The Greenville City Council has agreed to purchase land in the city’s downtown to aid in the construction of a new Department of Human Resources building.

The land is located on Caldwell Street adjacent to the current DHR building and is owned by Pioneer Electric Cooperative.

Greenville will purchase the approximately 1 acre of land, which is being used as a parking lot, for $21,000.

“We plan to build a new DHR building and we need to have enough room to construct it,” Mayor Dexter McLendon said.

“We’ll build the building and then DHR will lease the it from us. Their rent will pay for the building and we get (the old DHR building) to use to try and attract another business downtown. It’s something we can do to help downtown.”

The city owns the building currently occupied by DHR, which pays the city $53,685 a year in rent.

McLendon said there is no definite timeline on when construction of the new building will begin, but he wouldn’t be surprised if it began soon after the first of the new year.

“We’re waiting on the state to set the timeline, but we don’t expect it to be long,” McLendon said. “We had to go ahead and get the land to get the process going. Now, we’ll get a lease agreement done with the state, and then we’ll start to see work on the building start. We’re not far off.”