RACINE — The property at 1800 South Memorial Drive has a lot of history — more than 100 years.
It was a motor works, a tractor factory, a lawn mower plant.
Today it’s 13 acres of available land.
Nestled between DeKoven Avenue and 17th Street, the site — now dubbed the Southside Industrial Park — has been awaiting development since 2003. That’s when the city acquired the then-polluted site, cleaning it up and demolishing what was left of the Jacobsen-Textron facility.
Save for a parking lot, a sign and an expanse of grass, the property is basically vacant.
As it turns out, that’s the case with most of the nonresidential land the city owns — about 35 acres of it.
That’s about 35 football fields of land waiting for something new.
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The average Midwesterner in the 21st century — used to big-box stores, cornfield-skirting subdivisions and sprawling corporate campuses just off the Interstate — may not look at central cities as prime spots for new factories, shops or housing developments, but that’s not the case with discerning developers, say local officials.
While cities face real challenges in marketing their land — mainly the real estate crash and the sluggish economy — Brian O’Connell, Racine’s director of city development, said the city’s practice of acquiring blighted land has paid off.
And it’s not just helpful, says O’Connell, it’s necessary.
“I think any city of Racine’s vintage needs to have a program for the redevelopment of land,” he said. “That is where the city can play a role that the market will not. Almost every older city in Wisconsin has a program like this, because they have to.”
Taking the right route
The city may own a lot of land, but O’Connell said the city and its development arm, the Racine Development Authority, don’t go about acquiring parcels willy-nilly. Something has to get the city engaged. And that something is often blight.
It looks at what’s needed for an area, and if necessary, it acts, he said.
“We are not searching for properties because we like to own properties,” he said. “I hate to own properties. It is because no one else can make use of (a property) that we end up getting engaged.”
When the city acquired what are now two adjacent empty lots at 1350 and 1354 State Street from Racine County in 2008, the tax-delinquent buildings were falling apart.
“Literally there was a boarded-up, abandoned building, and it was the poster child for blight,” O’Connell said. “We were constantly being asked, ‘Why do you let that happen? People will get in there, they’ll get hurt.’ So we acted.”
Today the lots, which sit across the street from bus transfer station, are ready for development, and could be ideal locations for restaurants or retail should passenger rail ever find its way back Downtown.
Seeking success
O’Connell said the negative perception that some people have that somehow older cities, like Racine, can’t attract or don’t deserve development is not only unproductive, it’s untrue.
He points to successful redevelopments like the River Bend Lofts, The Atwater at Gaslight Pointe and its high-end condominiums, the Sav-a-lot grocery store and Walgreens on State Street, the Johnson Bank building at Main and Sixth streets — once a vacant lot — and the nearly full Olsen Idustrial Park as examples of success.
He said similar successes can happen with the undeveloped land the city currently owns once the market improves.
“I am often amazed by people who offer that kind of a (negative) comment, because behind that comment is a really pessimistic vision for the City of Racine and other older cities — that you do not see redevelopment, that it is a strange downward spiral,” O’Connell said.
Caledonia businessman Akil Ajmeri is one developer who has set his sights on central Racine.
Later this month, he is expected to close with the city on the purchase of a 1.3-acre vacant lot at 1130 Washington Ave. — the site of the former Schaefer Pontiac dealership.
Ajmeri, who owns several area gas stations, Subway restaurants and liquor stores, all doing business under the name Ayra’s, plans to turn the site into a $1.2 million development that would include a gas station, a Subway, a convenience store that sells alcohol and another retail shop.
He picked the site because it’s on a main highway and in close proximity to businesses like Twin Disc and Modine Manufacturing. He plans to put a conference room in the back of the restaurant for people looking to hold lunch meetings.
“I think it’s a win-win situation,” Ajmeri said. “White-collar people will come, blue-collar will come, neighborhood people will come.”
Waiting
O’Connell says that the city isn’t just looking to get rid of the land it owns. It wants to make sure the projects it picks for those pieces make sense.
While in the case of Southside Industrial Park, that means industry, when it comes to other sites, such as the former Homeward Bound site at 1014 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, that means residential development.
O’Connell admits finding a housing developer right now, given the current economic climate, isn’t easy, but that doesn’t mean the city is giving up.
It’s just waiting.
“The best thing for us to do right now is hold onto the land,” he said, “and wait for (the market) to come back.”
THE LAND
The city owns about 15 pieces of nonresidential property. Most of the buildings it has acquired have been demolished.
The city pays a contractor about $25,000 a year to maintain the vacant sites.
To see a map and photos, visit www.journaltimes.com.
Here are some of the properties:
1800 S. Memorial Drive (The Southside Industrial Park) — 13 acres
Once home to a variety of manufacturers, the city acquired the land about nine years ago, demolishing the Jacobsen Manufacturing plant, cleaning up the soil, and installing a parking lot and other infrastructure.
1014 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. — 2.3 acres
The site of the Danish Old Folks Home and later a homeless shelter, the city bought the site for $190,000 in 2007 at a sheriff’s auction. Goal: residential development.
734 S. Marquette Ave. — 1.3 acres
The city acquired the land — once part of the Racine Manufacturing Co. — in 2004. It was already vacant at that time, and the city initially wanted to see a townhome development there. Today it rents the land to the Racine Urban Garden Network for a dollar a year.
1350-1354 State St. — 0.1 acres
The city acquired and demolished the vacant buildings — an old real estate office and a tavern — in 2007. Goal: retail or mixed use development.
1321 State St. — 1.2 acres
Located at the corner of State and Silver streets, it was once a car repair shop. Goal: mixed use development.
3124 Washington Ave. — 0.1 acres
Once home to an auto repair shop, the site could be used for a small retail development or a parking lot or green space should a larger development come to the area.
3100 block of Washington Avenue — 1.4 acres
The city acquired the site in 2005, knocking down a blighted building that sat on the block. Today the West Racine Farmers Market uses the land.
1129 Michigan Blvd. — 9 acres
The city purchased the property, once home to Walker Manufacturing, in 1999 for $1.7 million. A few years ago, a Milwaukee developer had plans to construct Pointe Blue at the site — a development that would have included 424 lakefront condominiums, restaurants and offices.