With the announcement that the vacant hotel off U.S. 27 on the south end is in the process of being completed sometime in the summer, questions remain regarding the adjacent land — known as the Memorial Sports Complex — that local developer Dallas Murphy sought to develop years ago.
In April 2012, the Nicholasville City Commission and the Nicholasville Planning Commission began legal proceedings to collect the remaining $1,085,000 from a $1.9 million bond that was taken out in 2006, because the developer went into bankruptcy.
For approximately three years, infrastructure work at the complex has been nonexistent.
In April 2012, former Nicholasville planning director Greg Bohnett suggested the city pursue a legal remedy.
“I would suggest the city seriously consider to notify the building company to take the funds and see that (public improvements) are completed,” Bohnett said in April 2012.
Since that time, the matter has been tied up in the court system, Nicholasville Mayor Russ Meyer said.
“We’re having to go after that money to finish the development part of it, what the developer was responsible for,” Meyer said. “We’re going after that right now and we’re having to sue the bonding company, so it’s in litigation.”
Meyer said future development of that area is dependent on the bond and added it was unfortunate that the economy tanked when it did, which hindered development.
“I understand the economic situation that a business owner can be in by taking the risk involving themselves in that kind of debt,” Meyer said. “From the city’s standpoint, we’re always in hopes of growth, and with that not growing and with nothing happening out there, it just wasn’t a vibrant situation.”
Meyer also said many lessons were learned when the economy went sour, including how the city does business with developers in general.
“We are making changes moving forward,” Meyer said. “That is a thing of a past; we’re going to move toward all development having a letter of credit. That's the only way to go.”
According to an April 2006 article in The Journal, Murphy opened the $7 million sports complex, which included six baseball fields, concession stands and a baseball school, in May 2003.
The work on the hotel began in 2006.
A phone message left for Murphy was not returned before press time.
