Kandu is selling both the Armory and the Pontiac Convention Center

Neil Johnson, The Janesville Gazette, Wis.
·4 min read

Sep. 5—JANESVILLE — For those who might want to test the waters in Janesville's banquet and convention sector, two well-known local catering and event halls are now up for sale.

Owner KANDU Industries is selling both the Pontiac Convention Center on the city's east side and the Armory downtown in a move the nonprofit's top executive says would divest KANDU of a collective 30,000 square feet of real estate with an assessed value of $1.35 million, according to city tax records.

KANDU Executive Director Kathy Hansen said that Best Events, KANDU's catering division that for most of the last decade has operated the banquet hall and convention properties, is shifting toward mostly off-site event catering.

Hansen said KANDU has weathered the COVID-19 pandemic and changes in how businesses, wedding parties and event promoters wish to put on local events. She said over the last year, KANDU's Best Events has increasingly begun handling about 85 percent of its catering business off site.

Even as KANDU has started to see an uptick this spring and summer in bookings of weddings and local company banquets and gala events, the public health crisis has left the two-story Armory, at 10 S. High St., and the Pontiac, at 2809 N. Pontiac Drive, virtually unused for much of the past 18 months, Hansen said.

Hansen, who has been at the helm of KANDU since early this year, said the company has bookings at its two convention halls through the end of this year. Nevertheless, both properties are up for sale as KANDU and its board of directors eye possible expansion and consolidation of some operations at the company's 1741 Adel St. location.

KANDU's catering division has run events and conventions out of the Pontiac Convention Center since KANDU bought the building in 2012. KANDU has owned and operated the Armory since 2015.

Hansen said both sites are being marketed as possible event halls, although she said some buyers already have showed interest in other possible uses of the properties.

"We're paying taxes and utilities on the buildings but we've not been utilizing them like we had in the past. But both are fantastic buildings and are in great locations, we think," Hansen said. "With the market improving—things are selling and people are again starting to invest—we took a look at 'Should we do this, should we sell these properties?' We decided the timing is right."

Best Events will continue to operate a kitchen and preparation facility on Center Avenue, but KANDU has room at its Adel Street headquarters to merge all its operations "under one roof," Hansen said.

The 12,000 square-foot, brick-and-block Armory originally was built in the 1930s for use by the U.S. Army's 32nd Tank Division of Wisconsin. A designated historical site, the property has in the recent past hosted dinner theater groups and other events. During the 2016 U.S. Presidential campaign, the local Republican Party rented out the Armory to host televised rallies by then-Presidential candidates Ted Cruz and John Kasich.

The Pontiac Convention Center, originally built in the 1970s as a roller skating rink, was converted to a convention hall in 2007.

The Armory is located across the street from another high-profile, yet recently disused property along West Milwaukee Street—the six-story, former Monterey Hotel. The Art Deco hotel is now being gutted with plans by its owner to revamp the property as market-rate apartments.

Hansen believes the revival of the Monterey might in turn boost the Armory's prospects for resale.

Hansen said since the properties went on the market this summer, several interested parties have come forward with most indicating they would want to continue to use the properties as banquet and event halls. But she said other possible future uses include a church, brewery, winery or museum.

"We haven't marketed them for specifically anything, other than a buyer could use them for a lot of things. It's all over the board, little interests here and there," Hansen said. "I will tell you that our board is committed to a good business going in both places. We want the uses to be good for Janesville, so we're not going to just let anybody buy these properties just so we can get rid of them."