Mike Wolanin | The Republic A view of the former Sears building now owned by Cummins in downtown Columbus, Ind., Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024.
COLUMBUS, Ind. — The Columbus Redevelopment Commission on Monday unanimously voted to execute a purchase agreement with Cummins Inc. to buy the Cummins Sears building for an estimated $4.2 million.
The purchase includes the 91,380-square-foot building, YES Cinema and the parking lot across the street. YES Cinema will stay at its current location, Director of Redevelopment Heather Pope said.
“Just because of the proximity of this parcel, we felt like this was definitely one that we should have control of,” Pope said. “Do we know what that final use will be? No, but it’s something that I think that, you know, where we should definitely control the future-use that goes there or participate in what goes there.”
Pope said they will now get a required second appraisal and a phase one environmental site assessment completed.
“We need to have that before we take ownership and I think you all heard me mention in the past by doing that, that puts us in a position to have access to funds through IDEM, through the Brownfields program, if there were contamination related to either one of those,” she said.
The Columbus City Council will have to sign off on the purchase because it is an expenditure worth more than $500,000.
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