Sparta Aldermen met in a special-called meeting Tuesday to discuss purchasing the Christpoint Church property and turning it into a conference center.
Christpoint Church is located on the square next to the amphitheatre. Mayor Jerry Lowery said the asking price for the property is an estimated $1.3 million. Lowery said the property would be valuable to the city.
“We would own most of the square right there,” Lowery said. “Would be great for various functions, indoor concerts, school plays, a place to, I mean, it’s unlimited what we could use it for.”
The aldermen will vote on Thursday to authorize Lowery to negotiate with the Christpoint Church. Lowery said the asking price might be too high.
“There’s no real number for us to grab hold of and say,” Lowery said. “I guess it determines on what we feel like, what we are willing to pay, and work out the details on it. And I don’t think they are that far off, but I also want to think maybe it’s a little much.”
Lowery said the property would come with existing equipment. Lowery told the aldermen that if price is a big concern, they could ask to leave the equipment out to lower the price. Lowery said the building has a farily new roof, and HVAC units are in good condition. However, Lowery said a sprinkler system would have to be installed in the building.
Lowery said the property would also come with tables and chairs. Lowery said the event center would need ot charge a fee for use of the tables and chairs.
“If we are gonna have a first-class conference center, rental facility, whatever you want to call it, then we need to run it in first class,” Lowery said. “We can’t keep letting people in there, tearing it up, and junking it up.”
Several aldermen said one thing to consider is what work will need to be done to get the conference center ready, should they purchase the property. The aldermen agreed that logistics would need to be figured out before making an offer.
City Administrator Tonya Tindle said the building could be a much better event space than the civic center. Lowery said he believes a new conference center would be a draw for economic development in Sparta.
“We talked about this for economic development stuff,” Lowery said. “We talked about it and we met here, me and Tonya did last week, we talked about a hotel, that this also would be a draw for, we need a hotel. We got this coming in, we got stuff happening, and we need to try and get a hotel. So you take everything together, and Sparta’s got a little mojo behind us right now.”
Sparta Aldermen will meet on Thursday at 5pm, located at City Hall.