Marion Sports Authority’s property sold in an auction Thursday because the organization had failed to pay more than $14,000 in delinquent property taxes.
All of the parcels of land up for auction were put in the annual Grant County tax sale because of back taxes.
MSA owes about $14,400 on its 12-acre parcel near Interstate 69 and Ind. 18.
A potential development project destined for the area won’t be affected by the tax sale transaction, though, Marion Mayor Wayne Seybold said.
“There is a lot going on out there. It does not impact the city or the project at all,” he said.
MSA is a private nonprofit incorporated for public benefit in February 2011. The organization is technically independent from the city, but Seybold appointed all of the members of MSA’s board of directors. In March 2011, the city also backed a $3 million loan for MSA to use to jump-start a $30 million multipurpose arena complex that failed to reach the construction phase. The city later refinanced the loan.
In June of this year, MSA board members started discussing possibly dissolving the now-inactive organization and disposing of its remaining assets.
For now, though, MSA still owns its 12 acres. The deed is still in the organization’s name.
A property purchased in a tax sale is subject to a one-year redemption period. That means if the owner pays the back taxes within one year, the property deed would remain in their name. If the owner has not paid the taxes after one year, the property deed would be transferred to the person or company that made the highest bid in the tax sale.
The only way MSA’s land could be transferred to a new owner before one year passes is if MSA, or a third party, paid the back taxes and MSA then gave or sold its parcel to a new owner. A third party can pay off a property owner’s back taxes for the owner, Grant County Tax Sale Deputy April Legare has said, but the property would still remain in the owner’s name until the owner chose to give or sell it to a new owner.
One person bid on MSA’s land Thursday, so it sold for the minimum bid of about $14,400, which allows the county to recover at least as much money as is owed in back taxes. The man who bid on MSA’s parcel said he was doing so for an “investor” but declined to comment on who he was, who he was bidding for or why they wanted the property.
“I’m just a buyer,” he said.
Seybold said he did not think MSA should pay its back taxes.
“There is no reason for MSA to pay the taxes when the next owner will,” he said.
Seybold referred to the next owner as “them” and “the group” but did not directly answer when asked if he knew who the next owner is or whether they are associated with the I-69 and Ind. 18 “project” he had mentioned.
When MSA board members met in June, their first meeting in more than one year, member and MSA de facto attorney Craig Persinger said MSA’s only remaining assets were the 12 acres and a few thousand dollars.
Board members discussed giving the 12 acres to two possible recipients: a youth sports-oriented nonprofit like the Boys and Girls Club of Grant County and the city, which is a prior owner of some 200 acres of the northwest quadrant of I-69 and Ind. 18.
City Development Director Lisa Dominisse told board members during the June meeting that the city was working with an entity that might be interested in MSA’s 12 acres as part of a potential new project at I-69 and Ind. 18. MSA’s parcel is located in the northwest quadrant of that interchange.
Dominisse said she could not name the entity at that time but that feasibility studies were underway. She also said after the meeting that the city was still in conversations with a group of investors whom city officials said last year were interested in bringing a hockey team to Marion.
Seybold said Thursday that a possible project for the interchange area is currently in the “due diligence phase,” but he declined to specify further because it’s still in the works.
“Our hope is that it will be fairly soon, although there are no guarantees in the world. But at this point all looks good,” he said.
Persinger said Thursday that he knew of no reason for the 12 acres to remain in MSA’s name
“We’re intending to wind up soon,” he said. “We’re planning to dissolve, I think it’s fair to say.”
The board will meet again as early as next week, he said.
“In the scheme of things,” Persinger said, “the fact that the tax sale occurred is not particularly a major event.”