Algood Receiving Interest in Downtown Business Incubator

Algood city officials are receiving interest in new businesses locating to the city’s old town hall building.

City Administrator Keith Morrison said City Council will consider a motion Tuesday to set negotiation terms before any leases are discussed.

“We’ve had some come by and look at it and have some interest in it, so we need to be able to discuss what the terms of the lease are, how long it’s going to be, and what kind of items are going to be expected from each party,” Morrison said. “That way we can kind of get this rolling and hopefully get some more businesses downtown, get those storefronts active and start working towards redeveloping the downtown area.”

Algood City Council members approved converting the city’s old town hall into a business incubator with lower rent costs.

Morrison said the city will likely implement a single rate for all businesses interested in locating to the old town hall.

“The idea is to allow each business some time to develop their business and have some lower-cost rent,” Morrison said. “We’ll try to work out to where each one is equivalent to the other so that nobody is getting a better deal than the other one. The intent was to give them some opportunity to grow downtown, develop the building, and create a good, strong, thriving business before they have to go to full commercial rent.”

Morrison said the incubator will be beneficial in revitalizing the downtown area.

“We’ve got a couple of businesses that are down there now with the furniture store and some stuff going on, plus the barber shop looking for a new tenant,” Morrison said. “We’d like to get that activity back downtown and have people coming back into the old part of Algood. I think it will be a real plus to have that down there.”

City Council will consider implementing the lease agreements during Tuesday’s regularly-scheduled meeting at 6 p.m.