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AVENUE OF DREAMS

Oshkosh resurrects downtown sector

Pearl Avenue redevelopment breathes new life into area

By Sean Ryan
Daily Reporter Staff

Oshkosh's downtown redevelopment is focused on the area between the two bridges on the east (right) shore of the Fox River. The city created a tax-incremental-finance district in the area to help cover infrastructure work along Pearl Avenue and Marion Road.

Photo courtesy of the city of Oshkosh

Oshkosh city planners are polishing up industrial properties along Pearl Avenue in the city's downtown and casting them before developers in a long-awaited effort to sprout new projects along the Fox River.

"The area along the river is an older industrial area," said Oshkosh Public Works Director David Patek. "It's been on the city's long-range plans as a place that needs to be redeveloped and changed from an industrial to a mixed-use commercial area next to the (University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh) campus, and, as you transition away from the campus, into multifamily developments."

City officials began the redevelopment by moving industrial businesses away from the riverfront and renovating the vacated lots.

The city used about $550,000 worth of brownfields and site-assessment grants from the state departments of Natural Resources and Commerce to get the job done.

While Oshkosh was renovating and restoring the land, it also spent $1.8 million between 2000 and 2002 updating Pearl Avenue's utilities and infrastructure, Patek said.

"(The scheduling) all has to work out as far as industries going out of business and selling their property or relocating to an industrial park," he said. "We had a substantial contract and some substantial work done as far as building demolition and business relocation."

Four developers answered the call when the city put out a request for proposals for the first two restored lots, said Jackson Kinney, Oshkosh's director of community development. The city accepted two proposals from Oshkosh developer D&F Investments: Radford Village, a multifamily apartment, and Radford Square, a 21,000-square-foot strip mall that will open this fall.
"The initial developers that came in deserve a lot of credit," Kinney said. "They will be the catalyst for better development in the future. We're seeing more interest now from developers."

Opportunity knocks

The city has already demolished the vacant Universal Foundry building to clear room for new projects to be built next year. The foundry is located on Marion Road, which will receive $850,000 of infrastructure improvements in spring 2003.

Photo courtesy of the city of Oshkosh

Developers were eyeing Pearl Avenue for years but nobody moved in until the city committed itself to clearing out the industries and cleaning up the property, said Dennis Schwab, partner in D&F Investments and owner of Oshkosh-based Schwab Properties LLC. The city made the property affordable by demolishing the industrial buildings and cleaning up the sites so developers wouldn't need to.

"I don't think anyone would have been able to take on this project without the city," Schwab said. "The site sat there for several years but nobody moved in until the city got started."

The city is in negotiations to remove the last two industrial businesses from the redevelopment area. Kinney said he would appeal to the state for more grants to clear up the lots when the time comes.

He said the city would put out RFPs for one renovated land parcel on Pearl Avenue in the next few months. Other RFPs would go out for the remaining lots before the end of the year, so work could begin in 2003.

"The rest of the area is going to see a combination of commercial and residential," he said. "Residential is still going to dominate."

Patek said the city will also spend $850,000 next spring to repave Marion Road, which runs parallel to Pearl Avenue in the downtown area. Bids will be available this fall.

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