Apex to pay $200K for Maxxim Medical building - The Dispatch - The Commercial Dispatch
The Columbus City Council and the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors on Thursday agreed to accept a $200,000 offer from Apex Ammunition to purchase the jointly-owned former Maxxim Medical building and the associated 7.8 acres off Yorkville Park Square.
The decision was made during the city's work session on Thursday, following a roughly hour-long executive session with the supervisors.
"That was the first time the city and the county had been able to sit down together and talk about the different pros and cons," Mayor Keith Gaskin said. "Obviously everybody was interested in selling the facility. The question was looking at the value of the property and the building. I think everybody was wanting to make sure we got the best deal that was a win-win for our citizens long term."
Board of Supervisors President Trip Hairston said the agreement was favorable to the county.
"The board of supervisors were all unanimously behind the sale of the building and the terms that we came to," Hairston said.
While the two boards have agreed to the deal, it is still not final. All details will have to be worked out and the contract will have to be signed.
"Right now, the deal that we proposed has been accepted by the city and the county," said Boomer Brown, sales director for Apex. "Now, we've just got to get our attorneys together to get everything closed up."
The New Hope-based ammunition maker will use the former Maxxim Medical building to expand its operations.
The city and the county have jointly owned the building for more than a decade, and it will require repair work to make it usable on the large scale that the company plans.
Brown said that the first phase of construction will be repairing the first 40,000 square feet of the building.
"We've got a lot of planning and stuff to do because we're fixing to put a lot of money into this building," he said. "A lot of construction costs are about to be incurred, so we're getting ready for all of that. We've got to put HVAC in there, which we know is probably going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $500,000, just that in itself. Then there's a lot of roof damage, wear and tear, that we'll have to fix, which is going to cost a lot. We've got to put offices in place. We've got millions of dollars in machinery coming from all over the world."
The deal also has an added stipulation that the city or county can lease back a portion of the building for $1 a month for as long as is needed. Right now, both the city and county store items at the site, and the Lowndes County Coroner's Office is located there — all of which will eventually be relocated.
"I think it's going to work out fine." Brown said. "We've got to get together and really put that to plan, but we are going to stand by that. We don't want to see the city or the county have to do without. We want to help them out as much as possible. I know they are going to need a little bit of time and we are more than willing to work with them."
Apex hopes to be operational in the new facility by October 2023, Brown said.
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