City plans to light fire with Uptown project

Thursday, February 8, 2007 2:05 AM CST

Poor Uptown Racine's been down so long that everything must look like up from there.

Even its niche as an antiques alley, a second-hand haven, suffered a one-two punch late last year. Needful Things Antiques closed last fall, leaving behind two empty storefronts. Bizarre Bazaar suffered the same fate, leaving another.

When the state rebuilt that section of Highway 20, Uptown couldn't even plant street trees, as we noted here previously. There was too little non-street space, and what little existed was congested by underground utilities.

Making all of this more painfully evident is the fact that Uptown is on display, for better or worse, to visitors who approach Downtown or Lake Michigan on Racine's main entry route from the west.

So that was part of the backdrop when Racine Mayor

Gary Becker

decided to kick-start some kind of progress in Uptown.

The resulting plan is to get a particular building into city hands, revamp it top to bottom and inside and out, find some tenants for it - and hope that acts as a catalyst for additional improvements.

The Uptown improvement plan calls for a demonstration project. Becker set his sights on the three-story structure at 1526 Washington Ave., just east of South Memorial Drive. The attractions were its high visibility to incoming traffic, and its decrepit condition.

"If we don't get involved, there's no way a private investor could make it happen," he said. "... Otherwise it will sit and (remain) an eyesore."

New Day Drum & Bugle Corps owns the structure - although there's a pile of liens on it hundreds of thousands of dollars tall. The liens partly stem from the days when bingo games were held there. It's a long story.

Anyway, that means the owners will be glad to dump the unused, unheated building, get out from under those liens and walk away clear of those entanglements.

That's where the city comes in, and tool will be condemnation. The hope is to start that process next month.

Condemnation can take years (see Exhibit A, 410 Main St.). However, this one should go uncontested and proceed much more quickly. The owners realize they have nothing to gain by contesting a purchase offer from the city.

Becker said the money - at least for buying the building - will come from a $300,000 pot of state development money designated for Racine's "gateway" corridors. That fund has gone untapped. Becker said he got tired of waiting for someone from State Street, Douglas Avenue or Uptown to request money for a project. "My patience has run out," he said.

Once the city owns it, the hope is to rehab the rundown structure - although no one has performed a detailed analysis of those costs yet.

If the rehab costs are too high and the building has to be razed, "We're going to have to pay for that anyway," Becker said. "At least this way we can control the situation."

At some point the city would sell the resurrected building. As for how to use it, Becker and City Development Director

Brian O'Connell

both think artist live-work lofts could work there; artists are often the pioneers in reviving a decayed neighborhood.

The city also has two nonprofit tenants lined up, ready and willing to move their offices into the building: Neighborhood Housing Services and

Kristin Niemiec

of Racine County Economic Development Corp.

Although she works for RCEDC, Niemiec is the city's commercial corridor specialist. Despite Uptown's recent decades of doldrums, she predicted, "It's going to be the next area to watch."

Business reporter Michael Burke can be reached at (262)631-1716 or by e-mail at mburke@journaltimes.com.

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