Council approves seeking $500K Gehl redevelopment grant

The Common Council on Monday night approved seeking up to $500,000 in state grant funding to help spur improvements at a disused former manufacturing site near downtown.

The near-unanimous vote — one council member was absent — marks the city’s first effort to acquire the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s idle sites redevelopment program grant. The money would go towards tearing out concrete slabs, which are all that remain of the former factory, and revitalizing sewer, street and other infrastructure near the onetime Gehl Manufacturing center.

The site has gone unused for about a decade, and has been completely vacant since the city several years ago tore down the former factory at South Forest Avenue and Water Street. Developers in the past have approached West Bend about building multifamily housing units on the 8-acre parcel, but those plans have fallen through.

The $500,000 grant would be the largest possible allowed under the state economic development corporation’s idle sites program, which authorizes grant funds up to that amount to help jumpstart projects at disused or abandoned properties...   ...more