Alamance County has closed on the purchase of a historic Victorian home that its board of commissioners agreed to acquire from Bank of America last fall on behalf of the local visitors bureau.
In the meantime, the county is still waiting for a Greensboro-based developer to firm up a real estate purchase that’s integral to a land swap, which will enable the county to build a new ambulance base to serve Mebane and its surroundings.
The Koury Corporation had originally peddled this property exchange as a done deal when it approached Mebane’s city council at the end of 2024 about the zoning it needed for an 83-acre mixed-use development between Trollingwood-Hawfields Road and South Third Street.
Among the parcels that the company had cobbled together for the development’s site was a 1.68-acre parcel that the county had acquired along South Third Street as a potential site for an EMS substation. The Koury Corporation assured Mebane’s leaders that the county had agreed to trade this property for a better situated site along NC 119, allowing the land along Third Street to serve as an entrance into the development’s residential component.
The city council went on to approve the Koury Corporation’s zoning request before it emerged that the company had jumped the gun on the proposed land swap. In fact, it wasn’t until the summer of 2025 that the board of commissioners approved the exchange. Even then, the company had to close on the land it had proffered along 119 before it could consummate the deal with the county.
As of this week, Koury Corporation still hadn’t finalized the purchase of this 2.58-acre swath of a larger, 48-acre tract that lies at the intersection of Smith Drive and NC 119.
[Story continues below photos of county’s land, significance of its potential use as entrance into Koury development, and the land Koury has identified as a possible “swap” for the South Third Street property.]
According to assistant county manager Brian Baker, this property purchase appears to have gotten hung up in Koury Corporation’s negotiations with the original property owner. Baker added, however, that the company’s representatives have assured him the deal will be sealed sooner rather than later.
“Right now, they’re saying it will be by the end of June,” he elaborated. “It’s really out of our control, but there’s no reason why it shouldn’t occur.”
Baker was able to share more auspicious tidings about the county’s proposed transaction with Bank of America.
This past December, the county’s board of commissioners agreed to enter into a contract with the Charlotte-based bank to acquire a period dwelling that stands at 141 South Main Street in Graham. This 147-year-old home had originally been built by the local industrial E.M. Holt as a residence for one of his daughters. Bank of America had acquired the property in 1993 before restoring the structure to its Gilded-Age grandeur. The home went on to serve as branch office until the company shuttered this operation in the opening months of 2024.
The county agreed to purchase the home at the behest of the Alamance County Visitors Bureau, which intends to set up its headquarters inside the dwelling. On December 1, the board of commissioners voted 3-to-2 to broker this deal with $650,000 that the visitors’ bureau had set aside from its share of a special tax on hotel and motel accommodations
On May 27, a deed of sale for this property was filed with Alamance County’s Register of Deeds.
