By Tim Arnett
WABASH,Indiana – Wabash Marketplace, Inc., or WMI, held a membership meeting late Tuesday afternoon in the Crystal Room of the Honeywell Center. The reason for the gathering was to amend the organization’s articles of incorporation to expand Wabash Marketplace’s charitable purpose in order to apply for certain grants to save downtown buildings. Specifically, the Bedford Building, located at 231 – 233 South Wabash Street, and Bradley Building, located at 5 West Canal. Both buildings are owned by California-resident Julie Locke. Marketplace awarded a total of $250,000 in grants to both buildings in January. But Steve Downs, Executive Director of WMI, said those grants were reimbursement ones which would be paid back to the owner after the work is done. Obviously, no work has been done on the Bradley or Bedford and now WMI is taking steps to purchase the buildings outright.
WMI’s members voted to change the organization’s articles of incorporation Tuesday night. But some members were not happy with the potential use of the space. WMI intends to pursue low-income and affordable housing development grants to help pay for the refurbishment. Some members were concerned about the type of people that would be attracted to downtown if one or both of the buildings are used for affordable housing. And, of course, WMI is taking a financial risk by buying the buildings in the first place.
But the location of both make then an integral part of downtown Wabash, according to Downs.
He added that a private buyer has simply not been found to invested and fix up the buildings which is why WMI is stepping in. By all accounts, the Bedford Building is in worse shape than the Bradley. Nevertheless, WMI cannot work on both buildings at the same time if they are purchased. After the membership meeting on Monday, Downs told MiBash News WMI’s board met and approved proceeding with the purchase of the two buildings.