Liberty Center given more time on development plan

Liberty Center has been given a one-year extension to submit a final plan to construct a 145-room hotel and 264 luxury apartments.
It came over the objection of Trustee Todd Minniear and wasn’t exactly what Liberty Center’s developer was hoping for.
Liberty Center’s senior general manager John Taylor requested a three-year extension of the 2023 approved preliminary plan for the hotel and apartments in a May 19 letter.
“My position has been consistent from day one. I voted against this project three years ago, and I voted against extending it because my concerns about apartment growth have only grown stronger,” Minniear said.
“If Liberty Center has a viable hotel proposal, I will work to support it. If the goal is simply more apartments, I will continue to oppose it.”
The apartments are slated for a 4.65-acre site near Ford’s Garage on Gibson Street. The five-story hotel is currently planned for Warehouse Row.
Final plans for those were not submitted or approved within the 3-year timeframe outlined in the zoning code, according to township officials.
In his letter, Gibson cited work that had been done at Liberty Center since the June 2023 approval.
It included approvals and coordination from key existing tenants in the center. More than $20 million was spent on capital improvements, pre-development activities and related costs.
Last September when Liberty Center officials met with township staff and asked about expiration of its preliminary plans for the hotel and apartment, they were incorrectly told the plans would not expire.
In March, Liberty Center was informed the approval on the preliminary plans would expire June 6 because no final plan had been submitted or approved.
The extension, trustees Tom Farrell and Steve Schramm said, was the right thing to do since Liberty Center officials were erroneously told their approved plan for the project would not expire.
“It was a compromise due to the fact they didn’t realize it expired.
By the time they realized it, there wasn’t anything they could do (by the deadline). The right thing to do was to give them some time to decide what’s next and then proceed,” Farrell said.
The extension, Farrell says gives Liberty Center one year – until June 6, 2027 – to file its final plan or revise it, which would restart the approval process.
“The extension does not change anything in the plans. It doesn’t add additional apartments; it gives them time to decide what’s next,” Farrell said.
“It gives them time to take a look and decide they’re going to build what they said they were going to. If they do not, they need to file a change.”
A year ago, the township approved a change in its comprehensive plan and future land use map to remove apartments and attached single-family homes out of every land use designation.
That change did not affect the apartments in Liberty Center because they were approved two years before the change.
The one-year extension will allow developers to file the final plans for the apartment and hotel or submit a new plan, which would then have to be approved by trustees.
“We’re very grateful for the continued support of Liberty Twp.,” Taylor said.
In his opposition, Minniear cited the explosion of approved apartments along Liberty Way – which includes Liberty Center – is already more than 1,700 units.
“Taxpayers invested roughly $50 million in the Liberty Way interchange to create a regional destination that would attract jobs, entertainment, dining, and retail. The goal was not to continually convert our most valuable commercial land in the township into apartment development,” Minniear said.
“The hotel was the component of this proposal that offered meaningful benefits to residents, visitors, and surrounding businesses.”

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PHOTO CREDIT: Liberty Center has been given a one-year extension on its plan to construct a 145-room hotel and 264 luxury apartments, as pictured in this rendering from 2023, when trustees approved a preliminary plan. CONTRIBUTED