The project will include the portion of Towne Square that formerly housed Kmart and buildings that currently house Family Dollar, Buck and Ear, Comfort Dental and Acapulco.
The city agreed to buy out Blue Rock after a years-long legal entanglement with the group.
The city did not pay any legal fees, city spokeswoman Christina Schaefer said.
Blue Rock filed a lawsuit in federal court in December 2017, claiming the city’s contractor, Badger Construction Co., damaged the former Fulmer building on Main Street when they demolished the old Kmart building at the end of 2016 and early 2017. Blue Rock claimed that their rights had been violated.
The judge ordered the parties to seek mediation. The city and Blue Rock came to an agreement on buying out Blue Rock’s lease and dismissing the case. The court still has to sign off on the agreement, Schaefer. Blue Rock originally signed the lease in 1979 and it had no expiration date.
Owning the leasehold interest allows the city and the newly formed Xenia Community Improvement Corporation to more easily move forward with redevelopment plans. The city plans to use money from the leases in the buildings to pay on the bonds. The sale will be final in the first quarter of 2021, according to city documents.
“To be clear, this won’t take away from things like police and fire,” said Xenia City Manager Brent Merriman in the Thursday council meeting.
Before any redevelopment on the site, Xenia will gather extensive input from the public, Merriman said. This public input and engagement process will start immediately, he said, but the process of redeveloping Towne Square will take years. Schaefer said the early efforts to reach out to the public will likely be virtual because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Towne Square shopping center was constructed after the tornado that hit Xenia in 1974. Shortly after the tornado, the city bought the land Towne Square shopping center sits on.
“We’re excited about this downtown project. It is not something that any of us has taken lightly. We recognize it’s a really big deal, but we have faith that this is a turning point for our community. We’re looking at this as a once in a lifetime opportunity we don’t want to miss,” said Mayor Sarah Mays.
Council president Wesley Smith said there was a lot of discussion around buying the shopping center.
“The only way to make that shopping center change was for us to control it short-term and turn it over to private industry,” Smith said. “So I am very excited to see what could happen there because it could be a destination and just a positive place for our community and people to hang out, to get a cup of coffee, to get something to eat.”
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