(Beaver Dam) The Beaver Dam Common Council Tuesday night approved $125-thousand dollars in incentives for a local company to redevelop the shuttered Chase Bank building downtown. The agreement directs $100-thousand dollars in American Rescue Plan Act funds along with a $25-thousand-dollar grant from the city’s Façade Improvement Program to Inter-Quest of Beaver Dam, doing business as Magnastar LLC.
The property at 200 North Spring Street has ground contamination, perhaps dating back to machine tool operations a century ago. “The proposed e-gaming business, and frankly any other commercial enterprise, are not going to be bankable on a contaminated site from a financing perspective,” says Trent Campbell with the Beaver Dam Area Development Corporation, ”unless the site is cleaned up, or there is a commitment to clean it up with adequate funding in place, no banks touching that deal otherwise.”
The city’s money would be placed in escrow for use only in remediation efforts and could be recouped with any state or federal grant dollars awarded once the site is cleaned.
The plan was approved with two voting against. Alderman Ken Anderson said the entire $125-thousand-dollars should come from the façade grant program. Alderman Dave Hansen expressed concerns about this setting a precedent leading to other businesses asking for the city to take the same approach.
The new business would be focused on Esports, an increasingly popular form of multiplayer video game competition. It could open its doors by the fall.
A remediation study is expected to take up to six weeks and would determine if the costs remain at $22-thousand or increase to the next level which is estimated at $99-thousand dollars.
Beaver Dam has spent approximately $623-thousand of the $1.6-million-dollars awarded in ARPA funding. There has been $350-thousand dollars in ARPA funds directed to the façade grant program; $220-thousand dollars remains.
