City RDA, county negotiating over Blackhawk Junction Mall
The west side of Blackhawk Junction Mall houses Suppz Gym, Mississippi Meats, H&R Block and Associated Bank. (Photo by Ted Pennekamp)
By Ted Pennekamp
The Prairie du Chien Redevelopment Authority (RDA), through the city attorney’s office, made a formal, written offer to buy Blackhawk Junction Mall from Crawford County during the county’s Delinquent Tax Committee meeting Monday morning.
City Administrator Chad Abram said the offer is for $400,000 down and then $212,000 to be paid off within five years at 0 percent interest.
The meeting was conducted in closed session, but when the meeting reconvened in open session, the Delinquent Tax Committee approved of a motion to make a counter offer to the RDA.
Lutz said the Delinquent Tax Committee was advised by legal counsel to not mention the terms of the counter offer. Lutz said the RDA and the Delinquent Tax Committee are now negotiating between the two offers. She said the motion to make the counter offer won’t be approved until the next meeting. The Delinquent Tax Committee will then be able to make the information public.
Lutz said the Delinquent Tax Committee could be the entity to vote on whether or not to sell Blackhawk Junction Mall to the RDA. She also said, however, the committee could refer the matter to the full Crawford County Board instead.
During the county’s annual budget hearing on Nov. 12, County Board Supervisor Gerald Krachey said he would not be in favor of selling Blackhawk Junction Mall to the city until the city pays off its debts to the county. One such debt is $126,382.42 for capital projects within the last few years involving communications. The city was billed in July for these projects.
Blackhawk Junction Mall has an assessed value of $3,349,500. The total acreage is 9.131.
The mall was purchased on Oct. 23, 2006, by Blackhawk Junction LLC of Madison. Blackhawk Junction Mall is located at 700 E. Blackhawk Ave., Prairie du Chien.
Blackhawk Junction Mall was foreclosed upon due to delinquent property taxes totalling $488,988. With penalties and interest, the amount owed came to nearly $600,000. The county took ownership of the property in late May.
The $612,000 offered by the RDA would cover the cost of the delinquent taxes, interest and penalties owed by the previous owner plus the costs incurred by the county in cleaning up and repairing portions of the property.
The formal offer by the city RDA to buy Blackhawk Junction Mall culminates a six-month verbal agreement between the city and the county made at a meeting on May 29 whereby the county and city would work together to initiate a strategic development plan for Blackhawk Junction Mall.
At the May 29 meeting, Abram said Blackhawk Junction has strong development potential and the city will hire Vandewalle and Associates, an urban planning company based in Madison, for $8,500 to get a strategic plan in place as soon as possible.
“This property can be a catalytic development,” said Jim Bowman at the May 29 meeting. Bowman is the executive director of Driftless Development Inc., the economic development organization for Crawford County. “I’m confident this development can be something we all can be proud of. This can be an $8 million to $10 million development which can spark further development.”
On May 29, Abram and Bowman said a team consisting of city and county leaders would look at what the needs are for the four businesses currently a part of Blackhawk Junction Mall. He said the team will also encourage new tenants and look into possible housing development on the property.
The west side of Blackhawk Junction Mall houses four businesses including Suppz Gym, Mississippi Meats, H&R Block and Associated Bank. The east side has been vacant for several years.
The county has been taking care of maintenance of the outside of the buildings and snow plowing. The tenants have been handling utilities and the inside of their buildings.
Blackhawk Junction Mall generates about $90,000 in property taxes per year.
