Colgate Plant Auction Likely To Lead To Revised Development Plans

The pending auction of the old Colgate plant in southern Indiana could change the city of Clarksville's development plans.The plant is currently owned by an advertising firm, which purchased it from Colgate last year. The owner had worked with Clarksville officials to plan Clark's Landing—a development that would include and surround the property. The plan was partially meant to entice potential developers who might buy the site.But a sale never went through and the plant will be auctioned later this year. Clarksville redevelopment director Rick Dickman says the eventual buyer could be one of the developers courted over the last year."Those people are likely, I suppose, under an auction process, to come back to the table and say, 'Well, if we could buy it for something less or if we have a little bit better idea…' then maybe they can save some money and move ahead with whatever their development plans were," he says.Dickman says he hasn't heard any speculation on how much the plant might fetch."The asking price originally in the end of 2008 was $13 million. It was reduced to about $9 million and then different haggling has occurred in which the value of the property has dropped precipitously," he says. "The last figure I'd heard was in and around $5 million."