A real estate investment company has bought the former Pre-Vocational Training Center facility on the busy Division Street-Ruby couplet and plans to redevelop the site for retail uses.


The company, Magnolia Enterprises LLC, bought the property from East Indiana College Group LLC, a development company formed by Lydig Construction Inc. principals.


East Indiana had bought the property in February.


Pre-Vocational Training, a nonprofit organization that serves people with disabilities, has moved to a 20,000-square-foot building it bought at 4004 E. Boone.


The organizations former property is located at 2517 N. Ruby, but is accessible from both Ruby and Division streets.


Marshall Clark, president of Clark Pacific Real Estate Co., says Magnolia Enterprises includes investors from Spokane and elsewhere, but declines to disclose other details about the company. Clark and Chad Carper, also of Clark Pacific, handled the transaction. That real estate company also is marketing the property for either a ground lease or a build-to-suit arrangement.


The old training center facility on that site includes 27,000 square feet of floor space, but Clark says Magnolia Enterprises plans to raze the structure and prepare the site for new retail space.


Its definitely going to look better very soon, Clark says.


The development company envisions building one or two retail buildings with a total of between 6,000 square feet and 8,000 square feet of floor space. The precise configuration will depend on what users step forward, Clark says.


While no tenants have been inked yet, the development company is looking at a combination of a bank, restaurant, and retail space on the site.


Larry Swartz, president of Lydig Construction and a member of East Indiana College Group, says East Indiana looked at various development options for the property, but opted instead to sell the site.


We were looking at some possible uses, and none of them materialized, Swartz says.


He declines to disclose the price for which East Indiana sold the property to Magnolia Enterprises. East Indiana had bought the property for about $640,000.