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Committee moves into closed session to consider offer for Marathon Hall dormitory
Summary
Committee voted to go into closed session under Wisconsin law to deliberate negotiating strategy on a purchase proposal for the Marathon Hall dormitory at 518 S. 17th Ave., Wausau, from a nonprofit proposing refugee and supportive housing uses.
The Marathon County infrastructure committee voted to go into closed session to discuss a written offer to purchase the Marathon Hall dormitory at 518 South Seventeenth Avenue in Wausau and to deliberate negotiation strategy and sale-price thresholds.
Administrator Leonard told the committee the offer — from the Ethiopian Community Development Council (described in committee materials as a multicultural community center) — proposed a nominal purchase price and outlined uses including “temporary housing for newly arrived refugee families, also supportive housing for college students, including international and generation students, short term housing for working single unhoused women, and affordable office space for local nonprofit organizations, and finally, a community gathering and workforce development space.”
Leonard said the proposal also included a requirement that the county would have the opportunity to accept a transfer of ownership back to the county if the purchaser ceased operations or no longer used the facility. He briefed the committee on prior county work to solicit redevelopment proposals for the dormitory in 2020; that earlier request for proposals received no viable responses.
Because the offer involves bargaining positions and possible price thresholds, Leonard and Corporation Counsel recommended using the statutory exception for competitive or bargaining reasons. The committee invoked Wis. Stat. § 19.85(1)(e) and moved into closed session for deliberations. The committee later returned to open session.
Why it matters: The Marathon Hall building has been the subject of past county redevelopment outreach, and a sale with restrictive reversion language or programmatic uses could affect county liabilities, oversight responsibilities and long-term availability of the facility.
What happened next: The committee’s closed-session motion passed on a roll-call vote. The meeting record shows roll-call ayes from members in attendance. The county administrator was authorized to receive direction from the committee for further negotiation, with any formal sale or counteroffer to be brought back for committee or full-board action as required by law.
