The Columbus City Council created a public entity on Monday that would own the planned Columbus Crew soccer stadium Downtown and could issue bonds to help construct it, but the status of a deal for the team to buy needed land is unclear more than nine months after the project was unveiled.

The council voted to declare the new Confluence Community Authority organized, defining its boundaries as the 28.66 acres west of the Huntington Park baseball stadium. The petition approved by the council to create the authority says the Crew team, acting as the project's developer, "entered into that certain Purchase and Sale Agreement" with the land's owner, Nationwide Realty Investors, which "has agreed to sell approximately 21.02 acres of the property."

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It also says the team "owns or 'controls' the property within the meaning of" the law creating the authority.

However, the petition goes on to spell out what happens if that land-purchase deal falls apart: "If the transfer (of land) does not take place" in accordance with the agreement, Nationwide Realty Investors' parcel will be automatically removed from the new authority, or the council could even repeal the authority.

"The NRI parcel shall be automatically deleted and removed from the authority's district in the event that the NRI parcel is not acquired by the (team) under the NRI Purchase and Sale Agreement," the city's former development director, Steve Schoeny, signed in an acknowledgment attached to the agreement.

The authority will be governed by nine members: five appointed by the city and Franklin County, and four by the team. The five public members are: Kenneth Wilson, Franklin County administrator; Erik Janas, Wilson's deputy administrator; Ken Paul, chief of staff to Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther; Michael Stevens, interim city development director, standing in for Schoeny, who recently left to become city manager in Upper Arlington; and Ty Marsh, the head of the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio and a former chief of staff to previous Mayor Michael B. Coleman.

Stevens was traveling Monday and unable to answer questions on the status of the stadium land sale, said Lee Cole, spokeswoman for the council.

In other business Monday, the council approved a $6.44 million project to reconstruct James Road between Livingston Avenue and Main Street on the East Side.

In addition to road improvements, the work will provide sidewalk and curb replacement and Americans with Disabilities Act, storm-water, traffic control, street lighting and utility improvements.

Partial funding for this project will be provided by a $3.22 million grant from the Ohio Public Works Commission. The city's Department of Public Service's local share for the project is $2.57 million, while the Department of Public Utilities' local share is $654,000.

Construction is to be completed in the spring of 2021.

City Auditor Megan Kilgore also announced Monday that the city has again earned a Triple-A bond rating, the highest possible, from three major bond-rating agencies: Moody’s Investors Service, S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings.

bbush@dispatch.com

@ReporterBush

Correction: In an earlier version of this story, the name of Erik Janas, a deputy Franklin County administrator, was misspelled.