There are more questions
than answers about the proposed renovation of the old cotton gin mill property
in downtown Prattville. Business owner Stephen Brooks hopes the plan is still
on.
"If they were to go
through with this it would have a tremendous impact on the city," said
Brooks who co-owns a holiday gift shop with his wife.
But now there are
questions whether anything will happen at all.
"It's moving a lot
slower than we had anticipated," Prattville mayor Bill Gillespie
conceded.
In fact, the city
council has called a special meeting for Saturday morning, a meeting that will
take place at the Prattville Area Chamber of Commerce. We're told the purpose
of the meeting is to hear a proposal by Pratt Mill Partners about its ideas for
the property. Council members will then take a tour. There is a fear the
buildings are getting worse considering the amount of rain central Alabama has
gotten this year.
"Those buildings
are old and anytime you have water pouring into them that's not good,"
said Gillespie.
This weekend's meeting
is taking place despite the fact that Burke Lambert, one of the owners of
Longstreet Capital in Georgia, talked of sweeping plans last summer of turning
the 160 plus year property into loft apartments.
"You can't recreate
something like this," Lambert said at the time in an interview with WSFA
12 News.
WSFA 12 News was unable
to reach Lambert through his cell phone and office in Atlanta. For now
Stephen Brooks is still holding out hope a huge part of Prattville's history
will be saved.
"I am choosing to
be a glass half-full kind of person about this," said Brooks.
Either way the council
will have a better idea after the meeting tomorrow morning which way this project
is going.
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