Fort Mill to purchase iconic Springs Industries building for new town hall location

One of the most iconic, historic buildings in Fort Mill will soon belong to the town and eventually become the new town hall. It also could start a domino effect of changes for other prominent properties.

Fort Mill is under contract to purchase buildings at 123 and 205 N. White St., the former headquarters and research sites for Springs Industries. Town officials anticipate closing in late May.

The plan involves issuing a bond of up to $29 million in May, for the almost $23 million sale and work needed to convert the former headquarters to a town hall.

“There were so many proposals to tear this building down and add high-rise apartments and high-rise town homes,” Mayor Guynn Savage said Wednesday afternoon at a news conference. “We want to keep the character of Fort Mill within the sense of community that we love.”

Moving town functions into a new space will mean selling the town hall and police offices used now on Tom Hall and Confederate streets, Savage said.

Town hall, police, council to use Springs building

Town staff will begin moving into the 205 N. White St. building by the end of the year. It will host town administration, the police department, municipal court and conference and training rooms. Council chambers eventually will have space for 100 people, up from 40 at the room used now in the town police station.

“It’s more befitting, and certainly a lot better for our public to get to us,” Savage said.

The building at 123 N. White St., built in 1971, is leased to Pike Incorporated. The town will continue leasing it after the ownership change.

The existing town hall will be sold. So will the police station, which was a town hall before combined administrative and police functions outgrew it.

New administrative space in Fort Mill has been in long-term planning for years, said interim town manager Chris Pettit. Ideally the town wanted something centralized downtown, able to grow in a single space and combine most or all town functions. It also needed parking.

“This facility really does check all those boxes we were searching for,” Pettit said.

The former Springs headquarters site includes vast rows of windows and features considered modern when it was built.

The most talked-about space is Springs’ office. A table coming out of the floor and other highlights are largely still intact. The town will work with the Springs family and Fort Mill History Museum to preserve that area.

“As long as there’s breath in my body and the town owns the facility, that will be a place of history,” Savage said.

Elliott Close, a local entrepreneur and grandson of Springs, said the former headquarters was renovated about 20 years ago and the town shouldn’t have to do too much to make it a useful facility. “This building has sat here unused for some time now, and we were thankful somebody now can use it,” Close said. “It seemed like a perfect fit.”

Close appreciates that the building will stay, and that town leaders want to continue a legacy of a company that not only employed many people in the town but also in the Springs and Close families.

“Fort Mill’s got a lot of history,” Close said. “Some good, some bad. This was an area of a lot of activity.”

Springs executive office in downtown Fort Mill

A company that started in 1887 as Fort Mill Manufacturing Company grew into the Springs textile giant that employed much of the town in the 20th century. The downtown mill where Elisha Park is today once made sheets, pillowcases and other home good lines.

The park is named for former Springs Industries executive Walter Y. Elisha, and Springs Mills conveyed the property to Leroy Springs & Co. before Clear Springs Land Co. bought it in 2016 for $1.3 million. A year later, Clear Springs conveyed it to the town for continued park use.

In 1950, Col. Elliott White Springs built a new headquarters for Springs Cotton Mills at 205 N. White St. A company bulletin and magazine articles from the time describe a pilot mill, research department, chemical lab and photo lab where cotton would be sent.

Medical clinics and a library were included, with the second level larger than the bottom one in the 80,000-square-foot facility. Articles notes the upside down windows reminiscent of the Hindenburg gondola and furnishing made from recycled materials.

From above, the building has the shape of a bi-plane as a nod to Springs, a World War I flying ace and South Carolina Aviation Association Hall of Fame member.

A signature Fort Mill business spot, the Springs Global site, now has a new owner

The office would be headquarters for Springs Global, a company formed in 2006 when Springs Industries merged with a Brazilian textile company. Springs Mills sold the office building to the Becker company in 2002 for $7 million.

Springs Office Acquisitions bought it in 2006 for $8.3 million, then sold it to Springs Office Investors less than a month later for $9.5 million.

In late 2021, Pope & Land Real Estate out of Atlanta partnered with Triad Properties to purchase three land parcels from Springs Office Investors. The $16.5 million sale included the 10-acre headquarters site at 205 N. White St., a 7-acre property at 112 Massey St. with a 63,000-square-foot office building and one acre of commercial space at 121 N. White St., across from Veterans Park.

Pope & Land still lists the buildings at 123 and 205 N. White St. online as part of its portfolio.

Fort Mill adds to downtown property

Across Ardrey Street from the former Springs Global headquarters, the town owns four parcels that combine to make Elisha Park. They total about 16 acres. The town also owns a small lot at Lee Street and Looms Way that visitors to Elisha or Calhoun Street Park can use.

Calhoun Street Park has a soccer field that overlooks Elisha Park.

That soccer field is the norther point of a 23-acre property which meanders through mill houses on either side, all the way to Harris Street. The town took ownership of it in 1988.

Across Harris, there’s the 5-acre Harris Street Park and another 17 acres connected to it — all owned by the town. Fort Mill also owns 5 acres on Ardrey Street connected to both the former Springs Global site and Elisha Park.

In recent years the town used many of those properties for recreation or public amenities, from trails connecting two main parks (Elisha and Harris Street) to a new amphitheater for large concerts at Elisha.