The Redevelopment Authority of La Crosse met on Thursday, February 26, 2026, from 4:00 PM to 5:25 PM in the Council Chambers. The meeting covered monthly project and financial updates, a property management agreement, and several actions related to the River Point District development, including lot divisions, sequencing changes, and option agreements. A developer presentation for Lots 1 and 2 was also received.
Monthly Update from Project Manager Jason Gilman (Item 26-0185):
Monthly Financial Update (Item 26-0211):
Property Management Agreement for 65-67 Kraft St. (Item 26-0230):
Update from RyKey on Lot 9 (Item 26-0229):
Update on Lot 11 and Consideration of Redesign (Item 26-0227):
Planning Option Agreement for Lot 12 (Item 26-0228):
Response to RFEI for Lots 1 and 2 – Unwind Property Management (Item 26-0219):
Good afternoon and welcome to the uh February meeting of the redevelopment authority of the city of La Crosse. Welcome to those joining in person and those joining online. We will get started with our agenda for this evening. Uh we'll start with approval of our minutes and look for a motion uh and a second for approval. Motion from uh Phil. We have a second. Second by Councilmember Jansen. Any questions, comments on the January meeting minutes as presented. Seeing none, all in favor of the motion, aye or thumbs up. All opposed, same sign. All right, motion carries, thank you. Uh we'll start our agenda tonight with 26- uh 0185, the monthly update from the project manager for River Point District. Uh turn over to Jason Gilman. Uh Jason, welcome. Floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good evening, redevelopment authority. Appreciate the opportunity to uh talk with you about the the previous month and some of the activities that have been going on. Um we of course have been working on um the continued responses to the request for expressions of interest that we sent out last October. So there's been coordination on lots one and two and 11 and 12, part of which you're um going to be looking at this evening on the agenda. Um we uh continue to get interest from other entities too. I've had conversation with uh MSP uh who built the Driftless project. They finished their marketing uh report, and it was a very positive uh outcome that basically uh had them looking at additional real estate in River Point District. So we're uh exploring that right now. I've been in contact with Brian Woolsley from uh MSP. Um in addition, um we've been doing some other uh work that's tangential to the development, which includes um Andrea and I have been coordinating with the Urban Land Institute on the spring meeting uh that we're going to be presenting at, uh, but they're also working on that renter economic stability program, uh, and we should be hearing back from them any day now. I haven't heard back from them yet this week, but I expect to hear back from them this week if they'll provide matching funds to the community foundation grant to put that program together. Um we also did a uh presentation to the uh Valley View Rotary Club and uh um I've got another one coming up for the chamber leadership group uh later this uh later in March. Um and then uh we've got um continued engagement with the University of Wisconsin student that's studying health metrics and the health outcomes of River Point District. I expect that I'll be meeting with uh her and the professor either the end of this week, tomorrow, or uh midweek next week. And um one of the things that uh I told Andrea that I would do this year is engage uh B visions uh videography. Uh that's Bailey Nelson uh down on Pearl Street. Um so I've uh I had a sit-down meeting with him and uh I'll be working he'll be working as a subcontractor for me, but with the direction of Andrea uh under my contract. So not I'm not gonna come and ask for more money from the RDA. I'm just gonna have uh Bailey put together this videography piece. And the purpose of that is really to highlight the activity in River Point District to look at both the interior and exterior. Uh now that all the streetscaping is done to highlight that, but also to highlight those public health metrics that Lauren Steen and Jeremy Arney at University of Wisconsin LaCrosse are working on. And that'll be a building block piece. So in other words, they'll do the videography at this point in time, but as we've got you know three or four new projects starting in 26 and more in 27, he'll be able to modify that video piece as we go. And that'll also be a valuable piece for us to present to the Urban Land Institute. Um I'm also continuing the field calls from people that want to live in River Point District. I had a conversation with a couple from South Carolina this morning that are looking at moving here because their daughter lives in Houston, Minnesota. And uh they have a number of different um uh number of different uh contact people that I put in the RDA report on the very last page that they can reach out to so that they can decide you know which of the projects they'd like to move into. And War Eagle, I understand is already one floor. One floor was open to occupancy. So we've got MSP, the driftless is open, of course, and now War Eagle is open, and Riky's uh project on lot eight, the Lofts uh will be uh ready for occupancy later later this year. I think those are the main uh pieces that I wanted to bring up today. Um there is one more thing just as a precursor to your consideration of lots one and two and eleven and twelve uh today. Um I just wanted to note that the PDD, the Plan Development District Master Plan that shows lots 11 and 12, the waterfront lots, uh, had originally um showed an illustration that indicated uh single-story buildings with some parking fields. Uh and in fact, lot 11, uh if you look at the original illustration in the PDD, it showed two single-story buildings separated by a surface parking lot.