‘We need closure’: Deal reached for 21-story Heritage Tower in Fort Mill

FORT MILL, S.C. — The 21-story Heritage Tower has stood out in the Fort Mill skyline since it was first built in the 1980s by televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, but it was never finished.

Now, a deal has been reached: complete the construction or prepare for demolition. The tower now belongs to MorningStar Fellowship Church, and a new agreement gives them 18 months to submit a building permit application.

Neighbors say it’s a step in the right direction.

“It needs to go, it needs to come to a close. We need closure,” Alex Holets told Channel 9′s Tina Terry.

“I can’t wait, I can’t wait. [I’m] tired of looking at it every day when I come to walk the dogs,” said Gay Willet.

Neighbors are grateful that the end of this old tower could be in sight.

Willet told Terry she’s lived in the area for 25 years, and she calls the tower an eyesore.

“I remember a few years ago my daughter was looking for a house. She was looking in that area and said, ‘I don’t want to look at that every day,’” Willet said.

The tower is in disrepair, and new homes now sit in its tall shadow.

MorningStar Church, which isn’t affiliated with the Bakkers, took over the property and expressed plans to turn it into senior housing in 2007.

However, a legal fight between the church and York County has caused a stalemate. The church signed an agreement with York County to lay out where the money would come from, but the church was later found in default of that agreement. A lawsuit followed, but was never settled.

The new lawsuit claims the reason the county has not allowed the church to move forward is discrimination.

Warick Joyner is pastor of MorningStar Church, which came here years after the collapse of Bakker’s PTL empire amid sex and financial scandals.

Joyner says the suit includes an alleged email between former county leaders talking about MorningStar.

“I see them as being in the same mode as the old PTL, and just as scheming. They are only out to fleece the investors of the units and bilk them for every dime they can get,” the email says.

Joyner says the email stunned him.

“It was shocking to us that our local county would behave that way,” Joyner told Terry.

The church accuses York County of violating religious freedom laws, saying county leaders engaged in “hostile and discriminatory conduct.” The suit also claimed the county “was not interested in resolving anything, except to carry out its original objective of destroying the tower.”

In response, York County Manager Bill Shanahan told Terry, “York County does not discriminate against anyone for ay reason. We follow the laws, both state and federal.”

If the site has to be demolished and if the church doesn’t step in and do it in time, the agreement says the county can take control and demolish the site.

We’ll stay on top of the developments over the next year and a half.

(VIDEO: Man spreads message to tear down former PTL tower)

Man spreads message to tear down former PTL tower A Fort Mill man paid $1,000 to put up a billboard that demands the Morningstar Tower, which has been an eyesore for years, be torn down.

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