Breath of Life? Neglected subdivision site has new owner

A new owner has taken over land once proposed as a new Center Grove neighborhood that became a weed-choked trash dump after it was abandoned.

For more than 15 years, the proposed 96-home Cricket Ridge subdivision in the Center Grove area has remained vacant, except for two burned-down model homes and a road leading nowhere. Meanwhile, rows of new houses have been built in the Brookhaven neighborhood right across Paddock Road.

But now, some hope has returned. A church’s investment foundation purchased the 40-acre property. Fishers-based Wesleyan Investment Foundation spent about $270,000 to buy the property at 1228 Paddock Road out of foreclosure two years ago, according to county property records.

Foundation official Rich Moorlach said he didn’t know of any immediate plans for the property and also didn’t know whether it would end up being the site of a new church or a real estate investment that would be sold to a developer or homebuilder. He said the foundation was mainly a financial institution that existed to lend money to local Wesleyan churches.

In the Center Grove area, the foundation also owns about 76 acres of farmland at Mullinix and Travis roads, about 2.5 miles south of Cricket Ridge.

Wesleyan Investment Foundation bought the property out of foreclosure from First Merchants Bank, according to county property records. The bank had foreclosed on Paddock Partners LLC, a group of investors that included Fred Johnson. Johnson was one of the original developers of Cricket Ridge, which was first planned as a new neighborhood in the mid-1990s.

Johnson could not be reached for comment.

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