Car wash, business condos eyed at the site
By Dave Fidlin
Correspondent
Two new proposals within Waterford’s Mercury Business Park off Highway 36 have come into sharper focus after a recent vote from officials.
At a special morning meeting Aug. 23, the Village Board cast several votes related to the municipal-owned site, which has been sold off in a piecemeal fashion to various developers as assorted incentives are put into the mix.
At the board meeting, village officials approved selling two parcels to applicant Steven Schultz for two disparate purposes. The purchase price for the parcels is $1 each, with a number of conditions attached.
Schultz submitted plans to the village for a conveyor belt-styled car wash on lot 6 within the business park at 586 Gravity Court.
Additionally, Schultz has proposed operating a 4,000-square-foot steel building at the Mercury site at 505 Orbit Parkway. The facility’s proposed use includes a combined office and manufacturing space for Crescendo Graphics LLC.
According to unofficial meeting minutes obtained by the Waterford Post, the parcel sales come with a number of caveats and contingencies.
The car wash development includes a stipulation that site and architectural plans are submitted to the village within the next 90 days. Schultz is to send $5,000 in earnest money, which is refundable at the time of closing as he and the village enter a mutual agreement.
The timeline for the Crescendo Graphics site stretches further out. The village has set a 180-day timeline for site and architectural plans for the building. The same $5,000 refundable earnest money provision is included in this deal once all of the final pieces come together.
The addition of the car wash and Crescendo building are the latest developments at the Mercury site, which was a focal point of the village’s most recent long-range master plan.
The adopted resolution solidifying the plans for both proposals describes the efforts to bring development to Mercury as “identifying a path for orderly and sustainable development.”
Another clause in the document states the site, leading up to 2018, “languished” and was marked “without any activity after village residents paid for improvements to the site.”
At a meeting in late 2018, the Village Board gave Village Administrator Zeke Jackson the green light to sell parcels of the Mercury site to interested parties.
The board at its Aug. 23 meeting also put back under the microscope the previously announced agreement with Atlas-6 Development LLC, which is overseeing a 19-unit business condominium project at the Mercury site.
The condominiums, first announced last fall, are set to take root on two lots at 409 S. 6th St. and 501 Orbit Parkway.
The board reviewed and acted favorably on several amendments to the agreement that was first inked last fall.
One stipulation in the agreement touches on what is described as an “opportunity payment” if a series of improvements to the parcels are not completed by Dec. 31, 2025.
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