Limo in Mc Cordsville, IN

McCORDSVILLE — McCordsville officials have accepted an offer to purchase the Round Barn Inn and an adjoining homestead on Mt. Comfort Road after several months of negotiation.

At Tuesday’s McCordsville Redevelopment Commission meeting, the commission voted unanimously to buy the parcel containing the Round Barn Inn for $500,000. Last month, the RDC voted to purchase the homestead next to the property for $375,000. The purchases will be made with park impact fees the town has accumulated over the past several years.

The Round Barn Inn is not to be confused with the Littleton/Kingen Round Barn, which is located outside of town limits.

At Tuesday’s meeting, McCordsville town manager Tim Gropp expressed excitement for the purchase, with the long-term goal of turning the area into a combination history and agricultural park, while restoring and maintaining the round barn and homestead on the properties.

“In the end, I was going to be shocked if we got these two properties for a million dollars,” he said. “So to come in under that is really good. I think it’s a good deal for us, and it’s going to be a really nice four-acre urban history park when we’re all done with it.”

Earlier this year, the town’s redevelopment commission passed resolutions allowing Gropp to execute all documents necessary to complete the purchases of the two parcels. Per state law, the initial price offered for parcels of land may not exceed the average of two independent appraisals; the averages of the two parcels of land are $230,000 and $437,500, with the latter being the parcel with the Round Barn Inn.

Gropp said in previous meetings that he received inspiration for a history park combined with an agricultural park from a similar park in Fishers, and wanted the area to be interactive while also becoming a property of the nascent town parks department.

The town manager has been an advocate for honoring the history of McCordsville and maintaining it for future use; this year, work began on transforming a former McCordsville fire station into the town’s new community center.

In November, the RDC accepted the counteroffer of $375,000 for the homestead, with Gropp noting that the owner of the Round Barn Inn and the town were having difficulty coming to an agreeable number — the first counteroffer came in at $690,000 for the Round Barn Inn parcel, a price RDC members were hesitant to accept.

However, they were still interested in the property, and authorized Gropp to send in a counteroffer for the town, this time to negotiate up to $500,000.

“I think it would be a very unique buyer that would be interested in that, because that you wouldn’t necessarily see an investor buy that because you’re up against residential, and you know you can’t convert it to commercial,” RDC member Dale Needleman said.

Gropp noted the town did structural engineering reports on the properties on the parcels, and said there will need to be some work on the structures, including the house that is currently half-renovated.

“It’s going to be a really nice asset to this community,” he said.

In the latest chapter in the saga between the town of McCordsville and Daniel’s Vineyard, the winery filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, a couple of months after the town first filed a lawsuit against the business.

According to a press release, the lawsuit challenges “recent McCordsville Town Council ordinances and enforcement actions that the Vineyard believes unfairly limit its operations as a small, family-owned business.”

The release states that Daniel’s Vineyard has faced years of “strained communication and restrictive dealings” with McCordsville Town Council, during which the winery alleges direct dialogue was prohibited and communications were done through each side’s legal counsel. This approach, the Daniel’s Vineyard asserts, has left the business feeling “personally targeted.”

“We’ve always believed in collaboration and fairness,” said a spokesperson for Daniel’s Vineyard in the release. “Our goal is simply to ensure that small businesses are treated consistently and that the rules are applied equally to everyone.”

This federal filing follows the Town of McCordsville filing a lawsuit against Daniel’s Vineyard at the end of September in Hancock Superior Court 1, with the town alleging that the winery did not satisfy terms of a sewer development agreement, alongside asking the court to declare the winery stop holding concerts on the property.

“We will always champion and support entrepreneurs and businesses who invest here, which is why we invested in sewer upgrades to help Daniel’s in their early days. It’s our responsibility to the taxpayers to ensure these commitments are upheld and businesses are held accountable,” McCordsville town manager Tim Gropp said in a September press release.

The lawsuit and counterlawsuit between the two parties stems from a multi-year dispute over the vineyard’s concert series. In late 2018, Daniel’s Vineyard closed its doors to the public after the town council began to consider a noise ordinance that would have affected the winery. The vineyard continued being closed to the public until summer 2020, when the vineyard reopened its doors to the public and began holding concerts again.

McCordsville Town Council passed an updated noise ordinance earlier this year, with several town residents bringing up their concerns about the vineyard and its concert series, arguing it was becoming a public nuisance. The discussion was renewed earlier this year after the winery made a Facebook post in May stating that Daniel’s would only be able to offer only eight outdoor events per year, in reference to a special event ordinance approved by the town council in June 2024.

At the May town council meeting, Kim Cook, co-owner of Daniel’s Vineyard, told the council that any event by the winery would be affected by the permit ordinance and that Daniel’s would not be able to have the concert series if the ordinance remains.

Daniel’s stated in their press release that it will remain open and fully operational as a winery and restaurant and also to private events.