Prescott needs to act fast to purchase adjacent land for development

PRESCOTT — The City of Prescott is under the gun to purchase the 150 acres adjacent to the Eagle Ridge Business Park.

City Administrator Jayne Brand said the purchase of the land, annexing it from the Town of Oak Grove into the city limits, rezoning it and adding it to the city’s Tax Incremental Financing District needs to be done by June 26.

“That’s the last day we can do a purchase out of TIF 5,” said Brand.

In a TIF District, property tax revenue generated within the district pays for infrastructure costs for developing it.

The property, owned by Sears Farm Inc., N3148 650th St., Ellsworth, is adjacent to the Eagle Ridge Business Park, directly to the east along Highway 10. There are three 40-acre parcels and one 30-acre parcel. Brand said no purchase price has been settled on just yet, but the city moved ahead with contracting with Cedar Corp. for an environmental study and with the Eau Claire law firm, Ruder Ware, on the purchase.

The city purchased the land for the Eagle Ridge Business Park in 2006. Because of the economic downturn, no land sales occurred for a few years. In 2014, United Natural Foods Inc. announced it was building a $37.8 million, 300,000-square-foot distribution center there that serves as the main anchor of the business park. Over the next few years, land went quickly, and the park is home to Ptacek’s IGA and several other businesses.

“Once we started to sell land, we were done,” said Brand.

There isn’t any one business the city is working with to locate there, but the phone has been ringing.

“We’ve had several inquiries over the last several months, someone wants 40 acres, someone wants 75. We just didn’t have anything,” said Brand.

In other business at last week’s City Council meeting:

Great Rivers Subdivision

The City Council approval the final plat for the Great Rivers Subdivision Second Phase. The subdivision will contain 50 single family lots, and a 12-acre park. Entrance to the subdivision will be off of 570th Street.

As part of that approval, some road changes will need to be made on the recommendation of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

The subdivision likely will be developed in two phases.

Prescott Food Pantry

As part of the city’s receipt of Community Development Block Grant funding that allows for the purchase of the building that houses the Prescott Food Pantry, the council unanimously approved a $17,500 contract with Cedar Corp. to serve as grant administrator. The grant will cover purchase of the building and renovation of the property at a projected cost of about $875,000. The Prescott Food Pantry, 911 Pearl St., will be allowed to expand its operation, and a senior center where daily senior meals will be served will be on the other side of the building, which formerly housed the pool for the River Heights Motel. The building also will house a COVID-19 testing site.