GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A Brown County committee voted unanimously Tuesday night to keep negotiating with entities interested in the site that was purchased with the intent to be the new home for downtown Green Bay’s coal piles.
The county board will have the final say Wednesday night, but Brown County Board of Supervisors Chair Pat Buckley says he expects the same outcome.
“It’s absolutely what I would deem worse than where we originally started,” Buckley said of C. Reiss Company’s latest offer to lease or purchase the former Pulliam Power Plant site.
Four years ago, Brown County purchased the former Pulliam Power Plant site, two miles north of the current home of the coal piles.
In December, C. Reiss offered to lease about half the site for up to 75 years, paying $110,000 per year with an annual increase of 2.5%.
The county board countered with a shorter lease term, up to 40 years, and added requirements for environmental reports and an understanding with Green Bay on how the current coal piles site would be redeveloped.
C. Reiss rejected the offer and countered to either buy the entire site for $3.5 million or lease the full property for up to 100 years with $110,000 annual payments and a 2% annual escalator in rent payments.
The latest offer comes as the county has had an initial round of interviews with seven other entities that expressed interest in the Pulliam site.
“Because of the response that we have, we need to go forward and continue with that process,” said Buckley.
While formal negotiations with other parties haven’t happened, Buckley says lease terms, port investment, and job creation discussions have been positive.
One thing the other parties likely cannot offer is the ability to redevelop prime riverfront property in downtown Green Bay, which is what C. Reiss says it would do with part of the current site of the coal piles.
C. Reiss also points out state and federal grants totaling $25 million to expand the port at the Pulliam site could be lost if a deal isn’t struck to move the coal piles.
“We hope that they stay at the table, we can get it worked out,” said Buckley.
City leaders have said studies show $150 million in new development could be brought to the current coal piles site.
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