‘Here I go again on A& B Holdings building, property’- Commissioner Beverly Hall (photo above)

By Charlotte Underwood

JACKSBORO, TN (WLAF)- A 30-year lease agreement between the county and A & B Holdings was once again a topic of discussion at Monday’s County Commission meeting.

“Here I go again,” said Commissioner Beverly Hall as she once again asked her fellow commissioners “what they wanted to do with the A& B Holdings building and property.”

“Are we ever going to find out anything about that, are we going to sell it like we talked about or just keep letting it hang in there?” Hall asked.

Commission Chair Johnny Bruce referred the question to County Mayor Jack Lynch who said several discussions had been had on it and that County Attorney Joe Coker had explained the situation with the building before.

She asked Lynch what they were paying.

Lynch said they (A&B Holdings) were “paying what any company who owned it would be paying in taxes… We are gaining equity each year in the building and honestly, there’s no way in the world to come out on top except to wait 30 years and we don’t see that at all, but the county in 30 years will realize they have a five or six million dollar building and a piece of property,” Lynch said.

“Basically, the county paid $30 something thousand dollars for the property, they reimbursed the county for the property but left it in the county’s name to be able to apply for grants for site preparation I believe, then they built a building for $960,000, which in today’s world is probably worth $3 million. I don’t want to go back to Joe, but he is the lawyer, and he said the contract is real, and that whoever buys it, buys the contract,” Lynch said.

County Attorney Joe Coker responded by saying “basically, yes.”

“So, whoever buys the building, all the money they are going to collect off it is the $1,200 a month,” Lynch said.

Commissioner Dewayne Baird said he thought the county had given an additional $200,000 on the deal.

County Mayor Lynch said the county “may have” and that as you go back and search it out, the company that was initially started in the building had 150 employees at the time and it was in a small facility and had to have a bigger facility and the county instigated a plan where they would hold the land so they could apply for grants,” Lynch said.

Hall had originally brought the issue up at last month’s commission meeting, asking if representatives from A & B Holdings could come to the February workshop to answer questions about the lease agreement.

Commissioner Hall again on Monday said the county is “not in the real estate business” and that the county “was not making money on it.”

“Just let it be known that this commission has no say so and we had nothing to do with that because to me it’s robbing the taxpayers of the money they have put in back down there at A & B Holdings,  the tax payers have put money in that and they are sitting down there in that building making $3 million in 30 years and we haven’t made anything off that building and it’s not fair to other people that rent buildings from the county that pay rent, it’s just not right. Even though that lease secured them, we had nothing to do with that so don’t put our name on anything to do with that. Just leave mine off, but if you want to sell it, I’m all for it. I just want it known that I said it’s not right for the tax payers in our county,” Hall said.

The lease agreement in question was approved by the 1995 commission and then county mayor Tom Stiner. It was a 30-year lease agreement, with the option to extend the lease for another 30 years once the lease was up, which was due to occur this year. The agreement was renewed as of January 5th, with no action required by the commission as it was in the terms of the original agreement that company A & B Holdings had the option at its discretion to renew the lease as long as the company gave a one-year notification of intent to do so. Holdings A & B did so in November of 2023, according to documents provided by the county.

The building located on the property that is leased has housed various manufacturing businesses in the past such as Camel, which built tents, PACA, and now is home to BSH’s research and development with “right at 50 employees” working there.

According to County Attorney Joe Coker, If the county decides to sell or transfer the property, the county must prior to the sale or transfer notify A & B Holdings, which has the right of first refusal on buying the property. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-03/12/2025-6AM)

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