Redevelopment commission awards 98 East High Street to KMD Ventures / Detmer Group

The Lawrenceburg Redevelopment Commission on March 12 accepted staff’s recommendation and awarded the city-owned property at 98 East High Street to KMD Ventures / the Detmer Group following a public request-for-proposal process.

Weldon, who was introduced by the commission to summarize the review, said the city received five “excellent” proposals and used a multi-category scoring matrix completed by five reviewers to evaluate each submission. “If we had five buildings, we would have awarded all five of these without hesitation,” Weldon said, praising the quality of the applicants and the transparency of the process.

Weldon told commissioners the property came into city ownership during a bankruptcy and that the redevelopment office had worked over about a decade to place private businesses in city-owned structures. He said the evaluation included two separate scoring matrices and that the completed scoring sheets will be available at the Clerk-Treasurer’s Office for any member of the public to review.

According to Weldon, four of the five reviewers ranked the Detmer Group (in combination with Shorty’s in the scoring sheets) as the preferred applicant, while one reviewer favored the Schroeder Group. Based on that tally and the commission’s scoring protocol, staff recommended KMD Ventures / the Detmer Group as the winning applicant.

President Brian Johnson said he disagreed with announcing the results before the board had an opportunity to review the full results, noting, “I think that the board should have the opportunity to review all of the results prior to this meeting.” He also said he trusted that the process was done correctly and supported moving forward after the results were made available for review.

A motion to accept the recommendation that KMD Ventures / the Detmer Group be named the winner was made and seconded; the commission voted in favor and the motion carried. The motion’s text as recorded in the meeting was to accept “KMD Ventures, the Detmer Group” as the winner of the proposal. The transcript records multiple “Aye” votes and the motion as carried; individual vote attributions were not recorded in the transcript.

Weldon closed his remarks by reiterating the city’s approach to transparency: the scoring sheets and related documentation will be placed at the Clerk-Treasurer’s Office so the public can inspect how proposals were evaluated. The commission adjourned immediately after the vote.

What happens next: Staff will proceed with the steps required to transfer or contract with the winning applicant under the city’s redevelopment procedures; the commission did not specify an implementation timeline during the meeting.