Renovation moving forward

The former AmSouth Bank building downtown may soon see some longpromised renovations, thanks to a $4.9 million chunk of stimulus-funded bonds allocated Thursday by the Calhoun County Commission to Watermark Tower LLC.

The Watermark Tower has been empty since 2003, when a fire on the top floor damaged much of the building. The Anniston Water Works and Sewer Board bought the building on the corner of Noble and 10th streets in 2005, intending to hand it over to a developer, then rent some space for its offices. However, it’s taken more time than originally planned to find a developer willing and with the financial means to purchase and renovate the building.

“We’re not in the business of developing 10-story buildings, and we don’t want to be,” said Water Works General Manager Jim Miller. “We were active early on in taking the building just to keep it from being torn down. But the board’s desire from the beginning has been to find a private concern, to place the building into their hands for redevelopment.”

What they found was Watermark Tower LLC, co-owned by Hubert Wright and Dr. Kent Keys. In November the company contracted to purchase the building for $1, once it could prove it had the money to redevelop the property. The redevelopment will soon start a first phase, the demolition of the interior and work on the exterior, Miller said.

“It’s my understanding that there’s a bank, a local bank, that is going to give them the loan for phase one,” Miller said. “ The sale will now go through once that loan is consummated.”

James Lloyd, acting as adviser for the corporation, spoke to the Anniston City Council members Wednesday, asking them to request money from Recovery Zone Facility Bonds funded by federal stimulus money. The County Commissioners approved the request at their meeting Thursday.

“ That is a project that qualifies,” said Calhoun County Administrator Ken Joiner. “It will now fall to the city of Anniston to do whatever due diligence they want to do.”

The city will be responsible for making sure the Watermark Tower LLC has the ability to complete the project, Joiner said.

The bond money will finance phase two, the completion of renovations of the interior.

At its April 13 meeting, the city agreed to purchase the Water Works building at 131 West 11th St. from the board. That leaves the Water Works department free to move into the Watermark Tower’s basement and its first and second floors after the renovations are completed, Miller said. He expects that will happen within six to eight months.

“I think it’s essential for Anniston that that landmark building be saved,” Miller said. “At the end of the day, we’re going to have a building there that Annistonians can be very proud of and it’s going to be an anchor for the redevelopment of downtown, which is already in progress.”

Anniston City Councilman Ben Little arrived early to pass out a letter noting that he was retracting his support for both the Watermark project and separate $6.5 million bond effort by the city.

“… it saddens me to inform you that I am withdrawing my support the entire bond effort,” Little wrote. “I don’t feel the public had knowledge of the private sector bond, others in the community may have applied if they knew of it.”

Lloyd, who was named in Little’s letter, disputed Little’s claims. He said repeatedly during the meeting that the program was properly advertised.

“Everybody knows what has been going on,” Lloyd said to the commission.

“That’s been very, very hard in the city of Anniston to get some things through.”

Staff writer Laura Johnson contributed to this report. Contact Laura Camper 256-235-3545 at and Laura Johnson at 256-235-3544