Large vacant building sold
by blindborg@borgdevelopment.com in Project news | 0 comments
The long vacant Schempf’s Department Store building in downtown Watertown, more recently known as the home of Calico Cottage, Kline’s, S. S. Kresge’s and Montgomery Ward, has been sold to a Long Beach, Calif., man with strong ties to Watertown…
The long vacant Schempf’s Department Store building in downtown Watertown, more recently known as the home of Calico Cottage, Kline’s, S. S. Kresge’s and Montgomery Ward, has been sold to a Long Beach, Calif., man with strong ties to Watertown.
William Lindborg said he closed the real estate transaction earlier this week and will begin in the very near future to renovate the huge building which has hosted many retail businesses over the years. His goal is to bring it back to a renovation level that will make it a focal point of downtown Watertown.
Getting the long vacant building in the hands of a new owner that would renovate it and make the location an integral part of the downtown has been a goal and priority of local business and community leaders.
Lindborg told the Daily Times this week he plans to initially work on the necessary deferred maintenance on the building, including general maintenance, repairing roof leaks and cleanup work. Window restoration will also be addressed. That work should begin in a matter of days, he said.
The second phase, “will consist of some of the cosmetics and cleaning up the historical front of the building,” he said. “We want to make this a presentable building in the downtown,” he added.
He anticipates that phase of the project will begin this fall.
Lindborg, who learned about the building from his late mother, is captivated by the potential for the building.
As an added incentive, Lindborg said he is related to the Schempf family which originally constructed the building and operated the business dating back to the 1800s.
Lindborg, who is owner of Borg Development Company of Long Beach, Calif., has undertaken other renovation projects of this nature with high levels of success and is confident this one can be successful as well.
While he has no definitive plans for the building, Lindborg said he can envision the first floor as a compatible use for Main Street, “hopefully something that will be quality and traffic patterns that could benefit all the downtown merchants.”
The second floor could become office space and other professional uses, he said, while he noted there is the potential for a residential component on the third level, he said,
“We have been meeting with the Chamber of Commerce, Watertown merchants, city officials and other stakeholders to determine what develops in the building and bring more, not less, to Main Street,” he said.
Lindborg said, “As we were doing our due diligence, we were talking with local people, and everyone in the community was so positive about the possibilities of making something happen.”
Lindborg said he learned about the Schempf building from his mother, Paulene Bramer Lindborg, who died in Long Beach three years ago this month after suffering with Alzheimer’s disease for eight years.
He said, “I never visited Watertown while she was alive, but as the disease progressed, her conversations digressed to the earlier times in her life.
“Through those discussions with her, came talks about her family which is part of the Schempf family that owned the building and with the Fuehrmann family that owned a local brewery years ago.
“She also talked about the Rock River and her fond memories of ice skating on it in the winter,” he added.
His mother, a gifted musician, left Watertown in the 1940s where she pursued her music career in an all-girls band called “Joanne Paule,” traveling throughout the country.
It was through those conversations with his mother that Lindborg became interested in the Schempf building and taking it on as a project which has special ties to him and his family. As Lindborg continued his research, he learned many members of his family were pioneers in early Watertown.
Mayor John David, who has been working closely with Lindborg on the project, said, “I am just very, very happy that Bill has purchased this building. He’s not doing it strictly as an investment, but he also wants to follow through with redeveloping it and bringing business to downtown. He is committed to doing something positive for the downtown and the entire community.”
David said Lindborg’s plans fit perfectly with the plans for redeveloping the entire downtown areas. He noted Redevelopment Resources of Wausau, the firm hired by the city to help with redevelopment planning, has been meeting with Lindborg and others and he expected to hear more detailed plans from that organization soon and those plans will include how Lindborg’s plans will fit into the overall redevelopment proposals.
Susan Dascenzo, executive director of the Watertown Area Chamber of Commerce, echoed David’s comments.
She said, “I am excited about the opportunities this project presents to the downtown and the community has a whole.
“We have a large collection of historical buildings in our downtown and that’s a tremendous asset. This project will only enhance that great asset of historical buildings,” she added.
Dascenzo said it has been a dream of hers for the past eight years to get the Schempf building renovated and return it as a major asset for the downtown.