Farmers Park secures $17M in financing

Farmer's Park LLC last month secured nearly $17 million in financing from Commerce Bank, and the owners separately are preparing to expand with a fifth building at the mixed-use development on the south side.

“It’s long-term financing, just regular business stuff,” said Farmers Park owner Matt O’Reilly, declining to disclose the nature of the $16.8 million deed of trust filed May 31 in the Greene County recorder’s office.

The deed is connected to 2144 E. Republic Road, a 15.5-acre parcel O’Reilly and silent partners of Green Circle Projects LLC developed in 2013 for $22 million. Tenants include Studio 417, Aviary Cafe and Creperie LLC and Spencer Fane LLP.

O’Reilly said the Commerce loan was unrelated to pending construction of a fifth building on-site. A Commerce representative declined to comment on the loan.

He said a parking lot currently is under construction and the building work is scheduled to go out for bid this week with a tentative completion date of May 2017. An R.B. Murray Co. brochure of Farmers Park from 2013 listed a future fifth building with 50,000 available square feet.

O’Reilly said he secured anchor tenants for the new building but declined to name them.

In addition to the parking lot, other work at Farmers Park in recent months includes the installation of solar panels to a roof, according to city building permits issued May 5.