Call it wishful thinking.

The Optiva Group Ltd. owns no property at Coffee Creek Center and none at any other site eyed for development by the Lake Erie Land Company (LEL), contrary to claims which Optiva was making on its website last week.

More: LEL has specifically asked Optiva to remove references to Coffee Creek Center and LEL from that website. Optiva had done so by 2:42 p.m. on Friday.

After deadline on Friday Tom Godfrey of LEL told the Chesterton Tribune that LEL and Optiva have been in talks for some time about a possible relationship or transaction. But nothing has yet been finalized, no document has been signed, and no property has changed hands, he said, despite Optiva’s unequivocal statement on the website—since deleted—that it owns more than 200 acres of “prime real estate” in the area of I-94 and Ind. 49.

Godfrey added that the promotional information on the website was released prematurely, that it had been prepared for possible investors who were supposed to have been able to access the webpages in question only by means of a password, and that through human or technical error the webpages were inadvertently posted to the Internet at large.

Godfrey said that he asked Optiva to remove that promotional information when it came to his attention, through a story in Friday’s edition of the Times, that Optiva was touting a variety of projects at Coffee Creek Center.

Among those projects: a hospital and ancillary medical offices, a luxury hotel, nightclubs, a steakhouse, and a community playhouse.

Optiva, headquartered in Strongsville, Ohio, calls itself a “strategic business development company,” founded in 1974 by Edmund Kwieceien Jr., which assists “in the day-to-day management of major projects, product introductions, and property developments,” according to the website.

“Over the past 20 years,” the website states, “Optiva’s design/build projects have included art galleries, beauty shops, restaurants, a popcorn factory, commercial/industrial property conversion, and more.”

The website does not name any of these projects or cite their locations.

Optiva is also involved in the development of “TLC lasers,” the website states, and after “several iterations over the past eight years and several million dollars of investment, we have been able to secure a patent.”

No one from Optiva returned a call to the Tribune.

Posted 5/27/2008