91ÊÓƵ

An unfinished building shell its developer once expected to become the “world’s greenest” structure may gain a new owner next month.

Independence officials have scheduled a sheriff’s sale in May for the troubled development in the heart of the city.

The approximately three-story, 57,000-square-foot mixed-use project was supposed to set an example in sustainability by incorporating things like solar panels, a closed-loop ground-source heat pump, and vegetable-burning electric generators. But shortly after the project began in 2004, the project’s general contractor – Johnson Controls Inc. – sued developer Steven Ribeiro and 20 of his partners.

Johnson Controls claimed that the group defaulted on a $14.5 million in loans, according to the 91ÊÓƵ’s archives. Though the lawsuit was settled out of court in late 2012, the project has failed to regain momentum.

“There is not a project in this city that gets more attention than that one,” Independence City Manager David Clyne said. “Not a day has gone by in the last 10 years where a person hasn’t asked us: ‘What’s going on with Independence Station?’ For us, it’s an albatross.”

The sheriff’s sale is scheduled for May 23 at 10 a.m., at the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, at 850 Main St. in Dallas. Clyne said Ribeiro has until the auction to pay the city approximately $600,000 of system development charges and avoid foreclosure. That amount will be the starting price at the auction.

The project has changed in scope over the years. Originally conceived as high-end condominiums above ground-floor retail space, it later evolved into a sort of health and medical facility.

Clyne believes Independence Station, despite its troubled past, could be a great investment. Albeit a bit weathered, the development is halfway constructed. Also, the property is within a stone’s throw of the city’s historic main street, a multiplex, the public library, and a popular bistro called the Pink House Cafe.

“It’s an extremely good location,” Clyne said, “and an extremely bad location to have a building half-built.”