The former site of First Baptist Church of Evans has been selected for a new retail development to include a bank.
Ohio-based grocery store company and real estate investment trust Phillips Edison & Co. is requesting that Columbia County rezone 515 North Belair Road from Neighborhood Commercial (C-1) to General Commercial (C-2).
According to plans and addendum documents included with the application, the company intends to develop three commercial lots on the former church property. One lot would have a multi-tenant retail building with some 7,600 square foot of space, another a 5,400-square foot building for a restaurant or other retail tenant.
Yet another lot would be the site of a proposed bank, more than 3,000 square feet, with a drive-thru ATM. While neither the rezoning application nor addendums specify which bank, the concept plans for the building show how a prospective Chase Bank may look on the property.
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The rezoning petition was submitted with three variance requests. One variance would be to allow a drive-thru between the principle building and the North Belair Road frontage, another would increase the maximum building setback along Washington Road from 125 to 215 feet and a third would decrease the required landscape strip along North Belair from 20 to 13 feet.
The First Baptist of Evans property went up for auction in fall of 2023, roughly five months after the congregation voted to merge with First Baptist of Augusta. Phillips Edison & Co., under the name Evans Outparcel LLC, purchased the property in August of last year, according to county property records.
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The Columbia County Planning Commission is scheduled to consider the requests during its meeting on May 1.
Skyler Andrews is a reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
