Marathon County staff outline offers and site options for relocating highway facility in Kronenwetter; committees vote to go into closed session

Marathon County staff on Tuesday presented appraisals and three offers to purchase parcels in the Village of Kronenwetter as potential locations for a relocated county highway facility and the Human Resources, Finance and Property Committee and the Infrastructure Committee voted separately to go into closed session to discuss negotiating strategy.

County facilities manager Jim Grisbach and appraiser Noah Phillips summarized redevelopment options for the county’s existing highway site and compared costs and values for moving to a new site. Phillips said an appraisal scenario that assumes clearing all buildings and selling 12.39 acres as vacant development land produced values “about a hundred thousand dollars an acre.”

The presentations matter because the county could either rebuild at its existing site or sell that property and buy new land. Noah Phillips told the committees that subdividing frontage along Seventeenth Street would likely produce much higher per-acre prices than selling the 12.39-acre parcel as a single lot, increasing potential return if the county pursued phased commercial and multifamily redevelopment.

County staff provided three specific offers that are before the committees: a 6.17-acre parcel (PIN ending in 0958) with a $205,000 offer and an early-May closing date noted in one offer; an 8.167-acre parcel with a nonnegotiable price of $400,183; and a 3.868-acre parcel with an offer of $189,352. Combined those three offers total 18.205 acres and $794,715, according to staff.

Grisbach and Phillips also presented estimated values for the county’s current site. Phillips said selling the 12.39 acres cleared of buildings was valued at about $1,240,000 in his analysis; two standing buildings that staff considered retaining were valued together at $1,380,000; and selling all buildings on the site produced an estimated value of $2,285,000.

On projected construction costs, staff showed a contractor’s rough estimate for rebuilding on the existing site at about $42,682,000; that total included roughly $5,000,000 attributed specifically to relocating the Mosinee highway shop if the county were to consolidate facilities.

Several committee members and staff discussed operational considerations. Chad (a Village of Kronenwetter zoning official) told the committees that the three parcels in the offers are zoned B3 (commercial) and utilities are available; he said a highway department is treated as a public service use and is permitted across zoning districts in the village code, but having multiple zoning districts on one campus complicates design standards and accessory-structure rules. Chad noted the village’s comprehensive plan’s future land-use map designates the area as commercial.

Committee members raised access and traffic concerns at the nearby interchange. A county staffer noted the bridge and wide shoulder at the Cedar Creek interchange could be used by large vehicles to gain speed when merging, and said the county could design access with turn lanes if traffic volumes warrant.

Staff also identified adjacent parcels not yet under contract that, if acquired, would expand developable acreage to roughly 24 acres — the acreage a consultant had suggested would be comparable to other county sites. Staff noted some adjacent parcels contain residences and one has a collapsed shed; those parcels would need rezoning or consolidation to create a single campus.

After the public discussion in open session, committees considered how to proceed. Chair Gibbs moved that the Human Resources, Finance and Property Committee go into closed session under Wisconsin Statutes 19.85(1)(e) to deliberate negotiating strategy for purchase of identified parcels in the Village of Kronenwetter. The motion was seconded by Supervisor Marissa Marshall and approved by roll call in that committee. A parallel motion for the Infrastructure Committee, moved by Vice Chair Dickinson and seconded by Supervisor Seibert, also passed by roll call. Both committees recessed to closed session to discuss negotiation strategy and potential purchase terms.

The committees did not take any final public action on sale or purchase terms before recessing; staff said one offer in the packet expires in May and promised to provide additional review of the two offers that arrived the morning of the meeting. Staff also said two offers that were briefed on the record contain differing terms; one reportedly included a restriction tied to future use that staff said they would review with the offerors’ attorneys.

Committee members and staff indicated next steps would include corporation counsel review of the newly received offers, further due diligence, and potential additional discussion in closed session before making a public recommendation to the full county board.