The Salem City Council has given tentative approval to sell the former Save-a-Lot building to Air Apply.
The company owned by Chad Eagan of Iuka bid $80,000 with a commitment from the city of $40,000 in assistance from the downtown tax increment district funds for eligible expenses.
“We’re going to turn that into a retail location for spray drones. In the aerial application business, we see that there’s a need for the unmanned part of things,” Egan said. “We’re embracing the technology and we’d love to see it happen, so we’re going to set up that location to be a retail facility, full-service, sales and service as well as insurance, financing. It will be a one-stop shop to set up for either the custom applicator or the individual grower.”
Eagan plans considerable work on the Save-a-Lot building.
“We’ve already got a quote to replace the roof, remove the tile flooring which we believe to contain asbestos, and we got a quote on the HVAC system to upgrade that as well,” Eagan said. “We’ll build offices in the southern half of the building and use the northern half for warehouse storage.”
Eagan says if the city council gives final approval at the next meeting, he’s hopeful they will be in operation by fall.
A typical drone package for aerial spraying is about $27,000.
Eagan notes the drones currently can carry about 10 gallons of spray which would cover about five acres before they would have to be brought down for a battery change and reloading. Egan estimates a single drone could spray about 500 acres a day. He notes that is well under what a helicopter can do, but there are advantages to having unmanned drones. Air Apply has already started using drones for some projects. The company’s air base for its helicopters will remain in Flora.
Sterling Avenue currently located in the Westgate Shopping Center submitted a new bid for $70,000, with TIF assistance of $20,000.
Before the vote, City Manager Annette Sola said she didn’t see any way the city could sell the building for what they paid because they simply paid too much. Mayor Nick Farley agreed.
“I don’t believe we’re going to get what we paid for it. So, to me, we look at a couple things,” Farley said. “What do we have that we want to add to Salem? Two, job creation, three, what are the sales tax and property tax benefits for the businesses that come in?”
Councilman Craig Morton voted no because the city had not readvertised for bids after three bids submitted at the last meeting were rejected as being too low. He wanted to accept bids until at least another city council meeting. Farley maintained the bidding process was still open from the last call for bids and he saw no reason to hold off a decision.
