Wildman Business Group will temporarily lease a portion of the former Marsh building at 500 S. Buffalo St., Warsaw, for cold storage. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — Wildman Business Group will temporarily lease a portion of the former Marsh building at 500 S. Buffalo St., Warsaw.

At their meeting Monday, Oct. 7, the Warsaw Redevelopment Commission approved the lease agreement between Wildman and the commission.

Jeremy Skinner, Warsaw community and economic development director, told the commission he was approached by Wildman who was looking for temporary cold storage space.

“We have the Marsh property as we continue to work toward getting a buyer or redeveloping that project. We have a little bit of a roadmap to do that. So, they asked about a six-month temporary cold storage lease, and I said I would consider it. After some communication between the two of us, we landed on this lease agreement,” he said.

As part of the lease agreement, Wildman will pay the commission $1,353 a month for six months. If Wildman needs the space longer than that, if the city has not found a tenant or owner for the building, the lease could be extended month by month at $3,000 per month.

Wildman will be using approximately 10,000 square feet in the back of the Marsh building for cold storage.

Skinner said city attorney Scott Reust reviewed the lease and neither he or Reust saw any issues with it.

“It does have the ability for us to terminate the agreement, as well as them, within 30 days or something like that,” Skinner said.

He said they’ll continue to market the building and have conversations with individuals who have ideas for the building, which the city paid $1.25 million for from Cardinal Services in 2023, but it’ll probably be at least six months before anything develops.

“This at least allows us to have some income to cover the utilities,” Skinner stated.

Commission Vice President and Councilman Mike Klondaris said that will be nice going into the winter season. He also asked about liability.

Skinner said the 10-page lease agreement covers liability. Wildman will have liability insurance for their product, as well as anything related to their use of the building.

“My understanding is that they bought a company, and as they bring that company into the fold, there’s some products that they sell that they need some extra storage space for. So we’re just assisting as they make those changes. I don’t know what their long-term solutions are,” he said of Wildman’s need for the storage space.

The commission approved the lease 3-0, with members Joe Thallemer and George Clemens absent.

In other business, the commission approved the claims, which included $353.76 from Indiana American Water, $71.56 and $591.92 from NIPSCO for Marsh utilities; $8.09 from Lowe’s for keys for the Marsh building for the lease with Wildman; and $21,835.60 for the fall property tax for the Marsh property.

Klondaris asked if the commission was still responsible for the taxes on the Marsh property.

Skinner said, “We’re not. It’s kind of frustrating. … So we agreed to buy it for $1.25 million. And then when it went to closing, they credited the taxes, so we didn’t pay $1.25 million. We paid like 1.2-something. And now we’re paying the taxes. I would rather it just have been covered when we paid, and they held it in escrow, but they didn’t. So now we’re paying this.”

He said they’re still paying $1.25 million for the building, but they’re just paying the taxes portion on it now. Klondaris said this should be the last tax bill the commission sees on the property, and Skinner said yes.

Other claims were: $26,147.99, G & G Hauling & Excavating, for alley improvements by The Grove; $7,487, Barnes & Thornburg LLP, ongoing legal documents for Warsaw Chemical; $3,000 each from Griffin Real Estate Services Inc. and Verne V. Mitchell for appraisal services; $2,685, Baker Tilly, for tax increment financing work; $7,004.05 from A & Z Engineering for engineering services for CR 300N and 200W; $600, Emans Engineering, for the Petro Drive project; $415.24, Kosciusko County Treasurer’s Office, for the fall property tax for 330 N. Buffalo St.; $42,000, West Hill Development, for the monthly lease payment for the third shell building at the Warsaw Tech Park; and $300 from Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation for workspace for PeekMed at the KEDCO building