Wisconsin puts 60 acres of state-owned land up for sale in CF

Mar. 3—CHIPPEWA FALLS — The Wisconsin's Department of Administration has placed 62 acres of state-owned land for sale in the southeast corner of Chippewa Falls, along Seymour Cray Boulevard, that is part of the Northern Wisconsin Center.

Charlie Walker, Chippewa County Economic Development Corporation executive director, said the land has been divided into five lots, with land on both the east and west side of Seymour Cray Boulevard, also known as Highway 178. It is generally southwest of the Wisconsin Veteran Home; the land is managed by the state's Department of Health Services. The DOA is assisting DHS in selling the property, and has valued it at $35,000 per acre. Walker said his organization has been asked to help aggressively market the land and get bids to DOA and DHS.

"It's real exciting. We're taking land that hasn't been on the tax rolls and moving it onto the tax rolls," Walker said. "We know there has been a lot of interest in that land from a variety of companies. It will be interesting to see what bids come in. Anytime you can get prime land on Seymour Cray, with those traffic counts, that is a valued location."

Chippewa Falls Mayor Greg Hoffman agreed this is good news. The city has been hoping to line up new development along that corridor, near the new Chippewa Falls fire station.

"It's great the state has put it on the market," Hoffman said. "I have realtors and developers saying they don't have places to expand. It's a great deal for the city. We'll see how the bids come in."

While some of the parcels have an asking price of $35,000 per acre, Hoffman said the entire state land is 89 acres, and on an average, would have a price of $26,100 per acre.

Hoffman can't say if the city would be interested in putting in a bid; he said he can't divulge discussions that happened in closed session.

Walker said the Department of Administration will evaluate all the offers and likely select the best plan, but it is possible the DOA could reject all bids. Walker said he could see anything going there from a housing development to office space to an industrial building.

"That area has been looked at as possibly a future industrial park," he said. "(The state) will probably look at how quickly land would go back on the tax rolls."

Walker added he doesn't know the timeline of when the winning bid will be selected, but reiterated that bids are due to the Department of Health Services by April 15.

The state owns more property in the area, but is first marketing the land directly adjacent to the highway.

"If it goes quick, and develops quick, they can sell more of it," Walker said.

The biggest problem for a buyer is a lack of water and sewer lines to that area, so any plan will have to go before the City Council and meet the zoning requirements established by Chippewa Falls. Some of the land is wooded and would need to be cleared as well.

There has been discussions in the past of possibly expanding the state's footprint at the Wisconsin Veterans Home campus. Walker said the state is not marketing the land directly adjacent to the veterans home, and this land sale won't affect any possible future plans there.

Walker said he first tried getting the state to sell the land during the Gov. Jim Doyle administration, then worked on it with Gov. Scott Walker's team.

"It's been a long time coming," he said. "We've tried to do some property swaps over the years. It's gone through a lot of administrations; I guess you can say government moves really slow. I give credit to the (Gov. Tony) Evers administration for moving forward on this."

To learn more, visit doa.wi.gov/Pages/DoingBusiness/Buy-Underutilized-Real-Property.aspx.