Springfield, Ohio buys tech park... twice

Springfield, Ohio’s development arm has just purchased the Nextedge Applied Research and Technology Park for $1.6 million at auction. But that’s just a fraction of the amount it invested in the property, before the Fifth Third Bank took it over and put the property up for sale.

The city and chamber of commerce broke ground on the tech park back in 2006. By 2009, Nextedge began to feel the effects of the economic downturn on the technology sector. The cost of maintaining the property became too much of a burden, and the park fell behind on its property taxes.

In 2010 the Turner Foundation stepped to help with Nextedge’s $1.2 million debt. But it later pulled its funding.

Fifth Third Bank took over the property in 2011, and put it up for sale for $3.8 million.

Nextedge went up for auction this August. That’s when Springfield’s Community Improvement Corp. re-entered the picture, buying 170 acres of the park’s 214-acres for $1.6 million. (The sale was finalized just last week.)

The Springfield Chamber of Commerce says the selling price was just too good to pass up and the economic situation has rebounded in the last couple of years.

The land the city purchased includes 50 acres of developed land.

Nearly $15 million has already been invested in the property from federal, state and private funding. About $6.3 million of that was public funding for the park’s main infrastructure.