The Columbus Redevelopment Commission will do a property swap in the hopes of preparing some riverfront land for future development.
The commission has authorized the city of Columbus and the commission to execute a memorandum of understanding with the Louisville and Indiana Railroad regarding a property transfer.
As stated in the approved resolution, the commission owns a parcel of real estate located between the Robert N. Stewart Bridge and Water Street, south of the railroad.
There are two railroad parcels that encroach on this property and three commission owned-parcels that encroach on nearby railroad property.
“It is in the best interest of both the redevelopment commission and the railroad to transfer their respective parcels to each other so that the boundary lines for each parties property no longer encroaches upon the other,” city officials said.
The commission also is seeking to resolve these issues as it has “future and possible development plans” for its land in this area.
Redevelopment Director Heather Pope said that once the commission owns the two parcels, it will begin the replatting process and work to consolidate its land into “one large buildable parcel.” This will take a couple of months, she estimated.
“And then it will be available for disposal or redevelopment, whatever we choose from that point,” said Pope. “But that’s what we’ve been working on, ever since we took ownership of this property, is kind of cleaning it up. As an update, I’m working with Indiana Finance Authority to use POSI (Petroleum Orphan Sites Initiative) funds to some environmental issues that we have on the site. And so as soon as we get things going here, we’ll start on that environmental piece and then demolish the building and, again, just ready it for a redevelopment in the future.”
