A piece of Tallassee history is for sale.
The Tallassee Guest House is available for purchase. It was built in 1941 by Tallassee Mills carpenters and hosted executives of the mills parent company traveling to town to work in the mills. It is currently owned by Corrie Sid. The nearly 6,000 square foot home sits on more than 20 acres on the waterfront.
“I just don’t want to hold on to it in the event somebody else can afford to go in there and do it the justice it deserves,” Sid said.
The Tallassee native acquired the property in 2018 from the City of Tallassee for $229,000 through a sealed bid process. At the time it appraised for about $300,000 and the city had just spent nearly $30,000 in maintenance costs.
Sid spent about $130,000 on full architectural plans to turn the home into an event space.
“I was planning to do pre-COVID,” Sid said. “It was about a $2.5 million investment. I was willing to do it. When COVID happened, that went to about $6 million for the same project. I couldn’t do it without help.”
Sid did some work after some flooding to a downstairs room.
“To preserve what was there, I gutted the bathrooms so that we wouldn’t have any more plumbing issues,” Sid said. “There was a fear it could flood the bottom floor and have irreversible damage.”
Sid said it has been difficult to convince investors from beyond Tallassee to take the risk in eastern Elmore County. As costs went up post COVID-19 pandemic more ideas of what to do with the property were discussed with potential investors. Those ideas included selling low-rise condos and cottages to retirees but the property staying with the ownership group. Startup homes were discussed.
“There were so many ideas,” Sid said. “The No. 1 hesitancy was what is the city’s plan for development.”
The property is listed for sale at $600,000 with New Stone Realty.