The former Marsh building at 501 S. Buffalo St., Warsaw, may be the future home of an antique artisan mall. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — The potential purchasers of the former Marsh building at 501 S. Buffalo St., Warsaw, want to possibly convert the building into an antique artisan mall.

Warsaw Community and Economic Development Director Jeremy Skinner asked the Redevelopment Commission Monday, April 14, for their permission to work with Randy Rompola, legal counsel with Barnes & Thornburg, to create a memorandum of understanding for the property.

The MOU on the Marsh property with Warsaw Antique Mall will be presented to the redevelopment commission at a future meeting. “Most of you probably had some conversations with me about it, but it would be basically for an antique artisan shop, turning it into an antique artisan shop type of use,” Skinner said. “The purchase price would be $1 million. We would enter into a five-year financing agreement for that project.”

The potential purchasers of the property were present at Monday’s meeting but did not comment. The city bought the Marsh property from Cardinal Services for $1.25 million in 2023. After Monday’s meeting, Skinner said the offer from Warsaw Antique Mall was for $1 million, and if the city sells the outlot, too, “it’ll probably be pretty close to a wash. Obviously, if we don’t sell the outlot, it would be less than what we bought it for, but still we’ll get most of the money back.”

Joe Thallemer, commission member and former Warsaw mayor, asked during the meeting about the city possibly getting the property back if for some reason the antique artisan mall doesn’t pan out.

Skinner said there were two steps. The first was the MOU and the potential buyers wanted 60 days to do their due diligence and go through the building. After which, both sides would have to enter into a purchase agreement, which would have the parameters in it.

“I’m excited about the project. I didn’t want to speak negatively about it, but I think it’s important upfront to know where we all stand on this, so I appreciate all you are doing,” Thallemer said.

Commission President George Clemens said he was impressed with the presentation on the project. He said it might make good use of the building and it was in a good location.

Thallemer also asked what was being purchased — the building, the entire property or what.

Skinner said as they approach that, he’ll work with Rompola to work that out because they also have an MOU for the potential sale of an outlot. Assuming that outlot goes forward and they enter into a purchase agreement for it, that would be excluded from the overall parcel. If the outlot sale falls through, then the city would be disposing of the entire parcel. He said he was not intending to split off any future outlots.

The commission approved for Skinner to work on the MOU with Warsaw Antique Mall for the Marsh building.

In other business, the redevelopment commission:

• Approved a resolution pledging tax increment revenue to the payment of the Millworks project bond. The Millworks project, where the former Owen’s grocery store was located on Market Street, will include over 80 apartment units and include retail and commercial space. It’s about a $20-$25 million project.

Rompola explained the resolution by stating, “So this is the last action that would be required to complete the process of all of the approvals for the Millworks project. The common council adopted the bond ordinance. The economic development commission, prior to that, adopted its resolution and held a public hearing.”

A couple years ago, he reminded the redevelopment commission, “You went through the process to designate the Millworks Allocation Area as a separate allocation area for purposes of collecting the tax increment from the project. So this is the final resolution that ties all that together by providing for you to pledge the increment that will be generated from the project that will located within that Millworks Allocation Area.”

The increment will be pledged to the debt service on the bonds, which will be issued at an amount not to exceed $4.5 million. The increment being pledged from the project will not exceed a period of 25 years to pay the debt service on the bonds. The next step is to work with the developer on the closing of the bonds.

• Approved an agreement with Main Street Warsaw for services for $79,500 through the end of 2025. Services include such things as creating a cultural development plan and new downtown and organization branding, marketing support, website enhancements and supporting existing and new events, among other things.

• Approved supporting the Warsaw Common Council’s action to approve an MOU with OrthoLazer, which they the council did at their last meeting. OrthoLazer is relocating its corporate headquarters to Warsaw from Rochester, N.Y., and opening an orthopedic laser therapy services center. A $75,000 forgiveable Economic Development Revolving Loan over three years from the city is helping to make that relocation possible. The common council approved the loan at their April 7 meeting.

• Heard Skinner’s annual financial report.

• Approved claims, including $399.46 from Indiana American Water; $53.67, NIPSCO; $8,386.38, A & Z Engineering; $7,459, Barnes & Thornburg LLP; $1,000, Engineering Resources Inc.; $192, Visa; $300, Kosciusko Development Inc.; and $42,000, West Hill Development LLC.