Ownership of Wilder Industrial Pointe, one of the largest vacant industrial sites in the city, has changed hands.
Sandwiched between the Licking River and the AA Highway at 1306 Gloria Terrell Drive, Wilder Industrial Pointe is an empty plot of land that’s been marketed as developable land for industrial, manufacturing, or distribution purposes. It’s located about six miles from downtown Cincinnati, less than three miles from I-471, and one mile from I-275.
Cincinnati-based Neyer Properties sold the site to MDG Wilder LLC, a holding company connected to Joey Madden, founder of the Madden Development Group. The sale, finalized on Nov. 25, was worth $4.925 million, according to Campbell County property records.
Madden is based in Harrison, Ohio and specializes in land acquisition, construction and development. The firm has developed a number of large storage unit complexes throughout the Greater Cincinnati area.
Wilder Mayor Valerie Jones briefly discussed the sale at the city’s last council meeting on Dec. 2.
“They are combining the parcels of land so they can redivide it to accommodate some of the new prospects they might have,” Jones said.
The last time the property was sold was in 2021 when 1306 Gloria Terrell LLC, a holding company associated with Neyer, purchased it from Rumpke for a little over $2 million. When Rumpke owned the property, they used it as a disposal site for fly ash, a waste product generated by coal-burning power plants.
Neyer planned to develop a light industrial complex on the site. Real estate signage posted on the property showcased renderings of a large industrial building and advertised 140,000 to 450,000 square feet of available industrial space.
In 2022, the Wilder City Council voted to approve an Industrial Revenue Bond package for Neyer to develop the property. Industrial Revenue Bonds are tax-exempt securities issued by local governments on behalf of private companies to help finance development projects that promote economic development and job creation.
Since the bonds were issued, Neyer was exempt from real estate taxes on the property. However, Wilder did not have to take on any financial obligations of the project, LINK nky previously reported.
The bonds issued had a term of 30 years. Instead of paying taxes, Neyer issued a payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, agreement with the city based on the amount of payroll tax generated from the property.
Essentially, Neyer’s PILOT agreement would decrease as the payroll taxes increased through jobs added by the prospective industrial development. In addition, the developer agreed to pay the equivalent of 100% real estate tax if no jobs were created.
Fast forward to 2024 – the lot remains a grass-covered field. Since the sale, the property’s description page is no longer available on the developer’s website.
Wilder City Administrator Terry Vance said the city would need to release Neyer from its development agreement due to the sale.
“We will, at some point, need to release Neyer from their development agreement which was only tied to the IRBs, so the IRBs are off the table now,” Vance said.
