The former Marsh property at 500 S. Buffalo St., Warsaw, is being purchased by the city.
At the Warsaw Redevelopment Commission’s meeting Monday, they approved a resolution and purchase agreement to buy the property from Cardinal Services for $1.25 million out of Warsaw Technology Park funds. They also approved a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Ram Development Partners LLC to give the Alabama company 12 months to find retailer(s) for the property, with a grocery store at the top of the city’s “want” list for the approximate 5.44-acres property.
On May 21, 2017, Marsh Supermarket closed its doors in Warsaw for good. In May 2018, it was announced Cardinal Services was purchasing the property to relocate its facilities off Winona Avenue, but that never transpired because of COVID-19 and inflation costs in construction. Cardinal Services put the building up for sale.
The resolution approved Monday by the Redevelopment Commission, according to Community Economic and Development Director Jeremy Skinner, authorizes and accepts the appraisals for the Marsh property and authorizes the purchase of the property. The average of the appraisals received by the commission for the site was $1,523,500, according to the resolution.
“So we appointed two appraisals. We have the average of those two appraisals ... and then the purchase price that we offered to Cardinal being under that makes us able to purchase that. So it had to be under or at that amount. We couldn’t go over that,” he said, adding that the resolution also allows the commission to move forward on the purchase agreement.
After the board approved the resolution, Skinner presented the purchase agreement.
“The Redevelopment Commission would be the buyer of this property through the Tech Park funds,” he said.
Mayor Joe Thallemer told the Commission,”We had an opportunity to buy the property. It gives us a chance to control what eventually goes in there. As you’ll hear, a grocery store is always at the top of the list from our community, given the history and the lack of retail grocery in that area. We also had proposals for potentially some innovation center in that area, and we’ll be looking at that as well. But, I think at the top of the list, as you’ll hear next, there’s a retail strategy to look and see if there’s a grocer that would be willing to come in and redevelop that property.”
Given the fact that the property has sat empty for a few years and nothing much was going on with it, Thallemer said, “I think the property was maybe starting to get to the point where it might have been appealing to someone to do something that maybe we didn’t feel was in the best interest of the community.”
He said Skinner and Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation (KEDCO) CEO Alan Tio worked hard to get to the point where the city had the opportunity to go after the property.
The board approved the purchase agreement, and then Skinner presented the MOU with Ram Development, which also was approved.
“After we decided that we were going to acquire the Marsh property, I reached out to Retail Strategies, who are doing our retail strategy, and I said, ‘We’re going to acquire this property. I want you to start marketing it for retail.’ Shortly after that, they came back to us and said, ‘Hey, we would be interested in potentially taking ownership of the property and redeveloping it commercial,’” Skinner said.
The MOU gives Ram Development a 12-month period to try to fill the Marsh property with neighborhood retail uses,” he said. “Obviously, they know that we’re interested in a grocery store, so, obviously, that would be something they target. They’re interested in trying to redevelop that property, and their interest is shown by their willingness to enter into this MOU and spend the money that it will take to do their due diligence and go out and market it. So, it’s not costing us anything, they’re doing that on their own through this development agreement.”
Ram Development is an in-house development firm of Retail Strategies, which the Redevelopment Commission has an agreement with to market the city of Warsaw as a whole. Ultimately, Skinner said, the Redevelopment Commission will have the ability to say yes or no to whatever Ram Development brings to the city for the Marsh property. He said they’ve talked to them about what they want and do want, which is a grocery store, and neighborhood-type of retail.
“We’re not going to get a Walmart, we’re not going to get something like that, but something that would be neighborhood-related in that area for those residents in that area who would be benefitted,” Skinner said.
Thallemer said, “All of a sudden, we had the opportunity to acquire this property, control it, at less than the appraised value. And with that, we’ve had to make some decisions, which way are we going with this thing. And knowing that was prime real estate, right on the corridor into our community, that once housed a thriving grocery store, I think we feel like that might be the best use for that property, and, given the fact that we signed up with Retail Strategies after some good discussion among your group, this just made perfect sense when they approached us and said they might be able to pull this off. I think it makes perfect sense to not waste time, to jump in and see if there’s a retail use and, again, with us at the helm making the decision, this is a fantastic opportunity that pretty much just came along pretty quick.”
Skinner said, “From our perspective, given how much community need there is in this area, I think it would be in our best interest to try to at least revive that as a neighborhood retail center. If we can’t make that happen, then at least we can say to everybody in the community who’s been pounding on our doors ‘we need, we need,’ hey, we gave it our best shot. That’s really where we’re at right now - we’re giving it our best shot to get back what the community lost. We can’t guarantee sitting here that it’s going to happen, but we can guarantee to the community that we’re trying our best.”
Thallemer said they’re all very excited about it and hopefully the opportunity will work out for the best for the city.
Commission member George Clemens said it was a wise decision and they were very blessed to be able to do it.
Tio said he was excited to see how it was coming together so well with the city and a number of partners working together. He said the property is important being within the gateway into the city and downtown, as well as a point that connects the Winona Avenue corridor into Winona Lake.
The commission approved the MOU.
In other business, the Commission approved:
• An MOU with LaPorte Equities LLC for the final phase of the Tippe River Downs development. As part of the MOU, LaPorte Equities will develop their property at 2696 parent Drive with 72 multi-family dwelling units (six buildings with 12 units each and eight garage buildings with nine bays each). The city will finish construction Petro Drive from Parent Drive to Sheldon Drive, including all water, storm, sanitary sewer, streets, street lighting, curbs, gutters and sidewalks.
• A resolution recreating the Gatke Project Allocation Area as the Gatke housing development project is pursued with Rebar. The allocation area is part of the Winona Interurban TIF District. The Warsaw Plan Commission was asked to approve a resolution on it Monday night, and the Warsaw Common Council will be asked to approve a similar resolution before it comes back to the Redevelopment Commission for final approval.