Future of former Aiken Public Safety Building still unclear

The Aiken City Council met in executive session almost two years ago to discuss selling the former Department of Public Safety headquarters at 251 Laurens St. NW.

However, the city has still not sold the building and its future remains uncertain.

City Manager Stuart Bedenbaugh said the sale never happened because the potential buyer, Aiken County, chose a different option.

“As we know, the county has been very interested in purchasing a building for the traffic court for some time,” City Manager Stuart Bedenbaugh said at a Sept. 9 work session. “They moved forward.”

In April, Aiken County purchased the Charles E. Simons Jr. Federal Courthouse for $1 and the former Aiken Municipal Building for $2.4 million to relieve overcrowding at the Aiken County Judicial Center.

Bedenbaugh added that since Aiken County is no longer interested in the building, the City Council needs to discuss its long-term future.

The city council recently discussed leasing the old courtroom and some adjacent storage space to the Aiken Community Theatre. However, the theatre board said they would like to keep their current space, the old theatre in Virginia Acres Park, if possible.

Another option is a sale to Trinity Lutheran, operator of neighboring Trinity on Laurens.

Bedenbaugh said he intends to meet with Trinity Lutheran’s CEO, as he does every year and a half, to discuss a potential sale.

“They were interested in buying it before, well before COVID, in 2018,” Bedenbaugh continued.

The city acquired the former Food Lion building at 834 Beaufort Street in 2017. In 2019, the Department of Public Safety moved into the renovated building.

However, a potential sale to Trinity Lutheran Church has also not been finalized.

“They did an appraisal, but they wanted too many tax breaks and all that stuff, which wasn’t something we were really interested in,” Bedenbaugh said.

If the city council were to agree to the sale (it would have to approve it twice) with a potential buyer, it would be fairly straightforward.

The building is mostly empty, although the Pendleton Street Fire Station is still operational and a few utility workers are stationed there until a new water treatment plant is built.