Minocqua town board plugs the plug on land purchase

The Minocqua town board, meeting in special session with members of the ad hoc and housing committee, voted July 22 to formally cease participation in a land purchase approved by town electors in April.

During the town’s annual meeting on April 18, electors authorized the purchase of two parcels on Plaza Drive for $352,000. 

The purchase of the land, owned by True Blue North LLC, was contingent upon the town coming to an agreement with Holtz Builders of Lake Delton along with various easements and covenants worked out with the home office of Walmart.

As its representatives, including Holtz Companies president Dan Bullock outlined at the April 18 annual meeting, the plan was for Holtz Builders to build and manage housing primarily for seasonal workers in the J1 visa program. 

During that meeting, Bullock explained building and developing J1 housing such as the type planned for Plaza Drive in Minocqua was something the company has been doing in other parts of the country. In particular, he highlighted Holtz housing facilities at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. and another that had recently become operational in Foley Ala. 

In the months leading up to the April annual meeting, members of the town board’s ad hoc committee on labor and housing, who had met with Holtz Builders representatives and toured J1 housing facilities the company constructed and manages in Lake Delton and Wisconsin Dells, worked with the town board to get the proposal in front of voters. 

At the annual meeting, the land purchase passed on a 53-30 vote. 

“There’s a number of conditions and restrictions on the property that we now have to work through,” town chairman Mark Hartzheim told The Lakeland Times after the April 18 meeting. “Get some cooperation from some adjacent owners and Walmart to make the development a possibility. We’ll have to hammer out a development agreement with Holtz that outlines all of our goals and expectations and holds them accountable to meet those.”

In June, however, came word there were difficulties between the town and Holtz Builders in getting the deal finalized. 

On July 22, after weeks of trying to keep the deal viable, the Minocqua town board formally pulled the plug on any deal with Holtz Builders regarding the Plaza Drive property. 

At the beginning of the discussion that ultimately led to the vote, town supervisor Brian Fricke, who was involved in the negotiations, said after the April 18 annual meeting, issues were being worked out with Walmart regarding deed restrictions and covenants for the Plaza Drive property that involved its nearby store. 

At that point, he said when Holtz Builders was approached, “they wanted ... more.”

“They came back with something really goofy,” Fricke said. “They wanted a piece of property that really wasn’t on the table.”

That property was near the Let’s Minocqua tourism center.

Fricke said Holtz Builders also wanted tax incremental district (TID) money. 

A TID uses the future taxes collected on the TID’s increased property value to repay the cost of the improvements.

In other words, a process that allows a municipality to pay for public improvements and other eligible costs within the TID. 

Fricke said Holtz Builders wanted 100 percent of TID money collected by the town over the course of 10 to 20 years. 

“We don’t even have a process yet,” he said. “We’re still working on that.”

Fricke said Holtz Builders was informed that the town property near the tourism office was “off the table” because that would require another meeting of the town’s electors. 

“We were surprised that’s where they wanted it,” he said. “The other thing was the TID. We did not have TID authorization yet because, once again, it’s not complete.”

Fricke said he was informed by Holtz representatives the company would look into other government funding programs “or let us know when the TID comes in and we’ll take a look at it then. 

Prior to the July 22 meeting, he said he reached out to company representatives and asked if there would be anyone available to attend via phone “for a status, to wrap this thing up.”

Fricke exchanged a couple more messages, the last one with Bullock earlier in the day, and was told “Sorry, not going to work out. Nothing new at our end.”

“They pretty much directed their attention towards other projects,” Fricke said. “And he wanted to know if there was any movement on the TID.”

“So basically, they said all they need is the land and we arranged to make that happen,” Hartzheim said. “After that, they said ‘We’re going to need more. All of a sudden, the math’s not working on this being financially viable for us’ when for the past year, they told us they knew how to do this, they’re the only ones that know how to do it, they’ve done it elsewhere, they’re eager to get going and now, in the last month, we hear about how the math isn’t working and ‘We need you to throw in this piece of property and also include this in the TID that you’re making.’”

The deal, Hartzheim said, “changed drastically” after the town received authorization to purchase the property. 

“We’re up against the August deadline with the contingencies that haven’t been satisfied yet,” he said. “So, that’s the main thing we have to figure out here. I don’t see any real way to resuscitate this possibility of a deal with Holtz at this time.”

“It could cause problems all the way along,” town supervisor Sue Heil agreed.

“The relationship has changed drastically,” Hartzheim said. “I don’t know that we could put a finger on exactly what it is but the message and the tone is completely different from what it was prior to our annual meeting.”

Everyone knows

The bulk of the discussion regarding the Holtz Building matter centered around what could be done in the future to address housing for seasonal labor with other possible contractors and developers. 

Realtor Adam Redman, whose firm was involved in the Plaza Drive property deal, said he felt there were items he felt “could be handled a lot better in the future.”

“A little feedback would be better communication ... on the transaction,” he said. “What’s going on. I mean, I read about something that’s going on in the paper. Kind of like you guys. You were blindsided. I would say the seller and the broker, not really knowing what’s going on and learning about stuff through the (newspaper) is not ideal.”

Redman said he felt there needed to somehow have “confidentiality and respect for terms in a transaction” worked into whatever deal was being worked on. 

“We’re at almost $90,000 below what our asking price is,” he said. “So, why or how that’s public information other than in the private electorate meeting, maybe, but why does that have to get posted and blasted all over The Lakeland Times? I mean, everyone knows that price ... so am I going to sell it for more money?”

Hartzheim said he didn’t see a way to avoid that. 

“I’m talking in the future,” Redman said. “Different seller, different broker, different scenario.”

Hartzheim acknowledged what Redman was saying but said as a town, as taxpayer- supported entity, there was no way to keep information such as the purchase price confidential. 

Redman said there needed to be another way and he mentioned town attorney Greg Harrold, was also in attendance. 

“Greg and I both ... we deal with this everyday, the confidentiality,” he said. “We don’t talk about terms, especially price.”

“It’s a little different for a town,” Hartzheim said. “That whole offer to purchase is a public document. We can’t hide those things.”

“I’m talking about the easy access,” Redman said. “Reading in the paper ... I mean, yeah, if someone wants to dig deep and go to the minutes, they can figure it out. But it’s been publicized.”

That part of the discussion was about articles in the Times about Minocqua town board meetings leading up to the April 18 annual meeting in which the price of the Plaza Drive property was included. 

“They do that,” Hartzheim said, a reference to the Times. 

“We can’t stop them from doing that. They’re using public information. There’s not really any way we can control that or keep that information from the public.” 

Redman then touched on what was an apparent inability to get an update from town officials on the status of the Holtz deal. 

“We’re all in this together, we all have the same mission,” he said, referring to the effort to solve the seasonal labor housing situation in Minocqua. “The next transaction, the next seller, the next broker, I think we can do a better job.”

Hartzheim encouraged Redman to not be afraid to reach out to provide input in the future should another prospective project arrive. 

“Don’t feel like you have to wait if I’m overlooking something,” he told Redman. “It’s not intentional. I’m imperfect.”

“This (labor housing) is obviously a serious matter and we’ve got to continue to be proactive, not reactive,” Redman said. “It’s unfortunate the position they (Holtz Builders) put you in.”

Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected].