Old Safety Building May Get New Life

OLD SAFETY BUILDING MAY GET NEW LIFE

The interior is even uglier than the exterior!

Brace yourself. Downtown Green Lake is on the verge of taking a huge step forward. It’s a move that will transform not only our city but our Town Square Community Center.

Tonight, The Alexander Company, a master developer specializing in historic renovation, revitalization and adaptive reuse, will present to the Green Lake City Council plans to renovate the former Green Lake County Safety building into condominiums, while at the same time upgrading and reconfiguring spaces of the Town Square Community Center to better accommodate community programming.

Bars on the windows. Delightful.

It’s a win, win, win for Green Lake.

“When the nonprofit Town Square accepted the abandoned county courthouse buildings from the county, if we could have sliced off the Safety Building and said ‘No Thanks,’ we would have.” said Executive Director Fran Hill, one of the founders of Town Square. “We wanted to start a community center and save the historic courthouse from either being destroyed or deteriorating in the middle of town. The Safety Building? Well, that just came with the deal.”

Since that time, the 30,000-square-foot safety building, built in 1985, has continued to be a financial strain on the community center, and parts of it remain completely unusable without millions of dollars in renovations. “We’ve tried to make use of the spaces the best we could, but there are undeniable challenges, including no hvac or plumbing on the third floor, bars on the windows and concrete pilings on the floors of the second floor, and an elevator that requires climbing a stairs to access.

“We’ve been seeking to get someone interested in taking on the Safety Building for nine years,” said Hill. “And it is simply incredible that a world-class firm like The Alexander Company is coming into Green Lake to take this on.”

Many pieces of the puzzle still need to fall into place before the project moves forward, including finalizing construction and financing details. However, The Alexander Company has done significant research and legwork on the project to determine feasibility, and the firm known for it’s ability to take on seemingly impossible projects. Tonight’s meeting will address pursuing a TIF for the project through the City of Green Lake.

Check out the Alexander Company HERE.