RACINE - Now that Tri City National Bank owns the vacant former Zahn's Department Store on Monument Square, the building's future may be twice as bright.

Because it just got twice as cheap.

Tri City Chief Executive Officer Ron Puetz said he's willing to take a far lower offer than the current $1.99 million asking price.

"The first million dollars takes it," he said.

The current asking price equates to $50.25 per square foot, according to the listing at http://www.colliers.com.

The property includes an adjacent vacant lot on Monument Square.

The four-story structure was built in 1925 and, for much of the last century, operated as Zahn's Department Store. But it has stood vacant for 28 years, since the bankrupt Zahn's closed in 1981.

The now-defunct Bank of Elmwood bought the building and intended to make it the home of the Imaginarium children's museum, a well-intentioned but poorly executed concept that never came to fruition. The Imaginarium fizzled before Bukacek Construction had finished a sweeping rehab of the old building, and Bukacek and the Bank of Elmwood ended up fighting over the bills in court.

About six years ago, an investor group planned to turn the structure into the $7 million Monument Square Hotel.

But that plan disintegrated when the Bank of Elmwood would not drop its asking price. The bank put the building back on the market for $2.5 million.

Now it's available for a fraction of that.

Because there is about $101 million in Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. money involved in the Bank of Elmwood acquisition, Puetz said Tri City is able to discount the properties and foreclosures it inherited.

About the former Zahn's, he said, "We've have our real estate guy in there. ... (Bukacek) did a wonderful job. It's in great shape."

Without dropping the price, Tri City could end up holding the building for several more years, Puetz said.

He added, "That's not our strategy."