A vacant Sherman apartment complex will soon be demolished

SHERMAN, Texas (KXII) - The city struggled to get control of the Southgate Apartments for two years.

“It’s been a long battle,” said Nate Strauch, communications manager for the City of Sherman. He explained that “there were court cases involved and a number of different property owners. The property changed hands during the course of this process.”

The goal has been to tear down the dilapidated structure next to Washington elementary. “We did get a demolition order from a judge to come in and demolish the building. However, because there was a possibility of appeal, we sat down with the owners and came to terms on a final sale price so that we can do that without having to incur those legal costs,” Strauch said. It was sold by AB Sherman Holding company to the city for 240,000 dollars. It was formerly owned by Apex, a company who owned several Texoma “all bills paid” apartments that failed to make utility payments last winter, leaving many tenants on the brink of being without either water or power.

Strauch said that they expect to demolish the Southgate Apartments by the end of the month. The building hasn’t been occupied since last year, and it has caught on fire multiple times since January of this year. “The city’s priority is just making sure that these really dangerous buildings go away,” Strauch said.

As for future plans for the property, Strauch said that they “really just don’t know what the final use of this property is going to be. The city could hold on to it, turn it into something like a park, [they] could pass it on to the school district and incorporate into the Washington elementary campus, or we could just sell it to a private investor and have it turned into homes or something like that.”

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