Greenfield City Council has approved establishing a revolving fund and authorizing a payment of $1,800,000 to Hancock Health for investments on an undeveloped plot south of the Interstate 70 corridor.

The council approved the agreement 4-0 on Feb. 25. The agreement allows the city to lend Hancock Health money, funded by local income tax revenues allocated for economic development purposes, which it will then use for infrastructure improvements for the Hancock Village Economic Development Area, which consists of 9.6 acres between GBC Bank’s flagship location and Culver’s on the Interstate 70 corridor.

Last month, the city’s redevelopment commission approved a confirmatory resolution establishing the Hancock Village EDA, which allows the area to receive tax-increment financing (TIF) funding once the land is fully developed. This land has been owned by Hancock Health since 2020. (This toolkit by Indiana’s Office of Community and Rural Affairs offers more information on what TIF districts are and how they operate.)

At last week’s meeting, Harold Gibson, director of property development for Hancock Health, said there is a great chance to bring economic development to the property, while also revealing that there is an unidentified restaurant ready to build on the property.

“We have some restaurants that are very interested. There is one that we have signed up that is ready to go, a steakhouse,” Gibson said. “We have also had discussions with other multi-tenant users for commercial retail space, a car wash, a flex space. All of those users, we’ve agreed to the city that we would be the developer of it in a quality manner.”

Hancock Health had originally explored the land as an option to consolidate some of its services into a wellness center in 2019, with the city having tentatively reached an agreement with Hancock Health in which the city would be responsible for the infrastructure developments on the site.

However, the pandemic pushed those plans for infrastructure developments back. In that time, Hancock Health’s plans for the site changed, and company leaders are looking to be a developer/seller for the land rather than a user.

At previous Greenfield RDC meetings, Gibson said without the assistance of an EDA, the land would not be developed in “its best and highest way.”

He added that the only projected infrastructure costs placed on the city would be shared access drives, onsite water detention, extension of the water main, and various other utilities items at a cost of around $1.5 million to $2 million.

Adam G. Steuerwald, partner at Barnes & Thornburg law firm’s Indianapolis office, said the resolution approves a loan of up to $1.8 million to Hancock Health to make site improvements and acquisition to make the property attractive for development.

He described that even though it’s a loan, there is no interest, and once Hancock Health has completed the improvements, the loan will be forgiven.

“It’s more of a grant, but it’s called a loan, but then it’s forgiven on their completion,” he said. “They will spend the money on the infrastructure, then they will submit a withdrawal request through your claims process up to the $1.8 million.”

Gibson previously said he hopes development will begin around summer 2026.
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