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The former Wonder Bread factory will no longer be the future home of Wonderland – an ambitious mixed-use project intended to house studio space for local artists, musicians, actors and entrepreneurs – but the dream will likely find new life elsewhere.

Negotiations over the 64,000-square-foot Italian Village building, 697 N. 4th St., fell apart last week after Wonderland Columbus board members failed to secure feasible terms with real-estate developer Kevin Lykens. Lykens purchased the factory last year for $800,000, intending to lease the space to as many as 150 Wonderland tenants.

“Every time we seemed to reach a milestone, plans seemed to change and adjust,” said Adam Brouillette, the group’s executive director. “I don’t think anybody is thrilled, but we’re staying the course.”

Friction, Brouillette said, arose from constantly-shifting arrangements between the two parties since the Wonderland concept was announced 19 months ago. A “reasonable” lease agreement then became a rent-to-own deal that ultimately morphed into Wonderland directors offering this month to buy the property outright.

Wonderland directors never completed a signed contract, said Brouillette, who declined to detail financial particulars or the recent purchase-price offer.

“We set up a price range and offered the highest end,” he said.

Lykens, who rejected the buyout offer, had a different perspective. He said Brouilllette and his team faced multiple roadblocks from the Internal Revenue Service that repeatedly prevented particular leasing terms (Wonderland Columbus is presently under review for 501c3 nonprofit status) and drove down prices.

Brouillette, on the other hand, said Lykens’ financial terms repeatedly increased and that he was in search of more money as the concept gained buzz.

Still, “we thought it was a done deal” months ago, said Lykens, who redeveloped a commercial stretch at Summit and Hudson streets and is rehabbing the run-down Garden Theater in the Short North. “We purchased it with an intended rate of return, which involved a long-term lease.

“I would have loved to have (Wonderland) in my building.”

The Wonderland team is now seeking new spaces of similar size Downtown and in the Franklinton and King-Lincoln neighborhoods.

Unless a particular building inspires a new name, Brouillette said the alternate venue will retain the Wonderland moniker.

More than 1,000 ideas from hopeful tenants, ranging from a recording studio and a brewery to pop-up fashion boutiques, were submitted last year for the 150 spaces in the Wonder Bread building.

Upper Arlington firm BBCO Design, whose Wonder Bread renovation schematics were on display last month at ComFest, will remain with the new project and assist in the search.

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