There is no shortage of ideas about what could be done with the Shawano Medical Center property after the hospital moves to its new location, but narrowing the options down to the best and most cost-effective is promising to be a more complicated matter.
An ad hoc task force appointed to explore possible uses for the 10-acre complex met for the first time Monday at City Hall with representatives from Vandewalle & Associates Inc.
Vandewalle, a Madison-based real estate planning firm, was recently hired by ThedaCare to develop recommendations for reuse of the property.
The hospital campus, including parking, stretches from West Second to West Fifth Street and from Bartlett Street to the Wolf River, where the Wolf River Beach is located.
SMC expects to vacate the existing hospital site by early 2015, after the new ThedaCare Medical Center-Shawano is completed at County Road B and state Highway 22, adjacent to ThedaCare Physicians.
Vandewalle has already held private stakeholder meetings with some community members — including members of the Shawano Country Chamber of Commerce, SMC Board of Directors, Shawano County Economic Progress Inc., area Realtors and others — to hear their thoughts on the future of the SMC property.
“They understand that there’s a need for balanced tax base and public space,” said Jeff Maloney of Vandewalle. “They want it to be a meaningful site with community gathering spaces and even cultural uses.”
Among the themes that came up in those discussions, Maloney said, was a need to attract young families to town.
According to one of the stakeholders interviewed, “People come here and they don’t find enough for the families to do and then they leave,” Maloney said.
Promotion of economic development and tourism were other themes raised in those discussions, Maloney said.
Specific uses suggested by stakeholders, Maloney said, included a business incubator, a resort, waterfront dining, senior housing, and a tech school or training facility.
Maloney also said the hospital building is an asset that could be remodeled for other uses, such as office space or housing.
Task force member Russ Schmidt said assisted living could be an option for the property, noting there is growing demand for such services.
Realtor and task force member Terry Hilgenberg said the location offered a good opportunity for a commercial restaurant on the river, which he said the city currently lacks.
Some favored more opportunities for boating and other recreation. However, limited access for larger boats along the channel because of area bridges could make that difficult.
Park space was also discussed, but that option could be hard on the city’s budget. The city has 25 parks and the cemetery to maintain, said Park and Recreation Director Judy Judd, with less staff to oversee them than the city used to have.
City Administrator Brian Knapp said additional park space is possible if the community wants it and is willing to pay for it, but it’s not an option without additional resources.
“We don’t have the capacity to handle any additional parks at this point,” he said.
Vandewalle’s next step will be a marketing analysis — looking at demographic trends, workforce and industry profiles and other statistics — that will be brought to the task force in September, along with some figures on utility costs for the building and the estimated cost of demolition.
Future meetings will continue to seek public input on possible uses for the property.
Recommendations will ultimately go to the Plan Commission and Common Council.
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