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A fire in May of 2016 destroyed the east side mill property

Mill cleanup/development planned

By Michael Butler

The east side mill property has been reduced to a pile of rubble since a 2016 fire left it in ruins. Many conversations of possibilites for the future use of the property have surfaced over the past six years with little activity. It appears that is about to change.

Tallassee Mayor Sarah Hill released information this week of an agreement with LHVC, LLC of Birmingham to clean up the property and develop it.

"My husband worked down there as a firefighter that night. It went from one of the biggest pieces of history to our biggest eyesore," said Hill. "We've had this company come in. They've got the funding to get it done. They're ready to start."

The first step in the the process is removing debris from the riverfront acreage. That price tag is believed to be in the $7-9 million range, according to Hill.

"That's the estimate - just the cleanup."

LHVC has a connection with its partnership in the Iron Age Project that restored the 1886 Iron Age Building in Birmingham. Hill said the historical element of the mills in Tallassee that date back to 1844 on the west side of the Tallapoosa River and to 1898 on the east side are to be implemented in the plans.

"They want to save some of the structures, specifically the one that has the melted beams. They want to encase that. They want to utilize some of these buildings in the rebuild."

The scope of work would include a museum showcasing some of Tallassee's history, as well as industrial and business offices, an event venue and a boardwalk.

Before
After

Hill understands skepticism with past talks of development that never came to fruition - even prior to the fire, but the contract in place requires benchmarks as the project progresses.

"There are some milestones or otherwise it reverts back to the city," Hill said of the property which has been deeded to LHVC at no charge. "If it's awful in two years, it will revert back to the city at no costs. We did want to make sure that they have a vested interest."

The possibilites are endless, but no architectual renderings have been done yet.

"It's early stages," Hill added. "For the next few months, we're going to see them clearing out the brush, overgrowth and trees. It's going to be a while. There's not going to be buildings in two years. The city's benefit was to get it cleaned up."