The Habersham County Commission Monday night voted to sell the old county courthouse to a developer for $1 million. The building will be renovated into a mixed-use facility.
The building will undergo a major external facelift and significant renovation inside. The repurposed building will include a number of one and two bedroom apartments.
“This is great news for the City of Clarkesvillle and Habersham County,” Hall says. County Commisioner Natalie Crawford agrees.
“This will return the property to the tax rolls, increase the inventory for downtown living, and bring business to the downtown,” Crawford says.
Monday night’s vote draws an end to over two years of discussion and speculation about the fate of the 55-year-old building. Built in 1964, it once housed the county’s jail, courtrooms, and administrative offices. A slow exodus from the building through the years saw the various departments branch out into three different facilities spread across the county seat.
The jail was moved from the top floor of the old courthouse to the current detention facility on the west side of Clarkesville in the late 1990s. In 2013, courtrooms and legal offices were moved to the new judicial center on Llewellyn Street in central Clarkesville. And this past spring, the building was left empty after the county moved its offices into the new administration building off of Highway 17 on Clarkesville’s east side.
