It all starts with a vision
City of Plymouth buys property for Crossroads Plaza
In a release on Wednesday, The City of Plymouth announced the purchase of the property located at 500 N. Michigan St.
The property located at the northeast corner of Michigan and Jefferson Streets has served many purposes. Recently, the building has set vacant for most of each year, only hosting a seasonal fireworks store.
“We’re so excited to take this step today. Soon this blighted building will be gone and a beautiful entry to our downtown will be on the horizon,” said Plymouth Mayor Mark Senter.
according to City attorney Sean Surrisi, the appraised value of the property, which
was the amount offered to purchase it, was $107,200. The net amount paid to the seller after credits for taxes, etc. at closing was $104,404.03. The city plans to demolish the existing building. Surrisi wasn’t sure of the exact cost of demolition but stated that the last two buildings that the City had demolished (both of which were a little smaller) cost roughly $12,000 each. The City plans to demolish the building in the coming months, working with the Crossroads Team and the Stellar State agency partners to advance the Crossroads Plaza project.
“We’ll ultimately seek public bids or quotes for the work and see where the price comes in at,” said Surrisi.
This project was identified in the Marshall County Crossroads Regional Development Plan, which was our Stellar Communities application back in 2019.
As with all Stellar projects, State funding has been set aside and designated for all the County’s projects. However, winning the Stellar designation back in 2019 wasn’t the end of the story regarding securing the funding. Each project has to submit its own application to the State to be approved for the funding. “We’re in that process right now with the River Park Square Phase 2 project that just had a public hearing at Monday’s City Council meeting as an application requirement,” said Surrisi. The Crossroads team estimated the total cost of this project to be $800,000. The plan is to use Stellar funds allocated by the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) to pay for 80% of that cost. “We are close to finalizing the application to INDOT to seek approval of that funding. I’d guess that we’ll get that submitted within the next month or so and would learn if it’s approved by summer. If approved the INDOT funding won’t be available still for a couple of years so the finished project is still a ways out,” Surrisi added.
The City budgeted $160,000 for this project this year. That is 20% of the estimated $800,000 total project cost and would meet INDOT’S local match requirements for their grants. The property acquisition costs already expended by the City and future demolition costs would all count toward that match.
During the Stellar Communities planning process, this corner was identified as a key representation of the Marshall County Crossroads Regional Planning Team’s vision of building great hometowns across the county. “Indiana’s the Crossroads of America and Marshall County’s the Crossroads of Indiana,” the Mayor also stated. Five historic byways traverse Marshall County, with four of them (Lincoln Highway, Michigan Road, Yellowstone Trail, and Dixie Highway) converging at this intersection. The Crossroads Arts and Culture Committee advanced the idea to commemorate these byways with the creation of a local educational and tourist site at this location, known as Crossroads Plaza. The proposed project would be a collaboration between the City, the Marshall County Historical Museum and Crossroads Center, Marshall County Purdue Extension Office/ Master Gardeners Program, and Marshall County Tourism. Regarding the project, Arts and Culture Committee Member Randy Danielson stated, “This historic corner serves as an internal gateway to our community and deserves to be recognized as a cultural landmark.”