The Shelbyville Redevelopment Commission approved a bid of $7,937,300 for the purchase of property at the previously-planned Greenleaf development location Monday evening.
The purchase price of $57,500 per acre met the Request For Proposal that the city made and meets all the requirements, according to city Attorney Jennifer Meltzer.
A data center company is looking to build at the 138-acre site with the possibility of selling the front portion of it for retail.
“We think it’s a great opportunity for the city and the county as a whole,” Shelby County Development Corp. Executive Director Brian Asher told the commission.
While the average number of employees is not very high – less than 100 – they are high-paying jobs.
The company’s bid was the only one received by the commission.
Meltzer will draft a purchase agreement to be reviewed by the commission during its March meeting.
After Shelby County Auditor Amy Glackman and county government representatives expressed their concerns, Meltzer provided a brief recap of what led up to Monday’s bid.
Glackman said that none of the county commissioners, two of whom took office in January, and most of the county council members, three of whom are also new, were aware of the land being sold.
There was also confusion regarding the start time of Monday’s meeting.
An ad in The Shelbyville News stated the meeting would begin at 5:30 p.m.; the public notice sent out by the City of Shelbyville said it started at 5 p.m.
This led to county representatives and other interested members of the public to arrive after the meeting had already started, at which point, the commission had already approved the bid.
To alleviate their concerns, Meltzer shared the background of the property.
In 2018, the city had the option to purchase land on the north and south side of State Road 44 at $26,500 on both sides. Krone North America owned part of it and the city entered into an agreement to be able to sign the property back over. No money was transferred to Krone except to purchase the property back from Krone.
The total for the purchase was approximately $4 million.
Shortly thereafter, Greenleaf purchased 42 acres for $1.3 million with an option to purchase an additional 10 acres at another time. The company entered into a divestiture agreement, where if Greenleaf did not bill or come within 10 years and continue to operate for 10 years, the city and county would be able to send divestiture. By sending it, Greenleaf could pay the city and county $2 million or transfer the land back. Greenleaf did not respond to the divestiture notice, Meltzer said.
Meltzer reached out to Greenleaf’s attorney, who confirmed the company would not send $2 million. Once deadlines passed, the next step was to file a quiet title action.
Meltzer was going to have to appear on behalf of both the city and county.
“As an attorney, I ethically felt it was in the best interest of not only myself but each of you as clients to hold an executive session and basically get your grace, not a formal okay, because I didn’t have attorney client privileges with the county, but an okay for me to file a quiet title action,” she said.
Greenleaf did not respond to notices that were were sent out and once that happened, Meltzer filed for a default judgement and got a quiet title. The land is now sitting in a quiet title and owned by the redevelopment commission, which allows it to resell it.
Both the city and county split everything on the property – from taxes to paying for appraisals. Likewise, once the process is completed in selling it, the city will transfer 50 percent of the nearly $8 million to the county, which could take two years.
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