Vine Street to be closed for Lot C construction

Vine Street in front of the Law Enforcement Center in downtown La Crosse will be closed for up to 18 months while the adjacent Lot C is converted from a parking lot into a proposed $68 million housing, retail and office development.

The parking lanes on Third, Fourth and State streets alongside the lot will be closed down as well for the project, which is being coordinated by C.D. Smith Construction of Fond du Lac for developer Weber Holdings LLC. The same company handled the three Riverside Center buildings for Logistics Health Inc. founder and CEO Don Weber, who heads Weber Holdings.

Closing off the parking lanes will make for tight quarters on Third and Fourth streets, the main north-south route through the downtown, but should be workable, said Matt Gallager, city traffic engineer. The construction company coordinated the plan with his office to make sure it was feasible, he said.

The closures wont happen until Monday at the earliest, said Cory Henschel of C.D. Smith.

Shutting off the 300 block of Vine Street will create space for construction trailers and equipment, including a crane that will go on the northeast corner of the lot, he said.

While the citys Board of Public Works on Monday approved closing the street and lanes until December 2016, it will be reopened as soon as possible to minimize the disruption, Henschel said.

Trying to make this as seamless as possible, he said.

Construction on the 2.3-acre lot is expected to begin this month, starting with the south side of the complex that will include 23,000 square feet of retail space, a cafe, an Associated Bank location with drive-thru, plus 93 market-rate housing units above the retail space.

While that section will be completed within the 18-month period, no timeline has been set for the 111,500-square-foot office building on the north side of the lot and it may not be done within this construction cycle, Henschel said.

Weber Holdings bought the 2.3-acre site from La Crosse County in late February for $1 million, after submitting plans last summer for a 255,000-square-foot complex that would add an estimated $34 million in new tax base downtown.

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Vine Street to be closed for Lot C construction