Commission nixes offer to donate property

The Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission has withdrawn its offer to donate property it owns at 126 Pleasant St. to the Gateway Community Association or the Webb Community Center, citing the high cost of needed repairs.

The ad commission had been in talks about donating the historic property to GCA, which had requested that the commission repair the historic property as a condition of it accepting the donation.

But after comparing the financial cost of

bringing the property’s structure up to city standards to the $50,000 commitment that GCA said they would use “as consideration to cover predetermined costs of repairs,” the ad commission decided to remove the offer from the table.

“That would just be a drop in the bucket,” Visit Hot Springs CEO Steve Arrison said Tuesday. “They might be able to stabilize the house from there, but they wouldn’t have any other funds to do anything else with it.”

The Hot Springs Historic District Commission rejected the ad commission’s proposal to tear down a structure on the property on the grounds of preserving a historic building.

Arrison, as the property agent for the commission, was subsequently cited by the city of Hot Springs for code violations because the ad commission has not met the city’s requirements for maintenance of the structure.

Arrison said the current situation between the ad commission and the city is one reason why the offer was removed from consideration.

“It wasn’t fair to pass it off,” Arrison said of giving the property to a nonprofit that would not be able to afford repairs. “(It) could endanger them, their economic well-being.”

The discussion surrounding the donation of the property was prompted by a letter of intent GCA board member Jean Lacefield emailed to Arrison on Sunday. The letter contained a list of repairs and maintenance to the property upon which GCA’s acceptance of the donation rested.

Some of the repairs listed in GCA’s letter — replacing or repairing the structure’s roof and repairing its doors and windows — would bring the property up to city standards. The letter also required that the ad commission further maintain the property by painting the structure’s exposed wood and cleaning up any litter and overgrown portions of the property if GCA was to accept the donation.

Arrison emailed a response to Lacefield stating that commissioners are “not general contractors” and would only donate the property to GCA “as is.”

At its monthly meeting on Monday, the ad commission approved a motion to negotiate further with either GCA or the Webb Center over the property before coming to a final decision.

The decision was followed by a decisive letter from Arrison to Lacefield later that day, after Arrison had discussed GCA’s proposals with others, including an architect.

In the letter, Arrison said he had come to the conclusion that the nonprofit “does not have the proper funding to take on” the task of bringing the house up to city standards.

The letter said the ad commission has engaged Harrison Construction “to begin work on our behalf to remedy the short term issues with the property that were pointed out to us by the city of Hot Springs and to also develop an acceptable plan whereby we can renovate and use the building.”

Lacefield responded in an email on Tuesday, calling Arrison’s rejection of GCA’s offer “unfortunate.” She also said GCA is “able to have a workable plan” with the help of “community minded persons that value the work we are doing.”

Lacefield also expressed gratitude that Arrison appears to be taking steps to “save a historic structure and contribute to building a healthier neighborhood.”

Arrison said if GCA or the Webb Center were to revisit the property in the future, the commission would reconsider.

“Down the road, if the Webb Center or the Gateway Association wants to come back to the table, we’ll see where we are at that point,” Arrison said Tuesday.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the ad commission was in the process of bringing a contractor to the property to correct the code violations, including cutting down trees on the property.

Arrison said the ad commission will assess how they will use the building once the property is up to city standards.

“We’re gonna get all those fixed first,” he said. “Then we’ll take a look at it.”