Investors buy derelict warehouse to demolish it
By Bobby Bryant, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
Darlington businessman Curtis Boyd and a group of investors have bought one of the city’s biggest eyesores – the derelict, block-long Tyner Warehouse at East Broad and Russell streets – and plan to demolish it.
“This thing will be coming down,” Boyd says in a video posted on Facebook.
Boyd, who plans to run for mayor of Darlington, said the demolition work would get underway immediately and would likely be completed in four or five days.
“We’re here to make progress,” said Boyd, who owns Fitness World Gyms and Out of This World Screen Printing.
“ … Some of this stuff just needs to go.”
The building, between 25,000 and 30,000 square feet, is thought to be about a century old. At various times, parts of the building have been used as offices for a taxi company, TV repair shop and other purposes. It’s already been condemned by the city, but its fate has been tied up in legal red tape for years.
“The city’s been wanting it down,” Boyd said. “ … Everybody should be happy now.” This is what Darlington needs, Boyd said – eliminating derelict, dangerous structures with no historical value to improve the city and encourage new businesses to locate here.
He said this should not be considered part of his mayoral campaign: “I’m doing it because I love Darlington.”
Boyd said he joined with Darlington Investors LLC to purchase the Tyner Warehouse. He declined to name the other investors, but said the group consists of 10 people in all: “Most of them are businesspeople.” He declined to say how much the investors paid for the property.
At least for now, Boyd said, the group intends to convert the property into greenspace by planting grass where the old warehouse stood.
“There’s a lot of buildings in town that need to come down,” Boyd said, but emphasized that there are also a lot of older buildings that should be preserved through renovation. “Take the old Post Office (on Pearl Street). It doesn’t need to be torn down. … That’s a beautiful building. … It needs to be renovated” to serve new purposes.
