NATCHEZ &045; On Tuesday, the Board of Aldermen voted to accept an offer of $80,000 from Bruce Brice Jr. for the former Britton & Koontz First National Bank building on Main Street.

&uot;He’s expressed an intent to purchase the building and locate his business there,&uot; said Alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux, who chairs the board’s Public Properties Committee.

Arceneaux was referring to Receivable Solutions Specialists, a collection agency now located on Highland Boulevard.

The board gave Mayor Phillip West and City Attorney Walter Brown the authority to finalize the deal &045; with the stipulation that the city would have first option to buy the property back.

The city received three appraisals on the property, and aldermen voted Tuesday to pay each appraiser $500 for his or her services.

The building will need several improvements before Brice can move his business there, including roof repairs, a new heating and air conditioning system and overall cleaning of the interior, Brown said after the meeting.

&uot;After all, it’s been sitting vacant since 1997,&uot; Brown said.

The city has owned the building since 1994. In September, the board voted to declare the building as surplus property.

Then this spring, city officials said that since no offers had been received for the building, they would redouble their efforts to market the facility.

Those efforts included advertising the building in newspapers throughout the region, although legal notices asking for bids had already been published.

Brice could not be reached for comment Tuesday, and his father, Bruce Brice Sr., who is involved in the project, had no comment.