South side La Crosse pocket neighborhood development agreement all but set

It’s been about a decade of planning and plotting, but a development deal is just about set on a new neighborhood for the old Navy Reserve site in La Crosse.

The plot of land on Green Bay Street isn’t big but would contain 10 new homes under the agreement with Spies Construction.

“It’s not going to all go up overnight,” Paul Medinger, the city councilman who represents that area, said. “I know for years, we just wanted to see something start out there and, if we could get it started soon, that would be fantastic.”

The city is selling the entire property for $120,000.

The 10 homes in the so-called pocket neighborhood will be around 800 square feet. Each home would have a $150,000 minimum value.

The first home is scheduled to break ground in June with all of them set to be complete by June of 2022.

Medinger recognizes the development’s importance.

“When you have property sitting vacant for that long and been talked about for that long, if we could get something deve there, finish that neighborhood and complete it out to Losey, and get the tax base from that, I think that’s a big deal,” Medinger said. “We’ve never been this far before. Over the years, we’ve had ideas, we’ve had concepts, we’ve gone out for sale and never really had anything concrete like this. The fact that we’re at this point, I’m pretty confident.”

The city council votes on the deal next month.