Last night, Danville City Council voted to reverse a decision by the River District Design Commission to deny a certificate of appropriateness to demolish the structure at 601 Lynn Street.

ARRG Properties plans to deconstruct the old tobacco warehouse and turn it into 125 apartments.

Austin Bunn with ARRG Properties outlined why the company wants to deconstruct the building that has been unused for 20 years.

“We’ve gone as far as to hire both an architect and a professional engineer, both of which, are extremely familiar with the River District to find a modern use for this warehouse. The layout of the building, specifically the lack of windows, the floor heights, the number of columns, and column location, and depth of the building prohibit redevelopment. The River District guidelines specifically do mention this building being problematic for viable modern use,” said Bunn.

River District Design Commission Vice Chair Adam Jones discussed why the commission voted against the project.

“Some of the reasons for it and it didn’t come lightly, but one of the reasons was the original construction of 1806, that type of construction just can’t be replaced and we didn’t want to just level it without some strong backing of what was going to go back there. Two, 601 is noted as one of the most significant pieces of inventory in the tobacco warehouse districts,” said Jones.

City Council ultimately voted to unanimously reverse the decision by the River District Design Commission and allow for the deconstruction of the building. However, ARRG will now have to go back before the River District Design Commission over the building.