By Neil Johnson njohnson@gazettextra.com March 24, 2022

 

JANESVILLE 

The Janesville City Council is considering buying the former Sears property at Uptown Janesville for $1 and tearing it down to build a new, two-sheet ice arena and conference center in its place.

On Monday, at the final city council meeting before the April 5 election, the council will be asked to vote on a purchase agreement that ultimately would allow the city to buy the 100,000-square-foot former Sears building at the mall.
 
The move would put the property at 2500 Milton Ave. under contract to be transferred to city ownership at a time when consultants the city has hired need to access to the Sears property to launch a design and cost and analysis on the proposed Woodman’s Community Center ice arena project, council President Douglas Marklein said in an interview Thursday.

That’s consulting work the city already has sought using $2 million in COVID-19 relief grant funding, but the work won’t be completed for months, and the city hasn’t yet agreed to move forward on the project.

Under a resolution that is set for a vote Monday, the council is being asked to authorize city administration to move toward closing on the property. The deal has a built-in provision that allows the city to return the Sears property to the mall’s owner, RockStep Capital, if the council decides not to move forward with the ice arena, according to a city memo.

Uptown Janesville owner RockStep Capital has had a standing offer to give the city the former Sears property, which has been vacant years but physically anchors the mall’s center concourse area.

So far, that offer has been RockStep’s major involvement in a public-private proposal to bring the project being called the Woodman’s Community Center to the mall property.

While the city hasn’t agreed to go forward with the project, it philosophically has committed to shoulder up to $15 million in borrowing to make the project a go. That’s if a private-side stakeholders group, the Friends of the Indoor Sports Complex, can raise at least $7 million to kick into the project while the city pursues several million dollars in grant funding to fuel the project.

Conveyance of the property would be advantageous for the mall’s owner because under ownership of the property, the city would shoulder the cost of the Sears building’s removal, work that would be part and parcel to building a new ice arena the city estimates could cost between $28 and $31 million.

Under current timelines, the city could expect its consultants to hand the city a cost and design analysis in December. If the council then decides to bid out the ice arena project, it would could make a final decision on whether to move forward on the ice arena sometime in the spring of 2023.

Marklein said the resolution does not bind the city to buy or continue ownership of the Sears property if the council were to decide not to pursue a new ice arena.

“You should not read into this that now we own the site, and so that automatically means we have to do the project,” Marklein said.

Marklein explained that the resolution essentially says the city has “locked up” the Sears property.

“In the event that the ice arena project goes forward, we’re ready to go,” he said. “But at the same time, if it’s decided at some point the project is a no-go, then the city’s not saddled with owning the building. It goes back for $1 to RockStep.”

The deal is written in a way that requires both parties to agree to the terms, and RockStep is also required to get anchor tenants at the mall to sign off on the deal, according to the resolution.

Some city council members and candidates running for three open seats on the council in the April 5 election had publicly voiced trepidation over the city getting too deep into plans for an ice arena before RockStep Capital, has formalized any agreement to transfer the property to the city.

The resolution slated on the council’s docket Monday is marked as a “consent agenda” item, which means it’s not set for discussion by the council prior to a vote.

Marklein said he expects more than one council member to move to pull the item aside for discussion Monday before a vote.

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