Warsaw Community and Economic Development Director Jeremy Skinner explains his request to the Warsaw Redevelopment Commission on Monday to create a memorandum of understanding for a potential outlot at the former Marsh property on South Buffalo Street. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — A memorandum of understanding will be created for a potential outlot at the former Marsh property on South Buffalo Street after the Warsaw Redevelopment Commission gave its approval Monday, March 3.

Warsaw Community and Economic Development Director Jeremy Skinner explained, “What I’m basically asking for is your approval to move forward with creating a MOU, or purchase agreement, for a potential outlot on the Marsh property.” He said the intent is for the commission to give their approval so the potential purchaser of that property can move forward with due diligence in what they need to do to make sure its viable on their end.

The potential purchaser and what they wanted to do with the outlot was not revealed at the meeting.

The city purchased the former Marsh property in 2023 for $1.25 million and has been searching for a developer for it since then. “We will put together an MOU, or purchase agreement, working with Randy’s team. It’ll come before you at a later time, but I really wanted to get your approval and commitment behind the process before we can move forward and create an outlot, create a purchase agreement and so forth,” Skinner said. “So by having this approval now, we’ll work with the perspective purchaser and put those agreements together and give them the time that they need to do their due diligence to see if this is a viable opportunity.”

Randy is Randy Rompola, legal counsel with Barnes & Thornburg.Skinner said the potential purchaser has submitted a purchase agreement, but how the city disposes of property is a little bit different than just a purchase agreement.

“They need a commitment from us that we are willing to move forward with this so they can do things they need to do on their end,” he said.

Joe Thallemer, commission member and former Warsaw mayor, said he knows he and Skinner had some discussion on it.

“I certainly support this. I just want to make sure that the lot is subdivided so that it could accommodate whatever happens in the future on that property. I know we’ve talked about that. It looks to me like this lot addresses that concern,” Thallemer said.

Skinner said they’ve had a lot of conversations with different entities in trying to figure out what to do with the property.

“It all came back, seemed to be a very positive perspective moving forward on what the impact would be. So, whether it be from an ability to market the Marsh property in the future, getting some excitement and creating something new there. I’m fully in support of doing this. I’ve had a lot of conversations with each of you over the last month, and it all seemed positive,” Skinner said.

Thallemer said it all looks very good and it could raise some further interest in the Marsh property. Councilman and commission member Mike Klondaris agreed, saying, “I’m hoping it’ll be a real catalyst on that side of town.”

He made the motion to approve the creation of an MOU for the potential outlot. Council President Jack Wilhite seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.

Thallemer asked Skinner to remind them of the process to subdivide the property. Skinner said since the city owns the property, the city would be the one to move forward on subdividing the property.

“We would first make sure that – they have kind of a proposed layout in there, so we would … verify that that’s exactly what we want,” he said. Since it’s the city property, the city would take it before the plan commission to subdivide the property and get recorded. The Warsaw Redevelopment Commission would be the petitioner before the Warsaw Plan Commission to subdivide the property.

Because the property is in a tax increment financing district, the city has some flexibility in how it disposes of the property, and Skinner will work with Rompola on how that’ll be done. The city will have legal hoops it has to jump through to dispose of the property.

In other business, the Redevelopment Commission:

• Approved the agreement with Phend & Brown Inc. for the CR 300N project. The notice to award the CR 300N reconstruction bid to Phend & Brown Inc. for $724,224.60 was made by the commission at their Feb. 18 meeting. The bids were opened Feb. 7 at the Board of Public Works and Safety. The project is being covered 50% by the state’s Community Crossings Matching Grant program. The other half will be covered by Northern TIF funds.

• Approved an engagement letter with Barnes & Thornburg LLP to serve as bond counsel to the commission in connection with the proposed issuance of taxable economic development tax increment revenue bonds for the Residential Infrastructure Fund (RIF) project. The state awarded the $1,055,000 to the commission as part of the RIF loan fund.

• Approved about $70,000 out of the Northern TIF District for professional services for the Main Street Warsaw Downtown Cultural District Plan.

• Approved March 2025 claims, including $235.97 and $163.49 to Indiana American Water for the Marsh building; $4,654.25 and $8,998.83 to A & Z Engineering for ongoing engineering services; $14.58, $200 and $45.99 to the Times-Union for legal notices and subscription; $400 to Awardco for the Awardco program instituted by the city’s human resources department; $635 to Barnes & Thornburg LLP for services on the Warsaw Chemical project; $120 to Skinner for his cellphone allowance; $300 to Kosciusko Development Inc. for PeekMed office space rental; and $42,000 to West Hill Development LLC for the lease on the shell building at the Warsaw Tech Park.