Planners clear way for complex along river
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff Writer
After years of holding abandoned concrete towers and then becoming barren, overgrown ground, the vacant lot once marked for a business development along the city’s Riverwalk could be active once again.
The City of Burlington Plan Commission approved the first step of finally developing the property at 200 Bridge Street by recommending rezoning the property from B-1 neighborhood business district to RM-4 multi-family district.
Bear Development out of Kenosha, headed by S.R. Mills, wants to take the land and develop two 24-unit apartment units on the site.
“This is the first step in their plan to go forward,” said Burlington Mayor Bob Miller on Tuesday. “They need to get the land rezoned in order to get the financing to fall into place.
“The deal is still pending,” regarding the sale of the land, Miller added.
The land at 200 Bridge Street at the base of the overpass has been in a state of flux since 2006, when Charles Mesec purchased the property and intended to develop it as a combination dental office and restaurant.
However, as Miller explained, “the whole concept basically fell apart.” After a partner backed out of the project, Mesec still broke ground on the project in 2007, but construction stalled on the $3 million, 27,000-square-foot project.
With liens filed against the property because construction companies had not been paid for the minimal work completed – namely two, three-story concrete shafts designed to house either staircases or elevators – the project fell apart.
Mesec signed the property over to Magil Construction, and the towers were eventually torn down in the fall of 2009.
However, the concrete foundation footprints remain, and now it appears at least Bear Development thinks it has a viable business plan.
Mills said Tuesday night – following unanimous approval of the zoning switch –that rental property in Burlington has traditionally done well.
“This has performed very strong on the market,” said Mills. “Based on the historical success of the rental market in Burlington, this will be a nice addition.”
The new development would be just south of the Boardwalk Apartment complex, which has thrived in its location along the river.
Mills said plans are to start phase one of the project – 24 of the units – in the summer of 2013, if everything comes together.
“We have some things to do to line up our equity and debt,” said Mills, who added he is expecting a 10-month construction cycle.
From there, the developer will wait and see how the market takes to those first 24 units, but he hopes that the second phase would almost immediately follow the first.
“We wouldn’t be spending time and energy to proceed if we didn’t think we had a high likelihood of success,” Mills said.
He added that another development he has in Burlington, Bear Arbor, has less than 2 percent vacancy in its 96 units right now.
“We think we can come in and bring a solution (for this property),” Mills explained. “And Burlington is a great city.”
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