The Firestone building at 219 N. Union St. has been bought by Howard County Redevelopment Commission and will be demolished and turned into a parking lot and green space. Staff photo by Tim Bath
The Firestone building at 219 N. Union St. has been bought by Howard County Redevelopment Commission and will be demolished and turned into a parking lot and green space. Staff photo by Tim Bath
The redevelopment of a notable blighted downtown property is now official.

The Firestone building at 219 N. Union St. has been bought by Howard County, specifically the Howard County Redevelopment Commission, and will be demolished and turned into a parking lot and green space.

The county is purchasing the building, currently owned by Fortune Companies Inc., for $387,000, according to the purchase agreement obtained by the Tribune.

In addition, the county is paying $396,000 for the complete demolition of the building, which was built in 1930, according to county property records. Renascent, an Indianapolis-based demolition company, will complete the demolition.

Fortune will handle the redevelopment of the property once the building is down. That includes the construction of new sidewalks, 26 new parking spaces for county employees during work hours and the public during non-work hours, four new lights on the east wall of the Howard County Administration Center to light up the parking lot at night, seeding for the new green space and planting of 11 new trees.

The county has agreed to pay Fortune Companies $197,000 for the redevelopment portion of the project.

The Howard County Commissioners on Monday unanimously voted to approve the purchase, demolition and redevelopment contracts.

The county is committing just under $1 million for the project, and is using a mixture of Economic Development Income Tax and other county funds to pay for the project, Commissioner Jack Dodd said.

When all is said and done, the new green space and sidewalks will connect to green space and sidewalks of the Administration Building.

The development agreement describes the project as a “once in a generation chance to enhance our downtown campus and make our property safer and more attractive to our employees and the community.”

The purchase comes nearly a year after the Tribune originally wrote about the county’s plans. Then, the plan was to also vacate that block of West Mulberry to create a larger green space area and add needed additional parking spaces.

With the purchase of 219 N. Union St., the county now owns every piece of property on West Mulberry Street between Main and Union streets.

The city was initially on board with that, but later pulled its support.

Now, the county is planning to request vacating just the alleys west and south of the Firestone building.

The county’s interest in redeveloping the Firestone building property is nothing new.

In 2010, the county made it known it wanted to purchase the building and demolish it to install a parking lot primarily for county employees.

That plan was scuttled after previous Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight’s administration refused to issue a demolition permit, citing the fact the city believed the property could be better utilized.

The property eventually fell into the hands of developer Jeff Broughton, who sought to redevelop the building into mixed-use development. That failed, though, leaving investors out hundreds of thousands of dollars and the building largely sitting vacant for the last eight years.

The building was acquired earlier this year in a sheriff’s sale for $383,000 after a lengthy legal battle between multiple parties. In November, Fortune Companies Inc. purchased the building outright for $180,000, according to county property records.