The “For Sale” sign on the front of the former St. Luke’s Thrift Store building can finally come down.

Discussions over the past two weeks between Tryon Business & Tourism Development Coordinator Crys Armbrust, Bob Lane, Ken Shull, CEO of St. Luke’s Hospital, and the St. Luke’s Hospital Board of Directors have concluded with St. Luke’s Board of Directors accepting Lane’s offer to purchase the 62 North Trade Street property.

Armbrust, who indicated he acted as Lane’s representative, said, “this acquisition represents a red letter day for Tryon and Tryon Downtown Development.”

“My interest is to help facilitate the building of a downtown focal point and public gathering space, and to return the building to a look that fits better with the street,” said Lane in a release. “I hope soon to engage an architect to design a retail, hospitality reuse of what began as an American Filling Station.”

A resident of Tryon, Lane and his wife spent a year restoring the Sunnydale log cabin, located next door to Dollar General, before gifting it to the Tryon Little Theater last December.

Lane said he intends to give permanent easement of the former thrift store property to the Town of Tryon, so that the city might build what has informally been referred to in the Streetscape Master Plan as “the Maple Street Plaza.”