Sweet Breads looks to locate in current Demorest City Hall

DEMOREST - The City of Demorest is on the move, literally.

Tuesday night, the Demorest City Council unanimously approved a building swap downtown that soon may bring a well-known eatery to Georgia Street.

The council voted to direct City Attorney Joey Homans to draft documents transferring the current Demorest City Hall to the Demorest Downtown Development Authority, and for the current city hall to be relocated to the former Community Bank & Trust building on Georgia Street at Central Avenue.

Following the meeting, Mayor Rick Austin discussed the potential swap.

"We've been working on it for a bit of time," Austin said. "The City of Demorest is going to move the current location of the city hall to the bank building that is downtown."

Austin said some renovations, essentially a floor plan change, will be needed inside the former Community Bank & Trust location.

"It's got a drive-through and it's going to be a better location for us in terms of the city hall usage," Austin said "What's more important is the movement of city hall opens up the present city hall - which has more parking and is a much more viable location for commercial applications."

The Demorest Downtown Development Authority, which owns the bank building, will meet at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, March 5, to ratify the swap approved by the city council.

"As you heard tonight, we already have a very interested suitor for that particular location - Sweet Breads, formerly located in Clarkesville before the fire, has expressed an extreme interest in being in downtown Demorest," Austin said. "They're excited about it, we're excited about the possibility of them coming to downtown Demorest. We think it's a win/win situation for everybody involved."

Lee Hull, co-owner of Sweet Breads, and others were present at Tuesday night's city council meeting.

"We're just pleased to be thought of to come to Demorest," Hull said. "We love the building - looking forward to doing business here."

Sweet Breads and several other Clarkesville businesses were destroyed by a fire on March 5, 2014.