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In an effort to close on lot 1 at the former Marsh property, 500 S. Buffalo St., Warsaw Community and Economic Development Director Jeremy Skinner told the Redevelopment Commission Thursday someone was needed from the commission to sign the paperwork at the closing.
The original documentation had the commission’s president or vice president as the signee, but neither one of them - George Clemens or Mike Klondaris - will be available for another month to sign.
A new resolution Skinner presented to the commission Thursday allows anyone from the commission to be authorized to be the signee.
“Not really changing anything, other than it just authorizes, rather than being specific to the president or vice president - any member of the Redevelopment Commission to sign at that closing,” he said.
Outlot 1, which is 4.87 acres of the property, was sold for $1 million to 500 Buffalo for an antique mall project and has already been closed. Lot 1 is being sold to Ewert Developments for $225,000 for a Scooters Coffee.
The resolution was approved 3-0, with Klondaris and Clemens absent.
Another resolution approved by the Redevelopment Commission was a joint resolution between the city of Warsaw’s and the town of Claypool’s redevelopment commissions.
Skinner said the resolution references Orthopedic Industry Retention Initiative’s (OIRI) workforce housing and is part of OIRI’s documentation requirement.
“They are looking at doing a couple of different housing projects across the county, the first one being in Claypool. So in order to kind of satisfy that documentation per the agreement with the state, they had asked me to do a resolution of the Warsaw Redevelopment Commission, and I said why don’t we do a joint resolution with the Warsaw Redevelopment Commission and the Claypool Redevelopment Commission that would give them access to parts of those funds that were dedicated for workforce housing,” he said. “So that’s what this resolution does. It dedicates $37,500 to go toward that workforce housing project.”
The project is being ran through Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation (KEDCO) in collaboration with Housing Resource Hub - Club 720 and Mission: BUILD and Claypool.
“So, we don’t necessarily have any money in it, per se, outside of the original agreement with OIRI was referenced that Warsaw Redevelopment Commission being, kind of, overseeing that workforce housing. So that’s all we’re doing, a joint resolution with Claypool to approve those funds to be used, and that will go into the documentation as they send reports to the state,” Skinner said.
Redevelopment Commission member Joe Thallemer said he was “certainly in favor of this” and liked that it would help provide housing in the small communities in the county.
Skinner said the $5.5 million that was dedicated as part of OIRI to workforce housing was based on resolutions from the Warsaw Redevelopment Commission.
“We did not use all of the funds, and so they felt like maybe we should have something for anything spent that wasn’t specific to those three projects that we did, and this is kind of the process that we came up with, which was to do a joint resolution,” he said. “There will probably be more to come if other communities would do a housing project under this Club 720 Mission Build. This first one being Claypool.”
The resolution just says the Warsaw Redevelopment Commission supports the project, and doesn’t approve the project as that has to go through OrthoWorx and OIRI.
“If they were to approve it, the state documentation will have a resolution from us referencing those funds, which is what the original agreement was for,” Skinner said.
The commission approved the resolution 3-0.
Skinner then presented a contract with Abonmarche for a total amount of $39,500 “to design what will be in the right-of-way around the Millworks project.” Millworks is the apartment complex project going on the site of the former Owens Supermarket at Washington, Market, Columbia and Center streets. He said there are some alternatives they could choose if needed.
“We entered into an agreement with Millworks. Part of that agreement was that we’d be responsible for the improvements in the right-of-way around the building, so we are designing that portion so that will connect well and tie in to their property,” Skinner said.
His goal is to not have to bid the work out. “Right now, it’s to have them complete that work. We’ll enter into a contract with them to do that. The reason being is rather than try to coordinate two different contractors on that site, it just makes more sense that it would be done as one project. That way when they’re pouring concrete, they’re not fighting another contractor, trying to get equipment in and out,” Skinner said.
The proposed project budget for the streetscape is $1 million, reimburseable to the developer. Skinner said the intent would be to get the design work completed as close to that $1 million as possible, or less, but whatever it ends up being the Redevelopment Commission is responsible for it.
“We’re also working on the commercial piece, which, I think we’ll probably have something to bring to you guys before long. Someone will be occupying that space, so I’m excited about that, too,” he said.
The contract with Abonmarche was approved 3-0.
The final thing approved were the claims, with the first one being $1 million being a transfer back into investment. The investment matured and it was decided to reinvest the funds with First Federal for another 12 months.
The other claims included $11.04 to Quill for office supplies; $28,534 to DLZ for the airport park design; $775 to Baker Tilly for reviewing The Marketplace of Warsaw pay applications; $476.50 and $779 to Barnes & Thornburg for ongoing legal services; $9,870 to GAI Consultants for engineering work on County Farm Road sidewalks; $10,285 to A&Z Engineering for the roundabout at Husky Trail and CR 200N; $1,995 to Anderson & Bohlander LLC for the downtown Warsaw festival street; $6,358 to Eastern Engineering for a new printer; $36,466.29 to Phend & Brown for the last payment of the CR 300N reconstruction project; $399.75 to Indiana American Water and $205.05 to NIPSCO for the Marsh property utilities; $6,727.27 to Warsaw Community Development for an agreement with Main Street Warsaw; $11,206.56 to American Structurepoint for construction inspection on Anchorage Road, which starts construction March 16; and $4,750 to Anderson’s to redo the flowers in the downtown planters.
