Renovation of downtown Menasha office building adds to the city's inventory of apartments
MENASHA - The city has agreed to provide more than $500,000 to assist with the redevelopment of the former Anchor Bank building at 130 Main St. into commercial space and apartments.
The project is called Harbor Lofts and will have an estimated value of $3.1 million.
Dark Horse Development of Menasha owns the 33,000-square-foot building. The basement and first floor will be renovated as commercial space, and the second and third floors and a new fourth floor will be turned into 14 apartments.
"The fourth-floor addition will be part of the third-floor loft units with common apartment space on the third floor and the bedroom and master bath part of the loft addition on the top floor," said Cole Alsbach, vice president of operations for Dark Horse Development. "Two of the seven loft units will also feature a patio/deck, providing a beautiful view of Main Street and the marina."
The city's $500,000 development incentive will be funded through an expansion of Tax Incremental Financing District 13. The amount represents 20% of the incremental value of the project. The money will be paid over 10 years after sufficient property taxes on the new development have been collected.
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Menasha now has four redevelopment projects in the works that will add 118 apartments to the central business district. The total consists of 43 apartments at The Brin, 1 Main St.; 34 apartments at the Banta site, 460 Ahnaip St.; 27 apartments at Discovery Pointe, 225 Main; and 14 apartments at Harbor Lofts.
"Everywhere, it seems, there's a huge shortage of housing," Community Development Director Sam Schroeder told The Post-Crescent. "Adding a good population of housing downtown will also spur additional economic development as well as expendable income to support downtown businesses, retail (shops) and restaurants."
Hoffman Planning, Design & Construction of Appleton is carrying out the renovation of the Harbor Lofts building, which dates to 1986. The entire interior will be redone. Exterior work includes staining the brick and installing new windows.
Annika Schuller-Rach, project manager for Hoffman, said the renovation and addition will be completed later this year.
"Once the transformation is complete, we’ll have a distinct new building that will be part of the Menasha landscape for decades to come," she said.
Common Council member Stan Sevenich questioned whether the staining of the brick would hold up years from now.
"I just want some type of guarantee that if we color this building, that this is something that you can prove to me that it's been done elsewhere and it isn't flaking or it isn't coming off or anything because I'd rather just see the brick as is, if that's going to be the case," Sevenich said.
The council unanimously passed the new development agreement with Dark Horse Development.
Contact Duke Behnke at 920-993-7176 or dbehnke@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DukeBehnke.
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This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Former Anchor Bank in Menasha to become apartments, commercial space
