A group that’s attempting to buy the endangered Saye Building downtown has upped its offer to Athens First United Methodist Church.
The potential investors—downtown business owner and former Athens-Clarke County commissioner Russell Edwards, historic preservation consultant Chris Jackson and lawyer Gray Reilly—made a $2 million offer to the church in February, and has now raised it to $3 million.
“We really want to rehabilitate this building and have it contribute to downtown in a positive way, and we can see where the numbers work,” Edwards told Flagpole.
One potential use for the building is a business incubator with a mix of other uses, such as a restaurant, according to Jackson. He said it could qualify for $2.2 million in historic preservation tax credits, as well as $2.7 million in New Markets federal tax credits for equitable projects in underserved communities, based on a $7 million investment. Overall, Jackson said such a project would generate $21 million for the local economy.
First UMC currently plans to tear down the building and replace it with a parking lot.
The investment group set a deadline of Apr. 1 to respond to the offer. That’s the day when the ACC Commission is scheduled to vote on a legal settlement removing the Saye Building from the West Downtown Historic District, paving the way for the church to obtain a demolition permit.
But it only took a matter of hours for Ben Griffith, chair of First UMC’s Board of Trustees, to give Edwards an answer: The church is not interested in selling the building. Griffith has previously said the church doesn’t need the parking, and plans to construct a parking lot as a temporary use while First UMC evaluates its future space needs. The church also contends that the Saye Building has fallen into such disrepair that it would be prohibitively expensive to renovate, with an estimated price tag of up to $5 million.
However, the preservation group Historic Athens maintains that the building is salvageable, pointing to the aforementioned federal tax credits for rehabilitating historic buildings. Two other historic buildings downtown, a home and an office building, were recently converted to boutique hotels. Historic Athens previously urged First UMC to accept the $2 million offer.
Edwards said the church, which bought the Saye Building for $1.1 million in 2004, would turn a profit by selling it, as well as saving hundreds of thousands of dollars on demolition costs. Returning it to the tax rolls—churches are tax exempt—would bring in much-needed revenue for the local government as the commission faces a tight 2026 budget and an uncertain future, he said, estimating $100,000 in annual tax collections for ACC and the Clarke County School District were the building to be renovated.
“It’s irresponsible to demolish a useful property that could contribute to our tax base,” Edwards said. “A surface parking lot downtown will be a completely wasted use that will contribute nothing to the community.”
The commission took a preliminary vote last November to approve the settlement allowing the demolition to move forward. But in January the ACC Historic Preservation Commission voted against removing the Saye Building from the West Downtown Historic District, created in 2020 in response to community outcry after the church first applied for a demolition permit in 2018. The ACC Planning Commission tabled a discussion on allowing a parking lot in February.
After exhausting its appeals with the ACC government, First UMC filed a lawsuit in 2023. Last July Superior Court Judge Lisa Lott ordered the issue to mediation.
Commissioners did not discuss the settlement at length at their Mar. 18 agenda-setting meeting on the advice of their attorney, but Commissioner Ovita Thornton, who originally opposed the historic district, expressed hope that “a miracle” would save the Saye Building before Apr. 1.
The building at the corner of Hancock Avenue and Lumpkin Street dates back to about 1918, with two subsequent additions.
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