Marion revives arena hopes

MSA’s assets are about $4,700 in the bank and 12 acres near Interstate 69 and Ind. 18 that is behind on property taxes, de facto MSA attorney Persinger said when the full board of directors last met, June 6.

During the June meeting, MSA’s first in more than a year, board members voted unanimously to start the process of dissolution and agreed to meet again on Aug. 8. If MSA didn’t own real estate, board members would announce their disbanding immediately, Brunner said Thursday.

Marion Sports Authority is a private, nonprofit incorporated for public benefit in February 2011. The organization is technically independent from the city, but Marion Mayor Wayne Seybold appointed all of the members of MSA’s board of directors and is a board member himself. In March 2011, the city also backed a $3 million loan for MSA to jump-start a $30 million multipurpose arena complex that failed to reach the construction phase. The city later refinanced the loan with public money.

During their last meeting, board members discussed two options for disposing of the 12 acres that Persinger said were in accordance with MSA’s bylaws: giving it to the city, which is a prior owner of some 200 acres of the northwest quadrant of I-69 and Ind. 18, or giving it to a youth sports-oriented nonprofit such as the Boys and Girls Club of Grant County.

A third option — giving the land to a business entity — has come into play since the June meeting, though, Brunner said.

The Aug. 8 meeting was postponed to mid-September at Seybold’s request, Brunner said. City Development Director Lisa Dominisse said at the time that a prospective developer might be interested in MSA’s property as part of a potential new project at I-69 and Ind. 18 and was wrapping up feasibility studies.

Though Brunner said MSA has not heard back on the mayor’s request for more time or what the prospective developer’s plans mean for MSA’s land, he feels “they’re getting closer and closer,” so the nonprofit has postponed its next meeting until late October. Additionally, Brunner said he understands the city is facing a timetable in that Dominisse, who has been “highly involved,” will leave the city for a new job at year-end and the group the city is working with is looking to join a hockey league that “is telling them the clock is ticking.”

That group, “individuals from the East Coast” spent “well into six figures” on feasibility studies that took two to three months and is now in the “due diligence” phase, Seybold said Thursday. They are the same “group” that last week he said was doing its “due diligence” and he referred to as the “next owner” of MSA’s land.

MSA’s property was purchased during the annual Grant County tax sale on Sept. 18. A company called Shammah Investments LLC bought it on behalf of a third party for the minimum bid of about $14,400. State records show the company’s principal office address is a P.O. box in Connersville in Fayette County and the company’s registered agent is Richard W. Greeson of Connersville.

A property purchased in a tax sale is subject to a one-year redemption period, though. That means if MSA pays the back taxes within one year, the property deed would remain in MSA’s name. If MSA has not paid the taxes after one year, the property deed would be transferred to the highest bidder.

One person bid on MSA’s land last week. The man representing Shammah Investments said he was “just a buyer” bidding for an “investor” and declined to comment on what third party he was bidding for or why they wanted the property.

Seybold also declined to name the group working toward possible development in the northwest quadrant of I-69 and Ind. 18 because the project is still in the works. The nature of the project, though, is an “entertainment complex” that Seybold likened to Indianapolis’ Bankers Life Fieldhouse, home of the Indiana Pacers. The Marion complex would host hockey events as well as events like concerts and circuses.

“There are a few people who keep downgrading the project out there,” he said. “There will be a lot more activity in that venue than just hockey.”

Nothing is for certain, though.

“There could be a project or two or three in the future or there might not. There are no guarantees,” Seybold said. “They like the location and they believe they can be successful.”

The East Coast group initially eyed the southwest quadrant of I-69 and Ind. 18, Seybold said, but the city asked if they could work with the northwest block after the city’s land in the southwest block became the site of Dunham’s Sports new distribution center, which is now almost complete. The group’s project would probably be further along were it not for the city’s request, Seybold said.

“The project, just like all projects, they start and sometimes they take twists and turns and delays,” he said. “This is all part of the I-69 development.”

The third-term mayor said he’s frustrated by people who criticize the pace of development in the area, failing to realize that development projects start behind the scenes well before construction starts for the public to see. The Dunham’s Sports and Dollar General distribution centers, Ivy Tech Community College campus and Via Credit Union are examples of development of the interchange area on Seybold’s watch.

“There’s been a lot of success, so this is just a continuation that we’ve been working on. We will never stop working on 69 and 18,” he said. “I continually get beat up about stuff not happening out at 69 and 18 and what people don’t understand is there’s tons of stuff happening at 69 and 18.”

Nonetheless, MSA members remain anxious to disband and the city knows it, Brunner said.

“We’re dealing with a Sports Authority that would like to go away,” he said Thursday.

Board members don’t have to wait on the city, however. Nor do they have to pay the back taxes, even if they had more than $4,700 in the bank.

If board members opted to give the land to the Boys and Girls Club, for example, retired businessman and investor Jim Sutter said during the June meeting that he would take care of delinquent and future taxes until the club developed the land to its best advantage, an offer Sutter said Thursday still stands.

Alternatively, if MSA opted to disband without taking any action on the 12 acres, the taxes would be paid via the winning bid in the tax sale. Technically, the taxes are already paid, as the winning bidders from last week’s tax sale had to pay their bids that day.

Seybold said last week that 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, referring to the East Coast group.

Regardless of the land’s fate, though, MSA members are also frustrated because MSA didn’t work out the way it was supposed to, which Brunner likened to a booster club.

“We were formed as a Marion Sports Authority to have money donated to us from the arena, when they were making profits, and we were going to be the overseers of that money and where it could best be used for youth sports in Grant County,” he said. “Now it’s four years later. There’s no arena out there. The land has landed in our laps and all of us are saying, ‘You know, we didn’t get into this business to be land developers.’”