After two hours on the auction block Wednesday evening, the American Countryside Farmers Market has a new owner.
The winning bid went to Waste-Away Group, a waste and recycling company in Elkhart. The company bought 275 acres of land for $3.6 million, including the American Countryside Farmers Market building.
Waste-Away officials said the C.R. 26 land is a central location and close to its current corporate office off Beardsley and Wildwood avenues.
Potential bidders came hungry Wednesday for a piece of the land.
"We thought we stop at $300,000, but we kept going up," said bidder Simran Singh.
But in the end, American Countryside Farmer's Market sold to Waste-Away Group, a family owned business for more than 70 years.
But what do they do?
"We collect and process, we process recycling, we collect it all, various trash and recycling material," said Chris Himes, president of Waste-Away Group's Recycling Works Inc.
Himes was an active bidder all auction long.
New intentions ..."Our intentions for this facility are, No. 1, to keep this place intact as it is today," said Himes. The building's architecture will serve as the company's backdrop for its corporate offices.
Waste-Away Group said they’re confident they’re the right company for this piece of land.
"We've outgrown our current locations, so we're going to consolidate our current operations here," Himes said.
Himes said the 275 acres will help their business become more cost efficient to better serve their clients and the Elkhart community.
"We have continued to grow for 70 years and that’s our plan is to continue to grow, and add jobs," Himes said.
Waste-Away group doesn't yet know how many jobs they will bring to Elkhart with this new site.
An Elkhart County Commissioner told WSBT Waste-Away mentioned its plans to build a maintenance facility on part of the 275 acres.
Mystery bidder lands 40 acres ...
A mystery bidder Wednesday night won the remaining 40 acres of land for $1.1 million. That bidder declined to comment on their purchase.
However, the prime real estate, at the corner of C.R. 26 and S.R. 19, is rumored to become a gas station and convenience store.
As for otal money garnered from the auction, $4.7 million, the auctioneer told WSBT they expected that price from this auction.
