Valparaiso will not continue to explore expanding Central Park Plaza downtown after Mayor Jon Costas said the owners of the properties adjacent to the park who would have to sell have decided to discontinue their talks with the city.

In a statement sent late Thursday afternoon to citizens concerned about the proposal, Costas said he respected the property owners’ decision and the idea cannot be pursued further at this time.

“As such, the park expansion concept will remain for now simply an idea and one, perhaps, for future consideration,” he said.

Still, Costas said in a phone interview with the Post-Tribune earlier Thursday that he began exploring the possibility of expanding the park and making it more user-friendly regardless of the season with city leaders about a year ago, and the city engaged an engineering firm to come up with renderings of what the expanded footprint might look like.

Those were completed on Jan. 20, according to the city-provided renderings by Abonmarche, and Costas said they were shared with the city council.

Social media began exploding Tuesday afternoon with word that the city would be doing a landgrab for the building that houses Old World Market and is owned by Brent Wagner, at 76 S. Washington St., and Fifth Third Bank, owned by Peter Von Tobel at 56 S. Washington St. Both are east of and adjacent to the park.

In a Wednesday email to the Post-Tribune, Patrick Lyp, the city attorney, said there were no such plans.

“Notwithstanding what you read on social media, I can share that the City is not acquiring the Old World Market and Fifth Third Bank buildings. Moreover, the City is not exercising eminent domain,” Lyp said in the email.

Costas said by phone that downtown was “dead” when he took office for his first term as mayor in 2004 and part of his vision at the time was to rejuvenate the area, “making it a jewel of the region.” Costas served three terms starting that year, and began his fourth term in January 2024.

“I’ve been thinking about this in the back of my mind for years,” he said of ways to further utilize the downtown park, which features a splash pad and hosts concerts and other events throughout the warm weather months. “It’s not about making it bigger. It’s about making it more usable year-round.”

Costas said his goal in exploring the idea was to come up with a concept and then determine if it should be brought forward.

“We’ve been talking to building owners all along,” he said. “We always make sure we reach out and they know what we’re doing.”

Wagner and Von Tobel, who started the savedowntownvalpo.com website, said in a message to the community that, “As the owners of the buildings, we strongly oppose this plan and we are asking for your help.”

The statement goes on to note the city would cut more than $60,000 from property tax revenues annually if the properties were torn down for an expanded park, and said eight local businesses would have their leases terminated and be displaced.

“What are the taxpayers getting with all of this? A bigger Central Park. We think Central Park is right-sized and beautiful as it is,” Wagner and Von Tobel wrote.

The site also notes that enlarging the park does not align with community input gathered during “Elevate Valpo,” or adopted guidelines from city planning consultants.

The site urges residents to contact the city council and address their concerns to the city’s Board of Public Works and Safety, and Redevelopment Commission.

“More than anything, we think the Valparaiso taxpayers should have a say,” the site notes. “It is your money and your downtown after all.”

Likewise, the owners of Old World Market said in a Facebook statement on Thursday that, “It was a definite shock to us on Tuesday, to find out at the same time everyone else did, that we might be displaced. We had only wished we would have gotten a heads-up before this all went public. We are still struggling to process it all.”

Three local families have owned the shop, which specializes in gourmet and imported food and wine, over the past 25 years, with the Locke family purchasing it in 2018.

“Most will never understand what goes into having a dream of owning your own business. My dream wasn’t just for me, but for my family,” owner Patty Locke wrote.

The cost of moving to a new location would be “drastic,” she said, “especially when needing a kitchen. And that’s not the only thing, it’s also logistics, parking, being part of the square, approvals, etc.”

Costas told the Post-Tribune during the phone interview that if the property owners wouldn’t sell, the proposal wouldn’t move forward. In his later statement to the community, he said, “The city has rarely, under my leadership, used eminent domain in the downtown to force a sale against the owners will, and that certainly won’t happen here.”

He also said in the statement that as the “primary architect” of the downtown’s revitalization and Central Park Plaza, “I would not support any project that would harm rather than enhance the downtown and its local small businesses.”

The proposal generated an array of questions from the community, from how the city would pay to purchase the buildings to why the city would expand Central Park Plaza when it nixed plans for a sports complex east of Indiana 49, a site that was considered for a data center before community outrage shut down the idea.

“Those are all valid concerns and we’re not going to do that if we can’t raise the money,” Costas said by phone.

The city has to do its due diligence, “otherwise nothing gets proposed,” he said, adding the park expansion might never happen, or might not happen for several years. The expansion, he added, “could be transformative.”

Central Park Plaza opened in 2011 and was created without borrowing money or issuing bonds, Costas said in a Wednesday release. An expansion opened in 2015 and included the William E. Urschel Pavilion and Ice Rink, plus the Indiana Beverage Activity Center.

The expansion was prompted by the success of the original park and the expansion has contributed to the success of Central Park Plaza and its surrounding businesses, according to the release. It was funded with existing funds, grants and donations.

alavalley@chicagotribune.com