Citing Ingham county records, MLive reported a group named ROB, LLC purchased the property from CADA Investment Group, LLC on Oct. 18 for $533,371.63.

The head of the East Lansing’s planning department told The State News on Wednesday he did not know about the sale before it happened, and does not know the developers or if they have plans for the area.

“The (ROB, LLC) name, to me, is totally unfamiliar — I had to look them up myself,” East Lansing Planning and Community Development Director Tim Dempsey said. “We’re kind of in the dark in terms of that.”

ROB, LLC members could not be reached for contact Wednesday. State records show it became a company on March 7, 2012.

Records list an address in Muskegon, Mich., as the company’s office.

CADA has until Feb. 25, 2013 to buy back the property, including added fees and interest rates that could run up to thousands of dollars.

Until then, the city still is treating the situation as if CADA still owns the property, in hopes that they will regain ownership.

“From the city’s perspective, CADA Investment still owns the property,” Dempsey said.

The move could throw a major wrench in the city’s plans for the site. City council members are in the works of developing a new plan for the area after scrapping a joint development venture with Strathmore Development Co., the parent company of CADA and City Center Two Project, LLC, because of financial complications.

CADA has proposed a scaled-down version of the plan to the East Lansing Planning Commission, which consists of two four-story apartment buildings and retail space on the first floor.