Sale of land to NorthPoint approved
June 15, 2016
Sale of land to NorthPoint approved
Rosa Salter Rodriguez | Journal Gazette
The Allen County Redevelopment Commission on Tuesday approved the sale of 41.7 acres in its shovel-ready Stonebridge Business Park in Lafayette Township to NorthPoint Development.
According to documents filed with the county, NorthPoint, based in Kansas City, Missouri, plans to invest $32 million in a 790,000-square-foot distribution center at the site, which is across Lafayette Center Road from the General Motors plant east of Fogwell Parkway and west of Zubrick Road.
The documents say 200 jobs will be created with an average salary of $30,000.
The purchase price was $2.23 million, but under the purchase agreement, credit will be given for previously purchased options and a previous land purchase of about 20 acres that will be swapped for the same amount of land at a slightly different location in the park. That drops the sale price to about $1.12 million.
NorthPoint has developed sites close to GM plants in other cities, including Kansas City, Missouri; Lordstown, Ohio; and Nashville, Tennessee.
Commission members were told that NorthPoint sold about 0.20 acre of the land it previously bought for right-of-way purposes for the Lafayette Center Road improvement project. They also learned the company wanted to maintain a right of first refusal on the 20 acres previously purchased that were swapped.
That did not sit well with commission member Leo Buskirk, who said some companies would not want to get involved with that kind of transaction.
If NorthPoint wants the additional land, it should make an offer and buy it, he said.
He made a motion to that effect that carried 2-1.
