Planners see no new hospital in Oconomowoc

Waukesha Freeman, Feb. 24, 2006

BY ERIK BROOKS
Freeman Staff

OCONOMOWOC - Pabst Farms planners want land in the city slated for an Aurora hospital to instead be used for a sprawling regional shopping and entertainment center, an official with the development said.

An Aurora spokesman, however, reiterated Thursday that officials with the hospital system have not entirely ruled out building on the 43 acres northeast of Interstate 94 and Highway 67 In Oconomowoc.

And the developers are bound by a contract to sell the land to Aurora if the hospital system decides to build a new medical center there, said William Niemann, executive vice president of Pabst Farms Development LLC.

Still, Niemann said, In a perfect world, the hospital would be ruled out of that site.

They dont want to be there, and we dont want them there, he said.

Niemann said Pabst Farms would prefer that Aurora build on another 53-acre site across the interstate in the town of Summit, where the hospital system proposed an $85 million, 88-bed hospital in the spring of 2004.

Those plans, like the Oconomowoc plans first put forth in 2001, are on hold, tied up in litigation after government officials blocked both projects.

We are not moving ahead on the retail part (of Pabst Farms) until the hospital issue is resolved, Niemann said. We have to wait to see what the court decides.

Niemann said Pabst Farms wants the Oconomowoc land for its Town Centre lifestyle center project, a cornerstone of the proposed 1,500-acre planned community.

The open-air, Main Street-style development is planned for anywhere between 60 and 100 acres, with between 750,000 and 1 million square feet of space for stores, restaurants, public uses, a hotel and movie theater.

A 60-acre development would include an Oconomowoc hospital. A 100-acre development would exclude the hospital. Pabst Farms officials are planning for both, but a 100-acre project is the highest and best use for the land, Niemann said.

We are told by the national developers of regional malls that a 100-acre site is preferable, he said. We are planning for 100 acres on that site, and I believe the city would like to see 100 acres on that site.

Indeed, the city would like retail at the proposed hospital site, in large part because it not a hospital, which does not pay property taxes would better pay off the citys tax incremental financing district at Pabst Farms, Oconomowoc Mayor Maury Sullivan said.

Under a TIF district, a community borrows money to pay for infrastructure improvements, paying that money back with property tax collections from the improved real estate.

A hospital, as a not-for-profit, makes little sense in that area, Sullivan said.

Aurora is not willing to give up on the Oconomowoc site, spokesman Jeff Squire said.

We have been very clear that our preferred site is in the town of Summit, but we are not going to close any doors, he said Thursday.

Niemann said Pabst Farms is remaining patient as it waits to see what happens at upcoming Waukesha County Circuit Court hearings involving the two lawsuits.

They include a motion hearing scheduled for March 23 in Aurora and the town of Summits case against Waukesha County and 21 county supervisors following their decision last year to vote down the proposed Summit hospital.

A pre-trial hearing in the Oconomowoc case in which Aurora sued the city and city officials claimed that a decision to rezone the Oconomowoc site was illegally made in secret is scheduled for Oct. 9, according to Internet-based state court records.