Lease renewal time for Courthouse Inn project

A one-year arrangement is expiring between Oconee County and businessmen wanting to develop the county’s former courthouse building into a hotel. No work has taken place at the site while John Powell and Jim Carswell attempt to line up investment money for what they hope will be a 55-room boutique hotel, at the corner of Walhalla’s Main and S. Church streets. It’s a one-year lease that County Administrator Scott Moulder says expires this month. On Wednesday, Moulder said he had heard nothing from the developers. But this morning Powell told 96.3/WGOG NEWS he and his partner want their lease extended another year and yesterday sent the county administrator a proposal. Moulder says no county money has been spent on the venture, although the building and property remain covered by the county’s insurance policy. Powell says the quest to find private investment money to make the project possible continues and that his partner, Carswell, met with potential investors as late as yesterday.