Council OKs city land deal done behind closed doors

Port Washington aldermen who have yet to discuss publicly the proposals the city received last year for the redevelopment of public land that is the site of the current police and fire stations voted last week to sell the property to PFD Redevelopment after meeting again in closed session.

Officials gave no indication of why they selected PFD Redevelopment’s proposal over those submitted by Ansay Development or Neumann Companies and did not comment in open session on the sale of the land at the corner of Pier and Wisconsin streets, which will be vacated when the police and fire departments move into the new public safety building on the city’s west side.

The agreement approved by the Common Council on May 19 by a 6-1 vote with Ald. Michael Beaster dissenting calls for the city to receive $465,000 for the property but specifies that the city will reimburse the developer for the cost of moving and burying power lines to the property and demolishing the police and fire stations.

These costs are capped at $464,999, Mayor Ted Neitzke said, so if the costs meet or exceed the cap, the city will net $1 for the sale of the property.

According to an addendum to the purchase agreement, those costs could exceed that cap. The cost of environmental testing and a site assessment, demolition and burying or removing the power lines is estimated at $440,500.

Other potential costs that could be reimbursed, including disconnecting utilities before demolition, abatement of any building materials such as asbestos, could reach $140,000, according to the document.

Neitzke said that the agreement moves the risk of excessive costs for the work from the city to the developer.

“Either we would have to spend the money or the developer would. This puts the city in a position where we are not incurring costs for the work,” Neitzke said. “There is no tax incremental financing district. We won’t have a blighted, empty building.”

The agreement calls for the sale to be completed by Sept. 15, and Neitzke said the developer will begin work in fall.

The police and fire departments are expected to move into the public safety building in July or August, he said.

“We will do a rapid turnover,” Neitzke said.

This was the fourth time the Common Council met in closed session to consider the redevelopment proposals, which were submitted to the city in September. Aldermen have yet to discuss the proposal in an open meeting.

Neitzke and Ald. Dan Benning said Thursday that aldermen followed the recommendation of city staff members who vetted the three proposals in deciding which firm to work with.

“We followed the administrative lead,” Neitzke said. “We followed the process that was laid out for us.”

Benning said, “It was a financial discussion with our administrative staff making a recommendation to us.”

Beaster said in a statement that he voted against the agreement because, even though the tax benefits are “tantalizing,” he believes residents are tired of subsidies for luxury projects “in this case with essentially gifted land rather than TIFs.”

“I would have liked to see alternate uses for this property presented,” he wrote, saying the city should prioritize housing that will attract middle class and working class families.

PFD Redevelopment — an entity comprised of Fine Line Carpentry of Port Washington and two partners, Paul Schueller and Peter Herrmann, who each own houses next to the site — proposed creating The Seven Hills Collection, which would have 20 townhouses in nine buildings — eight buildings of two units and one of four units — with a public courtyard and green space.

Four different, complementary designs would be used for the buildings, which would vary from three to four stories. Units would range from 2,175 square feet to 2,817 square feet.

The proposal calls for completion of the project in the spring of 2029, with the value of the project projected at $16 million.

Ansay Development had proposed a 20-townhouse development for the site.

Ansay offered two development paths for the proposal — one that would provide market rate housing with an average price of $700,000 for each townhouse and the other to provide affordable housing, with the average sale price of $438,000. However, this plan would have required $3.5 million in tax incremental financing for the project.

Neumann Companies provided a plan for 18 condominium units to be built — two five-unit buildings fronting Wisconsin Street and one four-unit building each along Washington and Jackson streets.

The buildings would be two to three stories, and the units would range from 1,400 to 1,900 square feet. Prices would begin in the high $400,000s.