Limbo for I-69 and Ind. 18 developments in Marion

This contentious lawsuit eventually led to a settlement that closes a chapter on Marion’s efforts to foster development at the intersection.

City Development Director Darren Reese said the city’s current “focus” was on shepherding the Café Valley project at the former Thomson plant.

He did not foresee the Veriana lawsuit’s result changing plans for development near the interstate.

“We’ve tried to kind of keep that whole site in one plan anyway, so I don’t how much it will change,” he said.

Roger Gilcrest, president of the Muncie Industrial Revolving Loan Fund, said Tuesday that Muncie will try to sell the land. He said at one point as the lawsuit was active that there was “an effort made by responsible people in Marion to free the land.”

“There was a strong desire to own this land,” he said.

Mike Egan, the principal partner in Marion Land Development, which sold Veriana the land, said his group offered to purchase the property back for $500,000 but was rebuffed by the company.

Veriana CEO Rob Swagger could not be reached for comment.

According to the Muncie Star Press, during the Muncie Industrial Revolving Loan Fund meeting last week board members said they would work with Mayor Wayne Seybold to see if the property was developed and the investment could be recouped.

Reese said Marion has not yet been contacted about the possibility.

The Star Press also reported that as the fund talked about the Marion land that board member Jim Williams quipped, “Tell (Seybold) we’ll throw in the ice rink.”

Williams was referring to a Muncie ice rink that operated behind the Horizon Convention Center. Seybold, a former Olympic ice skater, and the city of Marion have been hoping that the I-69 intersection could host a hockey arena and entertainment complex.

The Veriana parcel is landlocked between land owned by the Marion Sports Authority for the hockey arena and other land for Marion Land Development. Both projects still maintain plans to build near the intersection, but have not gotten off the ground.

Marion Land Development may end up with much less ground. It planned to develop residential, retail and office properties on about 200 acres near the interstate with a city-approved deal up to $180 million in tax increment financing-backed bonds.

Egan said Marion Land Development had an “idea” for the Veriana land in 2011, but things may be different now.

“With our situation with the other parcels of land we would have to look at (things),” he said.

Marion Land Development has been involved in a legal dispute with two banks and land of its own faces possible foreclosure.

It failed to pay two 2011 loans from STAR Financial Bank and Mutual Bank totaling $4.6 million. Both banks paid $250,000 in Marion Land Development’s back property taxes to keep its land out of the Grant County tax sale.

In January, Grant County Superior Court 1 entered a judgment of $1.2 million in the STAR Financial Bank case and foreclosed on a parcel where a Marathon gas station had rented. It is now closed.

The MutualBank complaint includes six parcels and asks for judgment in the amount of $3.8 million, plus $700 of interest per day starting Sept. 4, foreclosure on the mortgages and rents on the real estate and other money incurred by the bank during the course of litigation.

Notices were issued to Marion Land Development in January and court dates on the case have yet to be settled.

Reese said the city wishes the project well but doesn’t have influence over the court proceedings.

“We don’t have any involvement in this process. It’s just running its course,” he said.

Egan said Marion Land Development was working with the banks toward a positive solution for the community and the project.

“As far as Marion Land Development going forward, we’re still open and actively moving forward on resources we do have available,” he said, but noted it would “obviously” have to adjust to the situation.

There has been little word on the proposed sports and entertainment complex since the unsold Midwest Disaster Relief Bonds intended for the project to use expired Jan. 1. Officials have said the project to bring a hockey team to Marion still has a “viable” path, but this has not been made public.

Reese said he had no comment on the arena.