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MT VERNON (WSIL) - The City of Mt. Vernon purchased some long talked about property at a special meeting Monday afternoon. The building is the old Register News, and the city has plans to turn it into a green space, with the idea of making it a popular outdoor gathering place.

The project is tentatively named The Broadway Commons, and an artist rendering shows it to be a place for the community to sit outdoors and enjoy. After a grant failed to bring it to fruition, the idea's popularity with the public kept it alive, and gave it momentum with the city.

"I have never seen so much excitement for one project," said Mayor John Lewis. "Myself and the city have received no complaints about this project - only, when's it going to happen. So, we decided to go ahead with the project even though we didn't get the grant."

According to the Director of the Jefferson County Development Corporation, Tony Iriti, redeveloping an area along 9th Street, which is the stage for festivals, car shows and more, is the perfect location.

"And figure out what we can do to make it more of a destination for downtown, because that's what it's all about - how do we get people to be downtown so they can take advantage of the businesses that are downtown," Iriti explained.

The cost of the Register News building $589,000. The city will close on the deal in 30 days.

Mayor John Lewis said, they're not demolishing this building. Instead, city officials are trying to find a way to repurpose it.

"Because we have found out it is a steel structure, and it is bolted. It is not welded," said Lewis. "We have all the original plans for all the footings. All we have to do is use those plans, pour the footings exactly how the plans are, we should be able to reconstruct the building. That's 18-thousand square foot. It would cost us $300 to $400,000 to build that building. It's a win-win."

Lewis said, regardless, the building will be gone. He also said, he hopes the new green area will be used for everything from eating lunch to festivals to concerts to prom pictures. It's what the people want, a great investment.

"We've put $3.5-million into downtown Mt. Vernon over the last few years, and it's had maybe a little impact," said Lewis. "This is going to have a huge impact in bringing people to the downtown area."

Lewis said, he hopes to see the project complete by the end of 2023 or the first of 24.

Lewis also said, the city will work on funding during their FY 23 budget meetings.

The next step will be for everyone involved to sit down with engineers and architects to develop a final concept for the green space.