City mulls future of former downtown SIST property

Grant money being sought for downtown plaza concept
By: 
Tim Ryan
Reporter

SHAWANO — It’s official. The city of Shawano now owns two blighted and dilapidated buildings formerly owned by the Samanta Roy Institute of Science and Technology.

The question now is, what will the city do with that property?

One option being explored would revive the pedestrian plaza concept previously floated in the downtown strategic plan and finding a way to link it to nearby Franklin Park.

The Shawano Redevelopment Authority reached an agreement with SIST in April to purchase the buildings at 214-216 S. Main St. for $36,000, a price considered fair market value.

The RDA, a semi-independent panel tasked with addressing vacant and blighted buildings in the city, filed a condemnation petition in March against the long-vacant SIST properties at 214-216 S. Main St. and 143-145 S. Main St., citing building inspections that raised health and safety concerns.

The matter had been slated for a condemnation hearing in court, but an agreement was ultimately reached that called for the city to purchase the buildings at 214-216 S. Main St. and let SIST keep the properties at 143-145 S. Main St. for the time being in hopes of eventually rehabilitating them.

Under the agreement, SIST has two years to do that.

An award of compensation documenting the city’s ownership of 214-216 S. Main St. was filed Oct. 31 in the Shawano County Register of Deeds office.

The buildings on that site will eventually be torn down, according to City Administrator Eddie Sheppard.

“We believe the buildings are way beyond saving,” he said.

The possibility of a developer putting a new building on the property is unlikely.

“The issue is, people just don’t build those downtown-type buildings anymore,” Sheppard said. “Once you’ve lost those older buildings, they’re not going to redevelop.”

The city is looking into possible grant funding for the plaza concept through the state Department of Administration’s Public Facilities Program, which is aimed at improving community buildings and infrastructure in areas that meet low to moderate income requirements.

The program provides a matching grant that would be double the money the city would put up for it, if it’s approved.

The city is also exploring whether it can use existing Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds previously awarded to the city as its share of the matching grant.

The city has about $497,000 in available CDBG funds, which have to be used before the state phases out the CDBG program in February 2021.

If the grant is approved using that money as the city’s share, the Public Facilities Program could award more than $994,000 toward the plaza concept.

It’s not yet certain the city can use its CDBG funds that way, but, according to Sheppard, initial research into the idea suggests it’s a possibility.

“We don’t know,” he said. “It’s still too early to tell if that’s something that’s conceivable, or if we’re even going to have the application approved.”

That process will take through roughly February, Sheppard said.

There are no plans to demolish the buildings before then.

“Having the two dilapidated buildings there strengthens our grant application,” Sheppard said. “If approved, it could also pay for their demolition. Early next spring, we’ll deal with the buildings one way or another.”

If the grant is rejected, the city would look at other options and could use its existing CDBG fund balance for that purpose.

“Or if the (plaza) project becomes just not feasible, we can still use those funds for local infrastructure,” Sheppard said.

The money would likely go to local road projects in the city’s 2021 capital improvements program.

The preferred option is still creating a downtown plaza or some kind of public space that would be tied into Franklin Park.

“I think utilizing that space as a downtown center to support Franklin Park would be something that would be pretty neat for Shawano,” Sheppard said. “We feel that could be a nice bridge to downtown and make that our kind of downtown center area.”

There would be some hurdles to work out, however. Chief among them would be figuring out how to physically connect the plaza to Franklin Park.

Any pedestrian pathway would have to cross Main Street, which is also a state highway.

“Crossing Main Street would be a problem,” Sheppard said, adding that everything right now is still at the conceptual stage.

“Certainly we would have to do something to improve the safety factor there or the awareness there,” he said. “That is a hurdle for sure.”