The site on the corner of Oneida and Lincoln Streets in Rhinelander has sat empty for years, but the city has entered a right-of-way lease agreement with a northern Wisconsin company with potential plans to make it a banking hub. The decision was made during Monday night’s city council meeting.
Concord Development of Mequon, Wisconsin has shown interest in the former Pizza Hut site with plans to build a new Associated Bank building, but City Administrator Kristina Aschenbrenner says before anything moves forward the site needs to meet city and facility requirements with traffic flow taking top priority…
“…we have a right-of-way that is 23 seats and that right-of way was needed for parking in order to meet their facility requirement. So they asked the city to either purchase and then lease that right of way. So the city reviewed that and did enter into a long-term lease agreement.”
Aschenbrenner says when the company starts building and refinishing the parking lot, they’ll be able to include additional parking spots on the right-of-way.
The lease is for a 25 year term with additional 5 year extensions.
Aschenbrenner says the site plan, and on and off road access was also approved at Monday’s meeting. She says road access will be similar to what the property was before with a one-way out onto Lincoln and in-and-out access from Barnes.
The ice arena expansion was also approved at Monday's meeting. A site permit will be issued. The footprint is laid out with construction already underway.
