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BUSINESS
Ashland seeks manager for historic building
ASHLAND -- The former Ashland Oil headquarters building at 14th Street and Winchester Avenue has fallen on tough times, and city and Ashland Alliance officials are looking for someone to manage the building, which currently houses about a dozen businesses including WLGC radio and Elite Catering.
The historic building, now called the G.B. Johnson Jr. building, houses several dozen employees. The building is owned by Kentucky Appalachian Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation which hasn't had enough money to pay Columbia Gas of Kentucky since last spring.
The building hasn't had gas heat since April, but officials were trying to work out an agreement with the utility to restore gas heat to the seven-story structure adjacent to the Ashland Plaza Hotel.
"We don't need another vacant building downtown," Kevin Gunderson, Ashland's mayor protem, said Friday. "It's a key piece of property. It's a key building in the history of the downtown."
Jim Purgerson, president of the Ashland Alliance, the chamber group representing Boyd and Greenup counties, said Ashland Oil donated the building to the FIVCO Area Development District years ago, and FIVCO subsequently donated the building to Kentucky Appalachian Foundation.
"The building is quite large and several floors aren't occupied," Purgerson said.
Most of the board members for the foundation have changed over the years, and the financial viability of the building took a turn for the worse several years ago when Morehead State University moved its Ashland center classes to the Ashland Community and Technical College building on 13th Street.
"We need a buyer who is capitalized and can afford the liens on the building," Gunderson said. "If we could find someone, we could sell it for $1. We're looking for someone local who could help out."
Purgerson said they're trying to find a local realtor or developer who could handle the nearly $500,000 in liens and other bills to run the building.
Mayor-elect Tom Kelley said finding new tenants and possibly someone to manage the building is among his priorities when he takes over as mayor after the first of the year.
A representative of Kentucky Appalachian Foundation couldn't be reached for comment.
John McGinnis, a Greenup, Ky., lawyer and owner of WLGC, said arrangements are being made to get the heat turned back on. "We don't have any plans to move," he said. "It's a good location."
