By BETTINA PUCKETT, Shelbyville News staff writer
It could take years, not to mention millions of dollars, to clean up the 88-acre Wellman site, 1 Progress Road, but reaching that goal seemed one step closer Thursday when a Shelby County judge announced that Indianapolis-based Greystoke Capital Corp. will be allowed to purchase the property for $2.1 million.
“It’s been a long and tortuous road to get to where we are today,” said Shelby County Circuit Court Judge Charles O’Connor. “The court’s decision is to accept the receiver’s recommendation.”
Rep. Ed Mahern (D-Indianapolis) has served as the receiver in the case. A receiver is someone who officially receives money or property for others.
After evaluating 10 bids, Mahern recommended on April 5 that Greystoke, the highest bidder, should be allowed to buy the property.
On April 25, the Shelby County Board of Commissioners unanimously agreed to waive $936,847 in penalties owed on the back taxes for the property.
Greystoke is partnering with two Shelbyville companies on the project — D & D Hunt Inc., site development work and demolition experts, and GG Holdings LLC, a developer and general contractor.
A period of 45 days of “due diligence” will occur before the closing of the property takes place.
“I think that if we can get everything done we need to get done, this will be a prime piece of real estate and will add value to the city of Shelbyville,” Mahern said after the 3:15 p.m. hearing. “I think it was a wise move on the county’s part to help negotiate this so that they can start receiving taxes of a higher amount down the line when that ground is developed.”
“I’m anxious to get started and see where we’ll go with it,” said Joe Shanks, who works in Greystoke’s Acquisitions, Financing, Property Management and Leasing Department. “It’s pretty exciting.”
But along with jubilation that a buyer for the long-vacant parcel had finally been selected, there was cautious optimism from city officials.
“Our fear in the beginning of this was that somebody would come in and try to subdivide the good land off and use it for retail and then bankrupt the rest of the property,” said Shelbyville Mayor Scott Furgeson. “It could still happen if we’re not careful of what we approve.”
David Hunt, vice president of D & D Hunt, expressed relief that the buyer decision was made by the court. “From here, we can start evaluating things and make a better plan of what we can present to the public,” he said.
Many are curious as to what will eventually wind up on the property, which may have to be rezoned from industrial to retail.
The rezoning could create somewhat of a hurdle because the city will require the new owners to have a plan of action on what they will do with the old Wellman building and how the environmental cleanup will occur.
“I would love to change the zoning tomorrow and get retail out there as soon as possible, but I think that’s not the wisest decision,” Furgeson said. The environmental problems on the property didn’t happen over night, “so it’s not going to clean itself up overnight,” he said.
The massive plant was built by General Electric in 1956. In the 1960s, the property was split off, with GE selling one portion to Anamag Inc., which was a wire manufacturer, and the other to Wellman Thermal Systems Corp. Both were British companies that eventually went bankrupt and abandoned the property, leaving its environmental concerns to future owners.
After Greystoke hires an environmental attorney, the arduous task of cleaning up the large site will begin, but officials are unsure as to what exactly they will find.
Tom Yeo, who works in the Office of Advisory Services for the Indianapolis-based Summit Realty Group, has handled the Wellman property since Labor Day 2003 and has worked for all three receivers. Yeo literally has the keys to the plant.
Yeo explained that Anamag pumped a lot of enamel to coat the wire it manufactured. That is just one environmental concern. “And there may be even more environmental problems with Wellman, including asbestos and other issues,” he said. “But I think all of these problems can be solved.”
Millennium Investments LLC holds the current mortgage on the property. Furgeson earlier said that Millennium’s environmental lawyer said about $160 million in insurance coverage from Anamag could be available for the property’s cleanup.
However, Yeo is not sure if all of the insurance money will be recovered. “It’s a long, litigious process,” he said. “But these guys (the Greystoke partnership) know what they’re doing here.”
Yeo estimates it will take five to 10 years to clean up the property. “It could be $5 to $20 million of cleanup,” he said. “Nobody really knows what is underground.”
He said the job will be “a little bit of a crap shoot” because no one fully understands what occurred at the old plants. “It’s really a fascinating project.”
Most officials agree that, because of the prime location, it is likely that some type of retail will eventually go on the property. Nearly two years ago, The Home Depot, based in Atlanta, offered to guy 21 acres of the site, which was all prime property. “Their last offer expired in February of last year,” Yeo said. A deal with Wal-Mart also fell through.
“The city has done a great job of sticking to their guns and waiting until they got a potential buyer who would take charge of the whole development,” Yeo said. “I think this is a good group and a good match, and I think we all feel fortunate about this.”
Yeo has worked for all three receivers, including the first two, Tim Siebrase, of Shelbyville, and Harvey Powers, of Indianapolis.
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