North-side Pittman properties sell at auction for nearly $2M

Three pieces of property in Carmel and Zionsville owned by the estate of Dr. John Norman Pittman have sold at auction for nearly $2 million.

Schrader Real Estate and Auction Co. in Columbia City, which marketed the properties with Tucker Auction Services and F.C. Tucker Co. Inc., announced the results of the Saturday sale on Wednesday afternoon.

The properties were offered in three tracts and were purchased by three separate buyers, Schrader Real Estate said. R.D. Schrader, president of the auction company, declined to divulge the names of the buyers to IBJ.

A 5.7-acre tract and large home on West 106th Street in Carmel sold for $782,800. An adjacent 2.7 acres containing a party barn, swimming pool and tennis court fetched $458,350. And a third property, in Zionsville, went for $736,450. The total price was $1,997,600.

The Zionsville land is adjacent to a property that was the subject of several disputes among members of the Pittman family.

Local developer Steve Pittman’s Pittman Partners LLC in May withdrew as developer of The Farm, a $90 million, mixed-use project planned for 62 acres near the southwest corner of U.S. 421 and Sycamore Street in Zionsville.

The move came amid growing tension among Pittman and his siblings—Mark, Chad, John and Anne Kelton—in the wake of the December 2014 death of their father, Dr. John Pittman, a Carmel real estate developer. The siblings had been fighting in court since September 2015 over how to handle the estimated $2.4 million estate.
 
The elder Pittman, who died at the age of 81, helped establish the cardiovascular program at Indiana University Health’s Methodist Hospital.

In October, however, the quarrel escalated when Mark Pittman filed a lawsuit in Hamilton County against his siblings and family-owned entities involved with The Bridges retail development in Carmel, alleging that his brothers have wrongly tried to take control of the companies for their own financial self-interest. The suit wants the companies to be dissolved.

The case remains active, according to the court docket, and has been moved from Hamilton to Marion Superior Court following a change of venue request.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said some of the property involved in this sale was the subject of several disputes among members of the Pittman family. The land being sold is adjacent to that property.