Marshfield council approves selection team framework for Weinbrenner redevelopment

MARSHFIELD – During its Oct. 14 meeting, the Marshfield Common Council approved the framework for membership on an RFQ Selection Team for the Weinbrenner redevelopment project.

The city constructed the Weinbrenner building in the 1930s to attract an employer during the Great Depression.

The Weinbrenner Shoe Company has occupied the building since that time, until it constructed its new facility in the Mill Creek Business Park.

The redevelopment of the building into a “mixed-use destination” is a centerpiece in the city’s West Second Street District Redevelopment Plan, which it has been implementing since 2022.

A previous proposal from Milwaukee-based J. Jeffers and Co., as solely residential units funded in part by low-income housing tax credits, was not further supported by the full council.

“At the last Council meeting on Sept. 23, this body authorized issuance of a second RFQ request for qualifications, looking for someone we could work with to redevelop the Weinbrenner property at 305 West Third Street,” Marshfield City Administrator Steve Barg recounted to the council.

“A week later, on the 30^th, I actually sent out — working with the consultant from Vandewalle — over 100 emails to companies in the Midwest thought to be potentially interested in a project of this nature. The deadline for those responses is on Nov. 7, so people still have about three and a half weeks left to respond to us about their interest in the project. Again, that would be submitting information about the firm, people that would be working on the project, their experience in other communities, things that they've done, showing the ability to perform such work. We look forward to getting responses.

“However, we need to look ahead to what's going to happen when we receive those responses. Last time, in the fall of 2024, we set up a committee that was a five-member group — two members of the Community Development Authority Board, two members of this body, and then I was the fifth member.

“We did have some people sit in on the conversations, but they weren't technically members of the board and didn't vote, per se. In talking with Vandewalle and our staff group, we thought it may be good to expand that group a little bit.”

City staff originally recommended that the nine-member committee should consist of Mayor Lois TeStrake, two council members, two community development authority members, the city administrator, the economic development consultant, one Main Street Marshfield representative and a member of the development community.

“It was thought that these two people, from Main Street and the broader community, might give a perspective that would be a little different and unique to what those of us who are tied directly to government might have,” Barg added.

Alder Scott Koran made a motion to remove the Main Street member and add a third council member.

That amendment passed, 7-1, with Alder Natasha Tompkins voting “no.”

The council then passed the amended motion, 8-0.