Heartland maneuver cancels sheriff's sale
By CYNTHIA AUKERMAN
News-Gazette reporter
Village officials were looking forward to regaining control of the Heartland Realty property on Elm Street at a sheriff's sale Friday. Instead, a last-minute filing by Heartland Reality's owners Richard Gaerke and Jim Gilbert has again postponed the village's attempt to put a viable business in the building.
In the filing, the owners claim they have an "imminent" buyer for the building.
However, the owners are not even maintaining the property that once was the location of Red 73 Creamery. The village is having to do the mowing and upkeep.
Heartland paid $50,000 down on the property, but have not made any payments to the village since October 2002. Their contract with the village is due to expire in September 2005.
In addition to maintenance costs for the property, village officials have also incurred considerable legal expenses in filing for a stay in the bankruptcy action in both Indiana and Ohio. The village has also had to pay the taxes on the property.
The property is appraised at $250,000.
The village's Community Improvement Council cleaned up the unsightly derelict property with a $400,000 state grant, which required a $100,000 match from village funds. The village put an estimated $40,000 extra into rehabilitating the building.
The building being tied up in bankruptcy is preventing the village from recovering its investment, money which then could be turned around for development in Commerce Park. Thus the delaying actions by Gaerke and Gilbert are delaying the village's economic development goals.
Mayor Scott Stahl said Heartland's owners must have waited until the last minute to file the papers to stop the sheriff's sale. The village got notification of the cancellation of the sale less than an hour before it was to begin on the steps of the Darke County Courthouse.
"We are extremely disappointed," Stahl said. "We were not expecting this."
The village does have the option of modifying the bankruptcy filing, but that will take 90 to 120 days.
Village manager Jim Arndt, who was scheduled to attend the sheriff's sale on behalf of the village, said there was a silver lining in the latest delay. A confirmed potential buyer showed up on the courthouse steps to bid on the property.
"This delay was a setback, but not a defeat," Arndt said. "Our attorney said a filing like this to buy time is not unusual."
Another Heartland property, the former Coca-Cola bottling plant on the Indiana side of town, is also in bankruptcy.
