Where will 43-year-old BJ's Used Books go following order to demolish building?

After more than 40 years serving the Fayetteville community, a family-owned used bookstore is seeking a new location. Its current home is slated for demolition due to the property owner's failure to meet city code requirements.

BJ’s Used Books, at 4905 Murchison Road, announced July 2 that it is seeking a commercial building. Siblings Nancy and Rudy Edwards, who own the bookstore, said in the announcement that the city notified them that power would be cut to the building in preparation for demolition. As of July 16, the Edwardses confirmed their 19,380-square-foot building still had power and they were unsure when it would happen.

Built in 1966, the current shop is at the corner of Murchison Road and Brenda Drive.

"We're trying to figure it all out," Nancy Edwards said last week. "We grew up here and we didn't realize the value that this store had to the community... These guys have been coming in for decades ... the kids in the neighborhood back here come in and read here because they don't have a library to go to."

Loren Bymer, spokesperson for the city, said via email earlier this month that the City Council approved the demolition at a meeting Nov. 27. The decision came after the property owner, Alber Treadwell of Treadwell Ministries, failed to comply with a November 2022 order requiring repairs to the building be completed within 180 days, Bymer said.

He said the code violations created "dangerous conditions," which include defects in porch columns, ceilings, walls, roof, trim and fascia.

Treadwell said Wednesday that he received notice of the code infractions about 18 months ago and, during a recent visit to the property, the fire department notified him that the power could be shut off.

"It's like I'm fighting two different entities here," Treadwell said. "I'm fighting to keep and comply with the city and then I got to comply with the fire department and it's like they're compounding things to make it impossible for me to make the repairs."

Some repairs were made

Nancy Edwards said that most of the required repairs were cosmetic, which the landlord completed, but that the quality of the repairs might not have satisfied the requirements and that some issues were structural.

Treadwell said that he prioritized repairs to the bookstore to ensure customer safety, while the rest of the building remains closed to the public. He said he has spent about $600 on repairing the rotted wood on the building, adding that while he doesn't have "a lot of money to work with," he has been working overtime to raise the funds necessary to complete the repairs and get off the demo list.

"I've also been trying to have a big community fundraiser," Treadwell said. "I know that the bookstore and myself will try to get together and do a big fundraiser and try to raise the necessary money that we can to try to get the repairs done. It's not just a building to me, it's our sanctuary, it's our church."

Brian Rick, spokesperson for the city, said the owner was granted additional time to make the repairs and the action for demolition didn't go before the council for more than a year.

"The owner has now had more than 20 months to bring the building into compliance and has not done so," Rick said Thursday.

What will happen to BJ's Used Books?

Rudy Edwards said that people in Spring Lake and Hope Mills encouraged them to relocate the bookstore to their respective areas.

Nancy Edwards said that the Hope Mills location they've found is "too small" for their collection, but her brother, Rudy, said it could serve as an interim location if they're forced to relocate and leave the building they've called home since the bookstore first opened in the '80s.

"We're not going to find something bigger for anything close to what we're paying here ... but you never know, someone may pop out of the woodworks and say they have this great amazing place and well, we'll see," Nancy Edwards said.

Rudy Edwards said that years ago when Treadwell purchased the building from its previous owner, they agreed on a handshake deal that Treadwell wouldn't raise the rent — a promise he has honored despite inflation driving up market prices. Nancy Edwards said it's likely the bookstore is one of the few businesses in the city still paying rent rates from the '80s and '90s. She said it will challenging for them to to relocate to an area with current market rents.

Councilman Mario Benavente, whose district includes the BJ's location, said that code enforcement rules and regulations have a paper trail documenting the city's communication of code enforcement issues well before a property is placed on a demolition list. He said that, according to city staff, the code issues at the bookstore were never addressed in a "satisfactory or safe way," leading to the property's inclusion on the demolition list.

"Where does the fault lie and where did the issues begin? By the time that they hit the demolition point, we were well past some of these discussions. These discussions had to have been had the first day the landlord got notice, not six months later," Benavente said.

He said that every building on the demolition list is reviewed on a case-by-case basis to determine its final demolition date. He said the city lacks a wrecking ball on standby and generally prefers building owners to address code issues themselves rather than fund a demolition.

"Legally speaking, there is a timeline that the city is not going to play around with to give people a chance to rectify whatever situation it is, code enforcement-wise. And when they fail to do that, we have to do the next steps," Benavente said. "That's just what the law requires,"

Reporter Lizmary Evans covers growth and development for The Fayetteville Observer. You can reach her at LEvans@gannett.com