WAUSAU, WI (WSAU-WAOW) – A $4-million loan that Wausau was going to use to revitalize the Wausau Center Mall was ‘re-purposed’ to other economic development project in the city. Wausau took out the loan in 2016 to assist the mall owner in revitalizing after two anchor stores moved out. But the deal never went through.
Instead the city said they used that money to purchase the Sears building, extend Fulton Street and to develop the downtown riverfront.
How the money breaks down:
$650,000 for the Sears building.
$750,000 to extend Fulton Street.
$2,740,000 went to Frantz Community Investors to develop the riverfront. Frantz is no longer the investor of the riverfront, it is now Quantum Ventures.
Tuesday night, the city’s finance committee talked about why it made the decision to repurpose the money.
“Was it wiser to not borrow even more and repurpose then repurpose those funds to the other projects in TID 3 which was Sears and the riverfront which is now the largest project we have going in TID 3, that really was the decision we were faced with,” said City Council President Lisa Rasmussen.
The city said it was able to shift the money to other projects because it was taxable debt.
“You can use taxable debt for pretty much anything you want, I did call our bond counsel to get advice on that and it was totally allowable for us to use it for other purposes,” Wausau Finance Director MaryAnne Groat told WAOW-TV.
