NEW PALESTINE — After waiting for a year to get word on the approval to move forward with a $63 million, high-end apartment complex, the developer has had enough. Becovic Management Group of Indiana, which had proposed to build an apartment complex next to the Hancock Health Wellness Center, informed town officials Thursday they were pulling out of the project.

The decision comes after yet another delay on the approval for a bond on the project by the council during the Wednesday night regularly scheduled meeting. The measure, which would have given the developer at most a $5 million bond for the project, had passed all other town boards and commissions without issue. However, the project has been held up by the town’s council, which has been bitterly divided on offering the bond despite the proposed complex being inside a Tax Increment Financing area created by the council.

For months, council members Angie Fahrnow and Clint Bledsoe have been against offering the bond while Bill Niemier and Chris Lytle have been in favor of the measure. The fifth council member, Brandee Bastin, abstained from the project, stating her work for Hancock Regional Hospital, which originally owned the land for the development, was a conflict of interest.

The approval for the apartment complex had already been given by the council months ago. However, when officials from Becovic asked for a bond, it became a divisive issue. For months, Fahrnow has delayed the vote, either missing meetings or abstaining, saying she did not understand the bond proposal.

Wednesday night was the final straw for developer Muhamed Becovic, who had spent months watching the council bicker over the issue, oftentimes sitting quietly in the audience as the issue was bantered back and forth. Fahrnow, who had asked for another delay on the vote saying she needed more time to understand new bond paperwork, had negotiated the new deal with Becovic, getting the bond dropped from $5 million to $3.9 million.

However, she delayed a vote last month saying she needed to hire an outside attorney to help her, Bledsoe and Bastin understand the paperwork, even though the town had already incurred $75,000 in fees with another firm, which the developer had agreed to pay.

Prior to the Wednesday meeting, officials told the Daily Reporter that Fahrnow had emailed several council members telling them how the meeting was going to unfold and that they were going to vote on bringing in a new attorney to look at the paperwork, but then she didn’t attend the meeting. Bastin was also absent but had told the council she was going to miss due to vacation.

When a vote was taken on the bond Wednesday night, Niemier and Lytle voted in favor while Bledsoe voted against it. That once again delayed the project from moving forward.

Then, on Thursday afternoon, officials with the town send out an email to all the council members telling them the deal was off after officials from Becovic informed them that they’d had enough and were pulling out.

“This is most unfortunate because in my view this was an incredible opportunity,” Niemier said. “This was a really good project because it’s not every day a developer is willing to invest over $60 million into our community — this is a lost opportunity.”

Harold Gibson, of H. Gibson Land Surveying, worked with Hancock Health with its land plan at the intersection of CR South 600W and U.S. 52 in New Palestine. He spend numerous hours with officials from Becovic to broker the deal to bring the high-end apartment complex to the area. Gibson noted he was surprised Becovic stayed with the proposal for as long as he did without a answer on the project.

“It’s unusual for a developer to stay in the game this long,” Gibson said. “We’re disappointed that it hasn’t been voted on by a full council or passed.”

Gibson noted the hospital has invested millions of dollars in the land development already with the creation of the Wellness Center and that they had vetted Becovic and the apartment complex proposal and felt it would have been perfect for the area.

“I do know in this arena the ability to work cordially with local leaders is really, really important,” Gibson said. “If you do that well, that message gets around and if you don’t do it well, that message gets around, so we are concerned about how the central Indiana area is looking at that because we’ve got land there that needs to be developed … The momentum that we had when we built the Wellness Center is probably lost.”

During the Wednesday night meeting, several members of the community stood up and told the council members who were present they were embarrassed by the lack of professionalism and by the actions of some of the council members who have delayed the project from being voted on.

Sugar Creek Township Trustee Jayson Combs attended the meeting and told the council he was tired of seeing things drag on and on.

“It should have been voted on either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ and not this, ‘Hey, I’m gonna side track it by not showing up to vote,’” Combs said. “We are elected officials and we need to serve the people who elect us and not just abstain or run from the job … This is an embarrassment.”

Combs noted funds from the TIF would have gone to the Redevelopment Committee that could have benefited the local fire department.

Local resident Teresa Stout stated the way some council members have approached working on the measure is nothing more than a joke.

“This is ridiculous,” Stout said. “You guys are elected … Do your job.”

Now that the measure is dead, the town will be on the hook for some $75,000 for the bond council, which the developer had agree to pay if the bond went through. Plus, the town has lost the benefit to receive an estimated $275,000 in potential TIF monies each year which town officials could have used for projects.

“While I serve for the purpose of the council, I think this was an unfortunate loss for the community,” Town Manager Jim Robinson said. “The generated revenue off the TIF was not an increase to anyone’s tax as some have mentioned, rather it’s more of transfer of tax directly to the town to expound on needs of the community.”
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