Whats next for Lot C, bank, administrative center

Nearly two years of negotiations culminated late last week in La Crosse County officially selling its Lot C and administrative center in downtown La Crosse for private development and buying Associated Bank to become the new county office building.

But much work remains for the county, city and developers Weber Holdings LLC and Stizo Development to keep these various projects on track to see county staff move to the bank building by late 2016.

A look at how everything came together for the three deals Thursday and what the next steps will be:

The transaction: La Crosse County sold what has been a 2.3-acre surface parking lot for the Law Enforcement Center, 333 Vine St., in downtown La Crosse to Weber Holdings LLC.

The plan: The development company headed by Logistics Health Inc. founder and CEO Don Weber has proposed a $68 million, 255,000-square-foot complex on the block surrounded by Third and Fourth and Vine and State streets that will include an 111,500-square-foot office building, 23,000-square-foot retail space, a cafe, an Associated Bank location with drive-thru, plus 93 market-rate housing units above the retail space. It also will contain 338 parking stalls within the complex, with 112 on the first level and 226 underground, of which 40 spaces will be reserved for county use; another 16 angled spaces of street parking are planned as well.

Sale price: $1 million. The county has pledged to hold the entire amount, plus interest, for when the city and Weber Holdings comes to an arrangement on an off-site parking solution the most likely scenario now is a new ramp that will include 85 spaces dedicated for county use. The county will recoup the $1 million, plus $500,000 it will provide for the Lot C parking, only after all other parties involved in creating the parking are repaid.

The value: The development when completed is expected to add almost $34 million in new tax base that would generate nearly $1 million a year in taxes. Weber Holdings also has predicted the office space could bring 500 new jobs downtown.

Whats next: A spokesman for Weber Holdings said the hope is to start work on Lot C as early as the end of this month, with excavation beginning a month later. They intend to build the south portion of the project, with the housing and retail space, before starting on the office building. The Associated Bank portion must be ready by June 2016, so the business can vacate its current location. The city Plan Commission on Monday will consider an application to transfer the site to the Commercial/Business District. And while Weber Holdings already has submitted preliminary plans for Lot C to the city, the final version still need to be approved by the citys design review committee.

Still undecided: When and what will be involved in perhaps setting up a new tax incremental district for the site. La Crosse officials and financial consultant Ehlers and Associates will look at the different options, including possibly extending one of the bordering TIDs to include Lot C, as it now is within TID 6 that can add no projects after 2016 and is slated to close in 2021. It is desirable to have those TID arrangements finalized by the state Department of Revenues Sept. 30 deadline for making such changes, so the current tax value on the property can be set at zero and all new development and new tax increment is captured by the city to finance the off-site parking and any other improvements. The amount and location of that parking must be resolved as well.

The transaction: La Crosse County acquired this 50,000-square-foot building at 605 State St. on Thursday as well.

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Whats next for Lot C, bank, administrative center