Mebane Buys Second Building Behind City Hall for $1.046 Million

Mebane's city council approved the purchase of the ReMax Diamond Realty building at 202 South Fifth Street for $1.046 million Monday night, adding a second property behind city hall to a growing municipal footprint that now totals about one acre along Wilson Street.

The building, owned by Mickey Tripp, sits directly behind city hall. The March 12 vote follows the city's purchase last month of Dr. David Hoyle's dental office at 200 South Fifth Street, on the corner of South Fifth and Wilson streets, for $325,000. That earlier acquisition was approved unanimously, 5-0, after the council first discussed it at its Feb. 9 meeting. The dental office, originally a house, was sold by Janice Properties, LLC, representing owners David and Janice Hoyle. Its tax-assessed value is $186,000.

Together, the two properties give Mebane roughly one acre across Wilson Street from city hall and the Planning and Inspections Department, which itself operates out of a former bank building.

City officials cited the need for additional office space as the primary rationale for both purchases. City attorney Lawson Brown said the acquisitions would provide "a couple of offices," later clarified as two or three, for the inspections or planning departments. City Manager Richard White, III told the council last month the Hoyle property could serve as offices or the site of a future city building, with additional parking having also been floated as a possible use. Brown framed the broader trajectory plainly: "The campus will be growing in that direction in any event."

On financing the $1.046 million purchase, Finance Director Daphne Schwartz told the council that an inquiry to a private bank had produced an interest rate higher than the 3 percent offered by the seller. The sources do not indicate which financing route the city ultimately selected.

The March 12 meeting drew a notable presence from the local press. Alamance News publisher Tom Boney, Jr., attending to cover the session, expressed concerns that the city had not provided any advance notice to the public about its interest in purchasing the building before the vote was taken.