Wanna Buy an Armory?

From an email sent out to the Arbor District list.. It would be rather hard, given the zoning for that area, not to mention the traffic flow, for anyone to make commercial use of the property.  I remember Carbondale Main Street expressing an interest in the building at one time, possibly for use as a year round farmer's market,  but only if it were donated to the organization:

The now vacant national Guard Armory at the corner of Sycamore and Oakland is up 
for sale. The grounds cover approximately 2.89 acres.The building was 
constructed in 1938 during the high modernist period of the New Deal. It is 
controlled by the Illinois Department of the Military. Today the building was 
open to inspection for the public. 

The main building has 32,449 Square Feet of space.

The main structure houses a large auditorium/gymnasium/parade ground. It appears 
to be constructed of concrete arches. We did not see any cracks in the 
structure.

However, we learned that the Army shut the building down for almost a year and 
drains stopped up causing water to flow through areas of the lower roof. 
They said since the problem was corrected it has not leaked again.

There is a large kitchen, though the equipment is being removed.

There are several sets of bathrooms, showers

There are a number of offices circling the central auditorium. In the basement 
there are more offices, storage. 

There are two large buildings separate from the original Armory. We estimate 
this at more than 200 feet long. They were used to store vehicles and was built 
in the 1950s

On the southwest side of the complex is more outdoor parking as well as fuel 
pumps.