Mike Wolanin | The Republic A view of the former Sears building now owned by Cummins in downtown Columbus, Ind., Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024.
The Columbus Redevelopment Commission on Monday unanimously voted to execute a purchase agreement with Cummins Inc. to buy the Sears Cummins 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.
Redevelopment Commission President Al Roszcyk said the city expects to close on the parcels before the end of June.
Cummins Inc. announced its intention to sell the Sears building and the Irwin Office Building and Conference Center at the end of last month, “to offer the ideal work environment for our employees and align with the workspace needed,” the company said.
Both buildings have been vacant since the pandemic struck, and no employees have worked in either since October of 2022.
The building, located at 323 Brown St., had been the anchor of The Commons since the former mall opened in 1973. Cummins bought the building for $3 million in 2015, county records show.
Pope previously told The Republic that the city submitted a letter of interest for the building and that the site could be a better option for the proposed hotel conference center rather than the currently proposed site, located in the block surrounded by Second, Franklin, Third, and Lafayette Streets.
“Generally, we all agreed that (the Cummins Sears office) would probably be a better location,” Pope said.
Pope had said the city is interested in the property because it is centrally located and offers the chance to extend the city’s entertainment corridor along Fourth Street.
