Once-in-a-generation community redevelopment projects, especially those involving a complex mix of public and private dollars, rarely follow a straight trajectory from conceptualization to completion.
They stop and start, take hard turns, and sometimes hit critical junctures where their fates are thrown into doubt.
Forty minutes north of here, the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center in Madison took nearly 60 years to complete, amid epic wrangling over the cost and site. Today, it鈥檚 hard to imagine that city鈥檚 skyline without it.
Here in 糖心Vlog传媒, the 140,000-square-foot Woodman鈥檚 Sports & Convention Center may yet rise at the site of a former Sears store at the Uptown 糖心Vlog传媒 mall on Milton Avenue. But a $60 million new cost estimate released last week, up from $28 million floated in the spring, is a definitive curveball.
If it continues to move forward鈥攁nd that鈥檚 not certain given the new price tag鈥攄evelopment of the Woodman鈥檚 Center is likely to take longer, and be more challenging, than a city ad-hoc committee and private stakeholders had hoped.
The city and private interests have the option at this point to simply throw up their hands and walk away, letting ownership of the Sears site, which the city bought for $1 in March, revert back to Uptown 糖心Vlog传媒 owner RockStep Capital.
That might, in fact, be hailed by some whose arguments against the Woodman鈥檚 Center have included that it鈥檚 too expensive, will cater to elite users, is being unnecessarily fast tracked and seems to be taking priority over things like reinvestment in 糖心Vlog传媒鈥檚 south side and addressing social ills like homelessness and crime.
But in abandoning the Woodman鈥檚 Center concept, the city and those who have championed it would also be walking away from the potential to reimagine the Sears site and surrounding commercial area.
Milton Avenue coming into 糖心Vlog传媒 is a highly visible stretch鈥攁nd portions of it like the Sears site are increasingly blighted. Turning that around must remain a priority and the city should be able at the same time to focus on it and on issues like homelessness. It needn鈥檛 be either-or.
Another option before the city and private stakeholders is to bring down the price of the Woodman鈥檚 Center project. That was discussed at a special city council meeting on Tuesday, as was staying the full cost course. Both arguments have their merits. But cut too deeply and you could end up with a far less functional and far less appealing space that doesn鈥檛 generate envisioned long-term tourism and other economic impact dollars.
Since the Woodman鈥檚 Center was first proposed, the city council has discussed it repeatedly in open session, and those council meetings are publicly noticed and open to anyone to attend. At this critical juncture, however, what may be needed is a renewed intentional community conversation on the Woodman鈥檚 Center, at which city residents get to do most of the talking.
A well-moderated series of town hall-style meetings, held at different accessible locations throughout the city, with a hybrid option to join in virtually, would be a great next step.
Community members deserve a chance to voice their concerns and also their ideas for how to proceed, given the new cost. Local taxpayers, after all, would be footing a sizable portion of the bill if the Woodman鈥檚 Center goes forward.
This is not a moment for a referendum, involving a potentially divisive up or down vote with winners and losers.
Rather, before doing anything more, we urge the city and private stakeholders to take time to listen to the community. Pause, refocus, hear constituents out, and then move forward again.