A plan to save the burned-out and crumbling Powell School, Birmingham’s oldest standing school building on the site of its first school, has been approved by the Birmingham City Council, but nobody is guaranteeing it can be saved.

The Birmingham City Council voted this morning to approve the mayor’s plan to terminate an agreement with the Alabama Trust for Historic Preservation to redevelop the property.

“This is the city removing itself from this process,” said Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin.

“Time is running out on the school,” said David Williams, president and CEO of Harbert Realty Services. “It is unsafe. Part of the building is collapsed.”

There are no guarantees the school can be preserved, he said. “The condition of the school is really poor,” Williams said. “I make no promises.”

Williams said after the meeting that the Alabama Trust has a contract to sell the property to Harbert Realty, Stewart/Perry Co. and Sloss Real Estate. They expect to close on the deal within 30 days.

Williams said a potential tenant has been identified, a national non-profit organization with a large local presence. The details have not been finalized.

Williams said all three companies involved in the development deal have a history of preserving Birmingham’s historical buildings and will do their best to save what they can.

“Maybe a façade, or saving some of the bricks,” Williams said. “We’re not sure if we can preserve it.”

In order to get a historic tax credit, the façade and basic structure would have to be preserved, he said. Restoration will require at least a $20 million investment, he said.

“We’ve been working tirelessly for two years,” Williams said. “If it doesn’t survive, we will work to re-purpose it.”

Council member Valerie Abbott questioned Woodfin about whether there was any guarantee the building would not be demolished, as happened when the city relinquished control of Quinlan Castle.

“I want to see what’s being built,” she said. “Where’s the design?”

Woodfin said the property has simply been deteriorating further as no solutions have been put forth over the past 11 years that the Historic Trust had a chance to find one. “Nothing has happened,” he said.

“The question is, ‘Can they preserve the building?’” Woodfin said. “The answer: I do not know.’ Some decision has to be made.”

Powell School, at the corner of Sixth Avenue North and 24th Street North, was built in 1887 on the site of the city’s first school that was built in 1874, after the city was founded in 1871. The Elyton Land Company, which founded the city, donated the lot for a school, with the covenant that it must always be used as a school or else ownership reverts back to the original owners. That claim to ownership would belong to Barber Properties, which is a successor to Elyton’s stake in the land. Barber has agreed to forego its ownership in the land, Council member Darrell O’Quinn said.

The first “free school” on the site was damaged by fire in 1886 and the new school was named after one of the city’s founders, former Mayor James Powell, who donated his city salary to the project.

The building, already deteriorated and not used as a school since 2002, caught fire in 2011 and sustained serious damage. It is surrounded by a barbed-wire fence and much of it remains open to the elements.