Austin Landing developer gets more time to market $120M plan

Austin Landing’s developer appears to be getting more time to market a $120 million plan for Miami Twp.-owned land at the same interchange as the sprawling mixed-use complex.

Dillin LLC was granted a 30-day extension this week by trustees for a letter-of-intent agreement with the township. Dillin is seeking to develop a plan that could lead to the sale of the 40-plus acres at the southwest quadrant of the Austin Boulevard interchange of Interstate 75.

The change to the agreement must be approved by the Miami Twp. Community Improvement Corp., which executed the initial deal.

EARLIER: More than 100 jobs proposed for Miami Twp. site

“We anticipate that occurring next week,” township Community Development Director Chris Snyder told trustees earlier this week. Snyder noted that “no other terms of the agreement would change.”

Dillin LLC’s president is Larry Dillin, who heads VisCap Development, the firm that oversees Austin Landing. The resolution approved Tuesday night lists the CIC as the seller and Dillin as the buyer.

Dillin has referred to the project has Austin West. It is referred to as “Austin SW” in township documents.

In April, the township approved an exclusive marketing deal with Dillin LLC. The agreement provided Dillin 120 days – plus two 30-day extensions – to market the land, which has been valued at $4.6 million.

This summer, Dillin updated trustees on his work, but has yet to submit a plan. That presentation included the concept of a $120 million mixed use development more dense than Austin Landing.

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It called for restaurants, office space, residential units, a hotel, a park, a “meeting/events center” with buildings as high as eight stories or more.

“We do expect to receive an initial proposal from them regarding both the development layout site along with the projected financials for the projects,” Snyder said.

The amount of water on the land limits development to about 25 acres, Dillin has said. By contrast, the 72 acres developed at Austin Landing has about $200 million invested in it, according to Dillin.

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The letter of intent calls for Dillin LLC to provide status reports on bi-weekly basis. The reports will involving a marketing analysis of potential uses, a financial analysis of both private and public investment, a purchase price proposal, a preliminary development master plan, a preliminary development timeline, a draft development agreement, and a draft purchase and sale agreement, records show.

Two previous agreements the township had for that land were severed without a proposal being presented publicly.

In 2009, Clivus Development LLC had an agreement to bring a proton therapy center projected to bring hundreds of jobs and be worth in excess of $100 million to the area.

That agreement expired in June 2015 without plans being submitted. The township then hired Juniper CRE Solutions more than a year but earlier this year voted to end that deal.

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