Annie Lytle School Purchased

[Ralph W]

I'll bet she's talking about the March sale to Tarpon IV LLC.

Strange goings on with that property...
Foundation Holding, a non-profit LLC, sold the school to Peninsular Brooklyn LLC, a for profit LLC, in 2007 10 months after Mr Milne formed the Peninsular LLC. That appears to be Mr. Milne selling to himself and then not paying the taxes due on the school, paving the way for a tax deed sale to Tarpon in March of 2010. How that property got locked into the middle of the other Foundation Holding property is certainly odd and mayby not permissible. Foundation Holding owns the rest of the block too except for the properties owned by Hughes Auto and Dickson CC.

[Timkin]

She was aware of that transaction ,but could give me no details about it. So I have to assume someone heard about the Tarpon purchase, and did not know that happened in March of last year.

In my heart , with the chain of events that have happened, I think the road is being paved to demolish it.  I just cannot find an investor anywhere, despite countless attempts.   One entity owns all of the land except for that under the building, and another (at least for now) owns the building and the land under it. )  I cannot imagine anyone wanting to go through the red tape of acquiring all of it plus the enormous cost of Fixing it up.  That is not to say I would not be elated if it happened because I would.  Still hope it will remain.  Still hope an entity comes forth to save it.

[ricker]

Don't give up on this shell.  I maintain faith that preservation and symbiotic adaptive paartial reuse with selective demolition/reconstruction remain possible.and should be likely.  [remove one of the portico/collonades mere yards away from the 95N/i-10W/Stockton flyover?]  The collumns and pediment overstructures were not originally an element of the roof structure, right?

Walls and foundation show no damage. minimal masonry repair needed it's really amazing that it was built so well.
Any building of its vintage could have met the dirt long ago.
thank you for the photos of the beauty that is ps4/annie Lytle.
it's built like a bomb shelter.

[Ocklawaha]

Might be that a sympathetic attorney or two on this site would be willing to take on the formation of a citizens preservation group and investigate the monkey business going on behind the scenes. If laws have been violated better to file on them now rather then waiting for the damn building to fall down or be torn down.

OCKLAWAHA

[Dog Walker]

Everything you see on the building, including the columns and pediment are original to the building.  Its built like a fortress.  Even the interior walls are masonry; the hollow clay ancestors of concrete blocks.

[JaxNative68]

I've seen buildings in much worse condition that were renovated by the Savannah College of Art and Design.  Now they are beautiful education buildings for the college, and some of the gems of Savannah.  It can be done, but do we have any developers in town with that kind of vision?

[Debbie Thompson]

Not so you would notice, unfortunately, Jax Native.

[mtraininjax]

I've seen buildings in much worse condition that were renovated by the Savannah College of Art and Design.

We cannot even save the fire station down the road, what makes this more special?

[Timkin]

____________________________________________________?


I have finally learned not to even reply to negative posts.   However on a positive note, FS #5 is still standing and so ,obviously is the School.   ANYTHING I can do to help expedite the saving of either structure I will gladly do, but I personally am tapped out of ideas.

At least some of us try.

[Springfielder]

Both the firehouse and the school are special, as they're both historic...both have had many of us fighting to save them. This just happens to be a thread about saving the school, just as I'm sure there's one about saving the firehouse.

The school building itself is stable, even with the damage to the interior, the actual structure is sound. The problem is, the those who have purchased the property have failed to make good on what they had said were their intentions...some may have fallen victim to the down slide of the market, some just simply didn't have the financial support and some just flat out not truthful as to their intent; of which, is now the case.

There are many options as to what an investor could do with the structure, however, it would of course, as with any large structures, require a great deal of financing. One of the down sides of the structure is the location, which is off the beaten path and sits under the flyover for the bridge...which does not make it look inviting to many. Still, as I said, there's many options as to what it could become, to those with money and vision.

[Timkin]

Well put, Springfielder. 

[Ralph W]

Considering that there are concrete plans to connect the Riverside Arts Market to Riverside Park, including constructive utilization of the entire passage between the two, it is entirely plausible that the school structure would have some complimentary connective development rather than be an eyesore along the perimeter of the park.

In order to fully access the school property, the inane encirclement of the school by the Foundation Holdings bunch (Mr. Milne) needs to be breached. Somehow Mr. Milne should be convinced to part with that very few feet of dirt surrounding the school footprint. It's almost as if it were a long planned impediment and speculation of riches to come.

Has anyone figured out how years of neglect and disregard of code violations could be so easily foisted off on a new sucker owner? It seems the city really fell all over itself to lien Tarpon properties but never found the stones to lien Mr. Milne and Peninsular Brooklyn, LLC, or Foundation Holdings.

[Dog Walker]

It helps to have a lot of political connections and to have been a candidate for mayor of the city as well as being a lawyer.

[JaxNative68]

I still think it would make a great artist studio/loft building.  similar to the upper level of city market in savannah or the torpedo factory in alexandria.

Not so you would notice, unfortunately, Jax Native.

I have no idea what you mean by this statement.  Please elaborate.

[Cliffs_Daughter]

There is no activity mentioned on the CARE site with COJ. I keep an eye on it since I can access it quicker.