METRO BRiEFS
by B.C. Kowalski
Affordable housing promise
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Given the choice between adding affordable housing to a community that studies show desperately needs it and a swap for land the city already helped pay for, the choice didn’t take long to make. City leaders went with housing. The city’s Economic Development Committee last week voted to accept Gorman and Co.’s proposal to build an affordable housing complex on the site of the former Westside Battery and L&S Printing site. According to the proposal, the site would see a four-story, 50-unit apartment complex. Gorman also offered $100,000 for the site, for which the city paid nearly $400,000 for. Gorman was chosen over a proposal by Wausau Opportunity Zone that essentially called for the site to be razed, creating, in their words, a “sense of arrival.” Under the proposal, WOZ would have paid nothing for the land but would have swapped land in the mall redevelopment area — land the city already helped purchase when it funded $1 million of the $3 million used to purchase the mall from its previous owners. Demolition of the Westside Battery site would cost about $125,000, which WOZ would pay for. It didn’t take the committee long to make its decision: about ten minutes passed before the committee returned to open session and voted in favor of Gorman’s proposal.
That vote came after questions about the potential for the land being difficult to develop. A sewer line, storm drain and power line needs to be moved in order to develop the site. But, Trent Claybaugh of Gorman told the committee the company had built enough of a contingency into its financial planning to make the project work, even with the extra difficulties of developing the site. Two previous proposals for the site, both restaurants, fell through. Urban Street Bistro proposed a restaurant but that fell through when the owner couldn’t secure the financing; and Sixth Street Filling Station proposed a new restaurant on the site, but had to pull back when the pandemic hit. Rents at the new apartment complex range from $375 for a single-bedroom apartment at the lowest income range, to $1,147 for a three-bedroom apartment on the upper level of income allowed, according to Gorman’s proposal. Gorman and Co. is currently renovating the Landmark apartments in downtown Wausau. Those will also become affordable housing, and have income requirements of those who rent them. The complex is expected to cost $14 million to build, and will generate $2.2 million of annual tax base for the city.
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Christmas Open House - Nov. 19 & 20, 2021
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Candles, and Holiday Décor! Homemade Donuts; Cookies; Bread; Dinner Rolls etc.
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The city’s Economic Development Committee chose affordable housing in favor of a land swap
