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Home My WebLink Aboutweekly newsletter Date: November 4, 2011 To: Mayor & City Council From: Mark A. Rohloff, City Manager WEEKLY NEWSLETTER Subject: PARTNERS WITHDRAW OFFER TO PURCHASE CITY CENTER HOTEL 1.: I have been informed that the proposed re-developers of the City Center Hotel have dropped their plans to purchase the hotel. It appears as though they could not reach final terms with Nascho, LLC that were acceptable to them. The details of the failed transaction are explained on the enclosed press release. I think that it is most appropriate that the development group speak to these issues themselves. The item on Tuesday's Agenda is for approval of the TIF District. Given these recent developments, I will recommend that the Council table this item. Tabling the item still leaves the possibility open that the group could come back and request approval of the TIF District at some later time. It would also give the Council the ability to bring it back for consideration without any substantial delays. I believe that this approach leaves our options open. th I will ask staff to contact the Joint Review Board (JRB) to cancel their November 15 meeting, and advise the Oshkosh Area School District of this change in events. As you may be aware, the Oshkosh Area School District representative to the JRB had asked that the School Board discuss this TIF as well. This issue is now a moot point in my opinion. While staff and I are disappointed in this recent development, we remain optimistic that someone will step forward to develop the hotel in much the same way that this development group proposed. The WHG/UWOF group had assembled a workable plan that not only met the requirements for consideration of TIF development assistance, but would have resulted in a quality development for the downtown. Mr. Gill's group has to decide what they want to do to redevelop this hotel, or sell it to another development group that is prepared to follow a similar plan that WHG/UWOF proposed. CONVENTION CENTER TIF 2.: Councilor Poeschl recently asked staff for information related to a prior Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District that housed the Convention Center (what is now the City Center Hotel). These properties were part of TIF # 4 that opened in 1982 and was closed in 2009. As a courtesy to all Council Members, I am attaching a copy of the reports that are required to be filed upon the completion of a TIF District. Please find attached the “TID Final Accounting Report” required by the Department of Revenue, as well as the final audit of the TIF fund that is required at project closure. Please contact Finance Director Steeno if you have any questions regarding the financial documents surrounding this TIF. Weekly Newsletter November 4, 2011 Page 2 CENTRAL GARAGE UPDATE 3.: Among the projects discussed by the Plan Commission during its review of our 2012 Capital Improvements Program (CIP), the Central Garage project was discussed, particularly the proposed location. There may have been some confusion that I am pre- disposed to remaining at the current location for reconstruction of the 65 year old facility. I want to assure Council that I have reached no final conclusion on the proposed site for this project, which has been in the works since before I arrived in 2008. There are certainly advantages to remaining on the site, particularly the buffer that the Central Garage offers to the residential neighborhood to the south, given the location of the wastewater treatment plant, the UW-O biodigester, and FVTC to the north. Additionally, the presence of potentially contaminated soil could result in this property actually having negative value. What I mean by “negative value” is that the price we could potentially receive by selling it in the open market would likely be exceeded by the cost of environmental remediation to make the property marketable for private use. As long as the property remains in the ownership of the city, we are offered more protections than other owners. The Plan Commission would like to consider the adaptive re-uses of the Witzel Avenue site, and we can do that, but we have to consider what it would cost to make that land use change, and how it would fit in with the institutional uses to the north. The main reason that I have not committed to the current location is that we have not even determined if the site can fit all of our facility needs for the next 50 years. Our architect, Kueny Architects of Pleasant Prairie, has been conducting a facility needs analysis, and I have asked them to include other departments and divisions so that we could accommodate many different organizational scenarios that could arise over the life of the facility. Given the age of facilities for the Parks Department and divisions within Transportation, I want to make sure that all facility needs are being met, not just the location of the current tenants of this outdated facility. I also want to consider what may be most economical from an operational standpoint, and our current structure may not reflect future operations. If these future uses can be incorporated into the existing site, with or without the acquisition of additional land surrounding the site, we can give the Witzel site strong consideration. If these long term uses cannot fit into the site, we have to acknowledge that, and consider alternate sites. That is why I am not committed to one site or another. There are numerous advantages to moving to a new site and giving us a “clean slate” for all of the above possible scenarios. Any construction on the Witzel Avenue site would involve a detailed staging of construction, as we would still need to operate our largest field operations out of this facility during construction. It would certainly be easier to develop a new facility on a “green field” site, but before we go and take out prime industrial park land on the north side of town, we need to rule out the redevelopment of the Witzel Avenue site. I hope that this information is useful to Council so that you can appreciate the myriad of considerations that go into the selection of a major municipal services facility. This will be the topic of a future Council Workshop once we receive the final analysis from Kueny. If you have any questions regarding this project, please contact Superintendent Kevin Uhen, Public Works Director David Patek, or me. Weekly Newsletter November 4, 2011 Page 3 DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS & UPDATES 4.: Other items I'm enclosing with today's Newsletter include the latest FOCUS newsletter, a publication of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, which deals with the issue of the federal income tax. Insofar as minutes are concerned, rd I'm enclosing the following: The minutes of the October 3 Sustainability Advisory Board th meeting; the minutes of the October 19 Transit Advisory Board meeting; the minutes of the stth August 31 Board of Health meeting; and the minutes of the September 7 Long Range Finance Committee meeting. th UPCOMING MEETINGS 5.: Meetings I have scheduled for the week of November 7 include the following: On Monday, at 7:30 a.m., I am meeting with Mayor Tower to review Tuesday’s Council Agenda. At 5:30 p.m. that day, I will be attending a special meeting of the School Board to discuss the city’s experience with using the Community Visioning Process to establish goals and priorities for the city. The Oshkosh Area School District is considering pursuing a similar process. On Tuesday, at 8:00 a.m., I will be at Carl Traeger Elementary School to read to students as part of National Young Readers Week. At 10:00 a.m., I am meeting with staff to review the current agreement we have with the Oshkosh Recreation Department for management of Pollock Pool. This agreement is due to expire at the end of 2011, so we are reviewing performance under the agreement to determine if any changes are necessary. On Wednesday, at 7:30 a.m., I will be attending a meeting of the FVTC Oshkosh Campus Advisory Committee. At 12:00 noon that day, I will be hosting City and County Managers from throughout Northeast Wisconsin for the WCMA quarterly regional meeting. On Friday, at 9:30 a.m., I will be attending a Veterans Day ceremony at Oshkosh North High School. If you have any questions regarding my attendance at any of these meetings, please let me know. MAR/jdc Enclosures