Warsaw Redevelopment Commission on Monday unanimously approved the  agreement from the Northeast Indiana Regional Development Authority and the Indiana Economic Development Commission for the Buffalo Street Redevelopment project.

City Planner Jeremy Skinner said the RDA only provided him with a draft of the agreement as of Monday, though he asked for a final one but hadn’t received it yet. He recommended the Commission approve signing the agreement, and once the final version arrives board members can sign it provided there’s no major changes.

After the Commission signs it, Buffalo Street project developer Dave Matthews must sign it and then Indiana Regional Cities Initiative signs it.

“All this agreement is ... our portion of it is that after completion of our Buffalo Street reconstruction, which will be around $2.3 million, we will get 60 percent of our $1.615 million, which amounts to $969,000. At the completion of the plaza, we will get the remainder of that $1.615 million, which is roughly 40 percent. So that is our distribution,” Skinner said.

“So we’ll complete the Buffalo Street infrastructure, show them our expenditures, get the 60 percent, complete the plaza, show them the expenditures and get the 40 percent,” he summarized.

Along with the plaza near Center Lake, the city is upgrading the lights, curb, gutter and road along the Buffalo Street redevelopment project.

Matthews – who is developing town homes, city homes and mews along the street and a mixed-use structure at the former Indiana American Water Company building – will have his own distribution from the RDA.

Skinner said he hoped to take the signed, final draft of the agreement to the RDA by September.

Board President Tim Meyer asked if the agreement had to be approved by the city council. Skinner said it did not as the Redevelopment Commission is the authority on the project.