JANESVILLE—In a 5-2 vote, the Janesville City Council has approved borrowing $17.3 million for the Woodman’s Sports and Convention Center.
City officials characterized Monday night’s vote as a “nonbinding” show of support for the $50.3 million project proposed to be built on the site of a now-shuttered Sears store at the Uptown Janesville mall on Milton Avenue. The council vote didn’t include a cap on future borrowing for the project.
The vote is not the council’s final required approval to build the landmark public-private ice arena and multisport and convention space at Uptown Janesville. But city resident Macy McBeth Ryan summed up the sentiment among some of the dozens who spoke out about the proposed 130,000-square-foot facility Monday night at a packed Janesville City Hall.
“This is a history-making moment,” Ryan told the city council and about 100 others who filled the council chambers. Some like Ryan were clad in neon green T-shirts with black block letters that read: “We Support Woodman’s Sports and Convention Center.” Beneath the writing was a thumbs up image.
Not all residents shared the same sentiment.
At least half those who spoke Monday night during a two-hour-long public comment session voiced skepticism and even outright disdain for the city’s commitment to borrow millions to build a two-sheet ice arena and 20,000-square-foot convention center that they said will see mainly private club use.
Council members Heather Miller and Paul Williams voted no, both saying they believe recently released operational plans and feasibility studies the city paid for show lackluster financial potential for the Woodman’s Center.
But the rest of the council sided Monday night with city staff and private-sector boosters of the project who say the city’s multimillion dollar commitment sends a crucial signal to state and federal authorities who hold the purse strings on $24 million in grant funding the city is seeking.
“I do believe we’re at a fork in the road at the moment,” City Council President Paul Benson said before the vote.
Benson said the city’s commitment sends a “very strong message” of local support to Gov. Tony Evers’ office and others in Madison. The city and private booster group Friends of the Sports & Convention Center are continuing to lobby for $15 million in federally backed COVID-19 relief grants to fuel the project.
Although state grants are just one piece of the puzzle, in addition to about $3.4 million needed from the private sector to fully bridge a remaining gap, Benson said the state grants represent a “big hurdle” that must be cleared to go forward.
The city likely won’t know whether it has been awarded grant funding until sometime in mid-2023, around the same time construction bids would come before the council for a vote.
During public comments Monday night, retired accountant Tom Lepinski pressed the city to set a ceiling on borrowing, effectively capping its borrowing at $17.3 million, even if other funding fell through or the project wound up costing more to build than the $50.3 million now estimated.
Jennifer Petruzzello, the city’s director of neighborhood services, an official who has worked closely on planning for the Woodman’s Center, told the council that capping borrowing would establish a “ceiling” that would not show private donors and federal and state grant authorities “a level of support that you would complete the project”
That drew jeers from some in the crowd, although others defended the city borrowing.
Resident Deb DeWitt said she finds it “shocking” that a city of 65,000 doesn’t already have a two-sheet ice arena. DeWitt said she thinks the arena and sports operations alone will draw regular users not only from Janesville hockey leagues but from other, smaller towns in Rock and Walworth counties.
Eric Schmoldt, a resident of Janesville’s northeast side, said he moved away from Janesville after high school but decided to move back to town around the time revitalization along the downtown riverfront was taking hold.
Schmoldt said he has two young children who may or may not use the ice arena and convention center. But his children might someday have kids of their own. He thinks amenities like the Woodman’s Center might make them more likely to stay in Janesville.
“I love the idea of the impact (of this project) keeping people in Janesville,” he said.
City resident Dan De Fore said he is worried about taxpayers floating a big share of a massive project alongside the city’s current load of debt. He called the project’s boosters “politically connected proponents who are putting in 14%” of the funding for the Woodman’s Center.
Meanwhile, De Fore said residents would have to pay back about “35%” of the project’s tab, plus an operating subsidy of at least $47,000 a year “with a looming recession next year.”
Council member Paul Williams said he didn’t want to move toward financing a project he’s not sure the owner—the city of Janesville—could pay for.
Williams said he, too, worries about sinking money into the project next year when some economists think the country could slip into a downturn.
“If this (facility) fails, we’ve got a $50 million building that the city owns and I don’t know what we’d do with it,” he said.
Council member Douglas Marklein said he is stepping down and won’t be on council next spring when it might face a vote. He said he hopes the city moves forward with Woodman’s Center, comparing it to other key decisions it has forged ahead on in the last 10 years, including a riverfront revitalization that’s drawn millions of dollars of private investment.
He urged the city not to delay the project because of fear of risk.
“Change isn’t always easy but standing still or putting something on hold is not an option,” Marklein said. “You put a piece of metal outside in the winter and leave it there, and it’s going to rust.”