Sugarcreek Twp. Administrator Barry Tiffany said putting a TIF on the property would help “create a lot better partnership with the Dilles and landowners in the future so we don’t have to worry about annexation.”
Centerville City Manager Greg Horn, Centerville Economic Development Administrator Nathan Cahall, developer George Oberer Jr. and John Cloud, the attorney representing the Dille Family Trust and Dille Laboratories Corp., attended the meeting.
Cloud said Oberer closed last week on the purchase of the 225-acre section of the Dille farm annexed by Centerville in 2009. Oberer said that Cornerstone Development, Inc. — a partnership between Oberer and the Dille Family Trust and Dille Laboratories Corp. — paid off the loan that was in default, and that the foreclosure filed in U.S. District Court against the Charles A. Dille Revocable Living Trust is to be dismissed.
Cloud said he helped negotiate a settlement payment of $1.775 million on the $2.32 million owed the Bank of America. The Charlotte., N.C.-based bank had filed a lawsuit April 30 demanding that the property be foreclosed and sold to repay a $1.9 million loan made in July 2005 to the Sugar Creek Towne Center (Bear Creek Capital) to purchase the land from the Dille family trust. The trust is made up of the eight sons and daughters of the late Charles Dille.
Cloud asked the trustees to table their resolution for a TIF on the property east of I-675 for 90 days to allow the Dille family and Oberer, the current developer, to review it and discuss with the trustees their views on how it might affect future development of the property.
Cloud said the Dille family recruited and elected John Marrinan to replace Roger Pfister, who recently died of a heart attack, as president of the Dille Trust and Dille Laboratories Corp., to oversee future development, but that he will be on vacation through July.
The trustees agreed to table the issue until their Aug. 2 trustee meeting to allow for a July 28 meeting with the Dilles and their representatives.
The trustees asked for a commitment from Cloud that no attempt would be made during that time to annex the property they plan to TIF. Cloud agreed.
A freeze on any annexation attempt of township land has been in place since 2006 because of the Bellbrook-Sugarcreek merger study. The study commission must make a decision by Aug. 3 whether to put the merger issue on the November ballot. If it decides not to go forward with the merger issue, the freeze on annexations would be over Aug. 3, said Sugarcreek Twp. Trustee president Nadine Daugherty.
Tiffany said the new TIF they are seeking would be a 10-year “spring-type” TIF that sits dormant until development begins on that site. It would exempt from real property taxation 75 percent of the assessed value of the improvements, he said.
The township has a 10-year TIF that begins this year on the 225-acre tract of Dille family-owned land to the west of I-675, annexed by Centerville. The land was annexed after development talks in the township stalled over zoning and financial issues in 2006. The township and Centerville are awaiting a judge’s decision as to who is entitled to the tax money from that TIF.
A merger of the township with the city of Bellbrook would end the argument between the two governmental entities over that TIF, as the township would be absorbed by the newly created city of Bellbrook, ending the court case, with Centerville receiving the property taxes from any new development on that 225 acres, estimated to be up to $1 million a year, according to Tiffany, when all is said and done.
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kullmer@DaytonDailyNews.com
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