Ohio University submitted a revised lease Tuesday morning to the Ohio Department of Administrative Services that would allow a retirement community to lease university property on Stimson Avenue.
If the lease is approved, the nonprofit developer National Church Residences would foot the construction bill and maintain the facility.
The DAS, which must approve all leasing of state university property, returned the original agreement, saying the lease should more accurately reflect the value of the land. The university originally planned to lease the land for $1 per year.
The revised agreement is a 40-year deal, the maximum allowed under Ohio law, with annual payments of $40,000. It also includes a stipulation for NCR to pay $20,000 annually in government support, an amount that was undefined in the original plan, said John Kotowski, associate vice president for Facilities.
The government support payments will go to the university and will then be distributed among Athens city projects, local schools, or other tax-supported agencies. Exactly how the money will be apportioned has not been determined yet, said Katie Quaranta, an OU media specialist.
NCR, which has surveyed the property and is ready to break ground, is eagerly awaiting approval of the lease, said Patrick Higgins, the company's vice president of communications.
It's a very fair price that keeps the project workable
Higgins said. We're pretty happy.
Higgins estimated construction costs would exceed $10 million.
The lease has come under fire from Athens residents, who filed a lawsuit. Their efforts to stop construction were dismissed in the Athens County Court of Common Pleas for lack of standing lawsuit in September 2007. The residents appealed but were again struck down shortly after when the fourth District Court of Appeals upheld the lower court's decision.
A second lawsuit by the company that runs the Lindley Inn retirement center in The Plains further challenged the lease. Their suit, which argued the $1 annual lease of the original agreement amounted to unfair competition, was dismissed because there was no approval from the DAS.
The company, Chancellor Senior Management, LTD., did not return phone calls asking whether they would re-file the suit if the DAS approves the revised lease.
Linda Clark, director of the OU Innovation Center, has pushed for a retirement community for the past 20 years and believes it would be a valuable asset to the area, providing training ground for students, a means of retaining an elderly population that contributes knowledge and energy to committee work, and in keeping families together.
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