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The county and Snapping Turtle LLC, owners of the property at 225 N. Buffalo St., Warsaw, have come to terms for a price of the land.
Ed Ormsby, county attorney, presented the real estate purchase agreement to the commissioners Tuesday for their approval.
“This real estate purchase is for property at 225 N. Buffalo St., owned by Snapping Turtle LLC. It’s also known as the Ameriprise building. This is property that the county is seeking to acquire in furtherance of obtaining additional parking for the county. The amount for the purchase agreement is $475,000. Closing would occur on or before March 31. We are allowing the owner of the property to stay in 30 days after closing for possession for relocation purposes. This would settle the eminent domain matter that was initiated with our letter of a uniform offer through the statute,” Ormsby explained.
The county and Snapping Turtle worked well together in coming to an agreement on a compromised selling price, he said. The $475,000 agreed amount is below the appraised amount of $553,000. That appraisal “was done by selection in cooperation of both the seller and buyer on that appraisal.”
The county commissioners unanimously approved the purchase agreement Tuesday for $475,000.
Back in August, the commissioners voted to make an initial offer of $235,000 to Snapping Turtle LLC for the Ameriprise property.
After the commissioners meeting, Ormsby explained the different appraisals.
“There was an appraisal that was done on the basis of for parking, for the use, but not for the fair market value as the property was situated. And so, we had an appraisal done by Krause Associates LLC,” Ormsby said. “So we agreed with the seller on Krause Associates to do the appraisal. The county paid for that appraisal.”
According to a copy of the appraisal from Krause, that was completed by April 7, 2025, with the effective date of value being May 7, 2025. The appraisal for $235,000 came in before Krause’s.
“With Krause, they came back fair market value for the land and the improvements on the land, and that was $553,000. We had discussions about whether or not we agreed with the $553,000. Whether they thought the $553,000 was there, and in the process of the settlement negotiations, between buyer and seller, we came to the $475,000,” Ormsby explained.
With the initiation of the eminent domain by the uniform offer, he said that uniform offer requires “that you just do a good-faith offer. And so that ($235,000) was as good of a place to start as any with that one appraisal, knowing that that would not be where we ultimately end up.”
In the process of those discussions, Krause was the appraiser that both the seller and the county agreed on. Krause came back with the $553,000, there were negotiations and in the end both sides agreed upon a price of $475,000.
Beginning in January 2026 or so, Ormsby said the county will get some soil borings done on the site to see whether or not the property will be suitable for a parking garage that might be three to four levels.
“Whether or not it is, ultimately, we still wanted the property because pursuant to a parking study that the county had done in 2023, we have to have more parking. So whether it’s surface parking or parking garage, we needed that property, but we’ll get those soil borings done to see whether it will sustain the building of the parking garage there ultimately,” he said.
They’re also still working with Zimmer Biomet to see what they may be willing to do with their parking lot next to the ZB Hotel.
