City to Purchase FEC Headquarters For Downtown Plaza Project

La Grange City Manager Jack Thompson confirmed last week that the City intends to purchase the old Fayette Electric Cooperative (FEC) headquarters building.

Thompson said the City plans to build a downtown plaza for public events on the property. The City and FEC negotiated a sale price of $665,000 for the roughly 2.5 acre property on Washington St. north of the square, he said. The property takes up almost an entire city block. Thompson said the City of La Grange and the La Grange Economic Development Corporation (EDC) will split the cost evenly.

“We’re exploring doing a plaza on the property, kind of a gathering spot,” Thompson said. “One of the things I heard when I got here was how much more we need for families to be able to do.

“In developing this as a plaza and a kind of community gathering spot, we’ll have amenities in the plaza that will be family-friendly. It’ll attract more people to downtown. And that will help us attract more restaurants and retail businesses in the downtown area. It’ll help liven up the downtown core.”

Thompson said the City doesn’t intent for the plaza to replace the Square as an event space in downtown. Rather, he said, the plaza will enhance the Square.

“It gives us a larger area to also do events,” he said. “But a lot of the events like the farmer’s market, Schmeckenfest, trick-or-treating – all of that stays on the Square.”

Thompson said he hopes the plaza could be used for events during the twice-yearly antiques shows in northern Fayette County.

“We leave a lot of money on the table with these tourists events,” Thompson said. “When Round Top happens, a lot of those folks stay in our hotels, but they don’t really shop here. This gives us a way to make sure they shop here and eat at our restaurants, if we’re having events and concerts. So many of our neighboring cities are already doing that. They’re having events to bring those folks into their towns to shop and eat. We need to do some of that.”

He said the old FEC headquarters building will probably be demolished. The headquarters building, which opened in 1964, was designed by architect Edward Mattingly, the same architect who designed La Grange City Hall.

“We’ll have to clear the site,” Thompson said. “Some of the stuff we’re looking at are a splash pad, stage, places for food trucks to park, outside eating area, maybe a playground. I don’t want to say these are set in stone. We still have to go through a design phase. And we want public input. But we’ll be coming up with a gameplan on what all can go in there. It could fill up fast.”

Thompson said planning and development will probably take a year to a year and a half. Construction would take another year and a half.

“We’ve got spring or summer of 2028 pencilled in right now,” he said.

Thompson said it was too early to estimate the cost for developing the plaza. He said the City and EDC would pursue grants to help pay for the development.

“We’re really not interested in paying for it with general fund tax money or utility fund money,” Thompson said.

Instead, Thompson said the City may be able to use hotel occupancy tax to help fund development, since the facility would be used to attract visitors to town. EDC sales tax revenue would also be used, he said.

“At the end of the day, we want to bring more people in,” Thompson said. “We want to create a more vibrant and robust downtown. We’re on our way to that. This helps us accentuate that. It also gives people more of a reason to invest in downtown. If there’s more excitement, more activity, businesses are going to be more successful. With people coming in, they’ll be more apt to walk into a store and shop. It’ll help the businesses on the square and attract more businesses. It’s really an investment in the community.”