On Monday, the Winston-Salem City Council formally rescinded the offer to Coe. That frees up the money to go to other housing projects the city can support from the proceeds of a 2014 bond issue.

Council Member Jeff MacIntosh, who is in the real-estate business with interests in restoration, said the Pepper Building is one that “people have been waiting to come back for so long.”

“It is torn and battered, but the building is gorgeous,” MacIntosh said, adding that it would be great “to have somebody come in and spend big money to do it up right.”

Coe offered few specifics on what the new owners have in mind, and efforts to reach them Tuesday were not successful.

But Coe did say the hotel planned will “be a very good hotel.”

The sale includes what is known as the Crawford lot next door to the Pepper Building on the side toward Merschel Park. That lot takes its name from the old building that stood on it until it collapsed in 2000. Coe said he had actually been at work inside the building earlier in the day on the day it fell in.