MOULTRIE — Worried by the possibility that ABAC on the Square might not use the Friedlander Building for its expansion, the Moultrie-Colquitt County Development Authority is showing the historic cornerstone of downtown to other prospects.

The authority bought the Friedlander Building explicitly for the purpose of supporting the growth of education in Colquitt County and more specifically ABAC’s expansion into the building to accommodate more students. Renovations were expected to cost some $5 million. Already, the authority has spent about $610,000 in the building including environmental assessments and architectural renderings for classroom space, but there are chances at sizable state and federal funding to reduce any lease payments. Authority members are aggressively pursuing these funding options, they said.

During a meeting Wednesday, the board gave a consensus to pursue other businesses while at the same time pursuing ABAC. It’s in the best interest of the public’s investment not to have their eggs all in one basket, some said. One such business is a call center.

The development authority has a letter from ABAC that says the university would lease the building, Ward said. No other agreement has been set down on paper since, but ABAC has been involved in the renovation plans of the building. In those plans, ABAC would use two floors leaving the ground floor to retail and other space, including a community seminar center.

Some on the board have reservations about ABAC not entering a lease agreement up front and the fact that payments would be made on an annual basis since ABAC is a public funded entity. In a past meeting, ABAC Foundation President Melvin Merrill said the Board of Regents wouldn’t enter into a lease agreement without the building being ready to move into first.

“Where is the assurance ABAC is coming?” authority Chairman Jim Ward posed.

The shock came during a recent visit of development authority representatives with ABAC President David Bridges. At that meeting, Ward said he learned that ABAC’s growth projections are “greatly different” than what was provided to the authority at the outset of the consideration of the Friedlander Building. The university might not need as much space as initially thought.

ABAC on the Square is currently maxed out with about 400 students. Earlier projections talked about its size doubling over the first few years it’s in the Friedlander. Now, however, ABAC is revising those estimates.

ABAC spokesperson Mike Chason told The Observer by phone that ABAC as a whole is growing 3 to 5 percent a year.

“We’re hoping for the same amount of growth for ABAC on the Square. We’d like for it to be more,” he said.

An expansion of ABAC on the Square could spur a leap in enrollment on the Moultrie campus beyond those overall growth projections, however.

In a phone interview, development authority member Louie Perry pointed to the school board’s projections of improving the high school completion rate from about half to 85 percent in several years. With more people graduating, it stands to reason more people would go to college, he said. Perry also advocated renovating parts of the building as needed to cut down the immediate renovation cost.

Development Authority Past Chairman Jimmy Jeter said ABAC might use only one floor of the building rather than the two initially planned. The authority then would pursue another tenant — perhaps the call center on one floor and ABAC classrooms on another.

“We are still interested and want to continue to work with the committee,” Bridges told The Observer in a statement. “We want to try to find a way to make the project work.”

Regardless, Ward said, the EDA will protect the public’s investment.