Any rent money that New Cingular Wireless has paid to the County's
Industrial Development Authority (IDA) must be refunded according to
the termination of an option and lease agreement which was entered into
earlier. Termination of the lease, which began with an agreement
between the two parties for the construction of a communications
facility back in August of 2006, came about after Cingular was unable
to get approval for permits to construct and operate the proposed
communications tower at the Riverstone Technology Park on Sandy Beach
Road. After the first proposed site for the tower was denied, the IDA
and Cingular tried to relocate the tower at another spot in the park,
but were unsuccessful in doing so.
"Refunding the money is no problem," said IDA Executive Director Mike
Eades, who noted that none of the rent checks had been cashed, as the
IDA had held out hope that an alternate site could be approved. It was,
he said, just as the agreement state "in their mutual interests to
terminate the agreement."
In other housekeeping items addressed Friday during their monthly
meeting IDA members approved a recommendation from the Timmons Group to
reduce the scope of services for a traffic impact analysis for the
Georgia Pacific Fairgrounds and Wilkins and Barnes tracts from the
proposed $37,500 to just $20,900.  Eades said the US Small Business
Administration has declared that the IDA does not have to do a full
environmental impact statement on the G-P project but it is requiring
the IDA to have a traffic impact analysis on the redevelopment of the
property and his staff recommends that the impact analysis include the
county's new solid waste transfer station as well as other future
projects there.
The Timmons Group expects to complete the traffic study within ten to
twelve weeks after receiving the contract from the IDA.
IDA board members also approved recommendations from Oakway Properties
to lease the conference rooms, the board room, the break room area and
the fitness center to the Riverstone Technology Park Owners Association
which will ultimately have the responsibility for maintaining all
common areas in the park with future tenants paying  for the use as a
part of their rent.
The Board also voted to determine the usefulness of batteries which
were earlier purchased for use in the call center facility in
Riverstone, but which were never used. According to Eades, the
batteries have been stored for some years in the basement of Building I
in Riverstone and their usefulness is unknown. Eades estimated that the
materials, which were purchased prior to his employment with the IDA,
costs somewhere between $10,000 and $15,000. He said they were first
stored in an environmentally controlled area owned by Climate Control,
but were later moved to Riverstone.