City wants townhouses on police, fire station site

With plans for Port Washington’s new public safety building moving ahead rapidly — bids for the $33.5 million project expected to be opened Thursday, Feb. 27 — officials are looking ahead to what will be done with the property where the city’s police and fire stations are now located.

The Plan Commission last week got its first look at a request for qualifications for redevelopment of the 1.6-acre site of the police and fire stations at the corner of Wisconsin and Washington streets as a residential neighborhood.

It’s something Mayor Ted Neitzke, who serves as the commission chairman, said is crucial.

“This process, to me, is really important,” Neitzke said. “I felt it was really crucial for the City of Port Washington to understand, and the council to understand, the value of the land, what would potentially come from the land and, most importantly, what revenue could come from the sale of that property to offset the cost of the police and fire center.”

The draft request for qualifications, which is similar to a request for development proposals, notes that the land will be available for development after the public safety building opens next year.

The cost of the land is negotiable, it states, and it notes that the property is adjacent to the downtown tax incremental financing district.

The existing police and fire stations will need to be torn down, the draft document states.

Whether the city opts to take down those buildings before selling the land or it leaves that up to the buyer has not been determined, Bob Harris, the city’s director of planning and development, said.

The property, he said, is envisioned as a place for as many as 20 townhouses in the city’s downtown master plan.

The townhouse buildings are expected to be between two and three stories high, with architecture that complements the character of downtown Port.

“I think the height is compatible with the surrounding area and the neighbors to the north and west,” Harris said.

Commission member Mike Ehrlich said he likes the idea of townhouses on the property.

“I appreciate the thought of the townhouses,” he said. “I was very concerned it was going to be much more dense. This makes more sense.”

Neitzke said he expects the potential development will create a “bookend and cornerstone” of downtown, a beautiful, quaint neighborhood that will lead redevelopment of the entire area in the coming years.

The draft document calls for requests to be submitted to the city by mid-May, but Harris said the timeline will need to be determined when the commission and Common Council approve the document.

The request should draw a number of developers, he added.

“I think the site and the location kind of sells itself,” Harris said. “There’s not a lot of locations that are one block from Franklin Street and all it offers. There’s a harborwalk, we have beaches and parks less than one mile away and a lakefront and marina three blocks away.

“I think the images (in the request for qualifications) and distances sell themselves and make it a very attractive parcel.”