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Manitowoc’s mayor is explaining how the entire Mirro property could be cleaned up.
A listener called into WOMT’s Be My Guest program on Tuesday while Mayor Nickels was on, and asked why only one part of the area was cleaned up, and why vacant buildings in the city stay empty.
Mayor Nickels reexplained that a federal grant helped clean up the Washington Street side of the Mirro property, which is now completely safe for constructing a future apartment complex with workforce housing.
“We had to wait for federal tax credits for that to happen as well,” he explained. “A lot of this site, and a lot of cities across the Midwest and Wisconsin here that have a manufacturing basis, had these old buildings, big old buildings, in their downtown or where else that are vacant. And who is left with the tab?”
Nickels says if the city paid the $2 million for the cleanup of the site out of its own pocket, taxes would have significantly increased for residents.
Manitowoc had worked to purchase the land back from the person who originally bought it for $1 and decided to demolish the old factory before development.
With regards to the Franklin Street side, Nickels says, “We have to apply for grants to clean that up as well, but, usually you get grants when you have a development. We don’t have a development on that side of the site yet.”
Nickels also explained that any vacant building will sit empty unless someone decides they want to utilize it.
He says, thankfully, the former Shopko building has three new businesses using the space, and the former Advanced Auto Parts store is becoming a pet store.
It’s important to remember that the city will work with businesses that want to move into a vacant building, but it can’t determine when a vacant building will be used.
That is determined by whoever wants to reinvest in it.
