris and replaced 80-feet of chain link fence that was down. The cleanup area was concentrated on the portion of the property behind residences on Front Street.

The cleanup cost assessed by the county was $5,450 — $2,589.29 for 150 hours of labor, $2,613.75 in equipment costs and $246.96 in material costs. Certified mail from the county to the listed owners was returned by the post office as invalid with no forwarding address.

Escambia County received three bids for the demolition and cleanup of the mill in 2017, but bids ranged from $800,000 to $3 million — far in excess of the county’s entire cleanup budget of about$463,425 in 2017. Property records show entire value of the property was $802,189 before the tornado, but the most recent assessment show what remains is worth $226,535.

The property is located within a Community Development Area established by the Town of Century, a Nickles said the CRA may play a crucial roll in the future of the site.

Pictured top: The damaged Alger Sullivan mill looms over a front street neighborhood in 2019. Pictured inset above and  first photo below: Cleanup is underway on the property. Pictured bottom four photos: Damage to the property as seen in 2016. NorthEscambia.com photos, and photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.

Comments

6 Responses to “Cleanup Progress Being Made At Century’s Alger Sullivan Property, And A Buyer May Be Interested”

  1. barbara on July 26th, 2019 3:07 pm

    This kind of assistance is what makes the U.S. EPA Brownfields program such a great program. It is an Assessment grant however that the City of Century has from the EPA that allow them to conduct the environmental testing at the property.

  2. Chelleepea on July 25th, 2019 1:45 pm

    Good job….Mrs. Debbie!

  3. M in Bratt on July 25th, 2019 8:15 am

    It is great to see progress being made to clean this property up, but is any progress being made to get title to the property cleaned up so that somebody can develop it?

  4. Oversight on July 25th, 2019 7:48 am

    Century Resident is highly optimistic about this property. However, I don’t hold the same outlook for it. This old mill site is an environmental disaster that will most likely require federal EPA assistance to clean-up and mitigate the hazards that will be found there. Good luck with selling this “ocean front” property in Century to some sucker.

  5. Billy bobe on July 25th, 2019 4:16 am

    Yeah right that ANY of the building could be fixed. It would be better to separate each buildings and sell individual lots, or just sell it cheap.

  6. Century Resident on July 25th, 2019 3:13 am

    I am very happy this is being cleaned up.

    I know the town centered around the sawmill in past days.
    With the past addition of the industrial uses on the west side of town, this area could be rezoned out of undustrial. The jobs many seem to want could go into the industrial park instead of this location.

    I think a developer could get this 40 acres after the clean up and subdivide it and put in a decent housing area with home similar the the ones in the historic district and really turn things around up here. Think what that would do for the CRA.

    With the assistance of Mr Eddy, the TOC could get increase in municipal services customers and improve the corporation’s bottom line.

    Any thing is better than the debris field left there, but the possibilities are endless.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under Archive