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If anything, it illustrates how badly it's going for developers now, even near pricey New Albany.
Metro Parks recently agreed to buy 108 acres from New Albany Links Development Co. for $400,000, or $3,703 an acre.
The company's Joe Ciminello had wanted $1.5 million for the land north of Walnut Street and west of Schleppi Road, said John O'Meara, Metro Parks' executive director.
"Mr. Ciminello didn't get what he wanted," parks board Chairman Robert H. Jeffrey said.
Ciminello did not return calls from The Dispatch left over two days.
He had to transfer the property to a conservation group as part of a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for illegally filling in 7.8 acres of wetland adjacent to Sugar Run Creek and a tributary in 2004.
Ciminello agreed to create 43.5 acres of wetlands elsewhere, on part of the property Metro Parks agreed to buy and protect, O'Meara said.
The agreement put Ciminello in a bad bargaining position, O'Meara said.
The property he sold to Metro Parks was supposed to be an extension of the New Albany Links golf course and residential community.
Jason Sauer, a senior associate with commercial real-estate company CB Richard Ellis, said Metro Parks certainly paid below market value, but that's not surprising because much of the land is now wetlands.
"It's not buildable ground," he said. Still, he said, Metro Parks should be excited about the price.
Ciminello also had to pay a $115,000 fine, preserve about 2,800 feet of Rocky Fork and restore 2,200 feet of Sugar Run through New Albany Links golf course, said Tom Harcarik, a coordinator for Ohio EPA's surface-water division.
O'Meara said there are no plans for the land, one of three parcels of more than 100 acres assembled for the large park. Metro Parks is spending $10,000 for property and environmental surveys.
Metro Parks, Columbus, New Albany and Plain Township have agreed to create a 1,200-acre park within 2,800 acres in northern Plain Township along the Delaware County line. They've pledged $13 million toward its creation.
Last year, Ciminello proposed a complicated plan to donate 1,000 acres near New Albany that he and others owned to Metro Parks as long as the acreage remained in the New Albany-Plain school district and Columbus promised to provide water and sewer service.
That would have driven up the value of the land on paper and enabled investors buying that property to claim a $24.5 million tax break.
"That notion is dead in the water," O'Meara said.
Metro Parks officials continue to talk to nearby landowners about selling property to add to the park, O'Meara said.
mferenchik@dispatch.com
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