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| Photo Credit: Racine County Eye |
By Denise Lockwood in Breaking, Business · June 19, 2015
"Northterra Real Estate Group LLC, a development company owned by Caledonia resident Lee Jaramillo, has an accepted offer to buy 500 Monument Square — the former Zahn’s Department Store building — for an undisclosed amount.
"The 40,000-square-foot building, which was founded by Edward Zahn in 1898 operated as Zahn’s Department store, is owned by Tri-City Bank National Bank. The building has been vacant since 1981. Tri-City Bank inherited the building when it purchased the assets of the Bank of Elmwood when the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation shut down the bank in September 2009.
"Jaramillo is about 90 days away from disclosing the names of the tenants of the building since he’s still in the process of negotiating the leases. But he did say the public-private development would not be conventional and would seek to ;bring life' to the downtown area.
"'We are talking with a couple of different groups,' Jaramillo said. 'We’re going towards a creative hands-on approach to this…. something that will help change the stigma of the downtown.'
"The building use will likely be a mixed use, but will not include housing or a sports-related use. Jaramillio, a former baseball player, also owns Forceout, a company that makes a protective glove used in baseball."
Read more: http://racinecountyeye.com/developer-has-offer-to-purchase-on-former-zahns-department-store-building/
Hallelujah! Let's hope that this deal doesn't fall through.
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4 comments:
Where's the promotional photos of lying John?
hopefully it will be a good thing for downtown.
YUP, time to get all excited about some guy that will, or already has asked the City for MONEY, to do something with this stupid building. I don't understand this fixation with the Zahn building. The Porter building was a beautiful building with huge possibilities, but they closed, and quicker than you can blink an eye, It's GONE. Zahn's has been ROTTING for years, and everybody know's It. YES, It Is a wonderful memory on that corner, but It should have come down years ago, and by now, perhaps something useful would have been built It It's place. Us old folks are the only ones that remember the store, and It's wonderful appeal. This Is crazy. Just Sayin.
Racine is in dire need of something good for our community, something that adds to the tax base, something productive that can rejuvenate the city that doesn't come with strings or negative vibes (lawsuits) attached. My hope is that we aren't funding someones relative or friend, or giving away prime realty, or shunning a certain part of the population. We've all had enough of that.
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