IndyStar reports that Shrum’s Manufactured Housing Center on U.S.40 west of Indianapolis was bought by real estate investment firm Platinum Financial Trust at auction Wednesday. The 12.4 acre site on a major commercial corridor near the Indianapolis International Airport went for $230,000 at the bank-ordered sale. MHProNews.com has learned the MHC owners hope to continue operating the business. Todd Hansen of Greenwood, IN’s Platinum says the investment firm has no specific plans for the site other than to have it cleaned up. City inspectors have cited Shrum’s about a dozen times in the last decade for building code and zoning violations, and neighbors complained about trash and abandoned factory-built homes. Auction analysts say $20,800 per acre is a bargain for 1,100 feet of frontage on this busy thoroughfare on the Marion-Hendricks county line with commercial zoning. The site was an apparently unrestricted dumping ground 50 years ago, and although no one knows what kind of debris is buried, concerns that it may be toxic may have kept the price down. Long-time neighbor Lonnie Games says he watched “truckloads that just dumped everything there.”
