W. TERRY SMITH
Edgecombe County has executed a contract to purchase the two Embarq buildings on Saint James Street and four parking lots in downtown Tarboro for $787,000.
The deal is scheduled to close within 30 days, County Manager Lorenzo Carmon said.
"This will give us time to due an environmental assessment and title search," he said.
The county will look into moving the Department of Social Services and/or Health Department into the buildings that once housed Carolina Telephone and Telegraph Co.'s executive offices.
"It's a heck of a deal," Carmon said, noting the county was acquiring the attached buildings at about $11 per square foot. "We think it will be a big boost to downtown."
The three-story brick building, the town's first "skyscraper," was Carolina Telephone's original headquarters when it was built in 1912. It has 11,520 square feet.
Until 1960, it was one of three buildings in town that was three stories. That changed in 1969 when the telephone company six-story building next door was finished. The steel frame building has 59,248 square feet.
The two buildings cover about 2.19 acres.
There is parking lot directly behind the newer building, a lot on Saint Andrew Street, another on Saint Andrew and Church streets and a lot on Trade Street across from Cotton's restaurant. The four lots total 200 spaces.
There has been "conversation" about moving the Tarboro Edgecombe Farmers Market into the lot on Trade Street.
"We're excited about the possibilities," Carmon said. "We don't want vacant buildings downtown. This will bring staff and cliental downtown to eat lunch and shop."
If social services and the health department are moved, Carmon said the county would put those buildings off North Main Street up for sale. The social services building, the former County Home, needs a million dollars in repairs, he said.
Both departments have offices in trailers.
"We would get rid of those trailers and move ahead," Carmon said.
At one time Carolina Telephone, which merged with United Telecommunication in 1969, became Sprint in 1993 and then Embarq in 2006, had as many as 1,200 employees in Tarboro. Embarq has several hundred in Tarboro today.
Chairman Leonard Wiggins was unavailable for comment. Embarq officials in Wake Forest did not return phone messages.
