In all of Northeast Wisconsin, there is no community quite like the Village of Hobart.
While Hobart is 101 years old, the Brown County village is just seven years old, having converted from town to village in 2003. Hobart could be described as a doughnut, with no middle, no “downtown.” To get from the western end of Hobart to the southern end, using main roads, requires leaving the village.
Hobart is a combination of six- and seven-figure homes and farmland, divided by Wisconsin 172. The 33-square-mile village has less than 6,000 residents, giving the village an average of 3 residents per acre.
Half of the traditional boundaries of the Oneida Indian Reservation lie within the village, and the Oneidas own about one-fourth of village land, which can’t be taxed. Much of what used to be the Town of Hobart was annexed by its incorporated neighbors of Green Bay and Ashwaubenon, leaving an even smaller property tax base and a shape like a triangle standing on one angle.
The village’s unique circumstances require unique solutions to ensure the village’s future viability. One of them is Centennial Centre, the village’s first Tax Incremental Financing district on 603 acres along Wisconsin 29. Centennial Centre is expected to bring $43 million to $45 million in residential and commercial development to the village within the next eight years.
“We still go through some of the growing pains in terms of policies, but we are up to date in terms of economic development,” says Andrew Vickers, the village administrator.
Centennial Centre is a mix of large and small retail, an eco-friendly business park, areas for light manufacturing and business/professional uses, single-family and multi-family residential areas, and a village square, parks and a trail system, all tied together by what the village calls “high-standard architectural, historical and landscaping guidelines.”.
Deadlines
The village is banking on the project’s bringing in more business and more residents to Hobart. The 350 acres of land the village purchased for Centennial Centre is due for a balloon payment in 2012. Since a two-year lag exists before tax revenue starts arriving, development needs to start this year.
“At full buildout, Centennial will double Hobart’s population,” says Elaine Willman, the village’s community development director. “Between the two of us, with a very willing board that is willing to meet at the drop of a hat, that realizes that time is money, Andrew and I have been able to put this together in 14 months.
“This village has its financial back against a wall — we have a balloon payment we have to make. We can’t afford to wait out the recession.”
“We’re farther ahead than we figured we’d be,” says Vickers. “We’ll have cash flow in 2012 or shortly thereafter.”
The village hopes to have much of Centennial Centre funded by a $37.6 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Most of the grant, $24 million, would go to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation toward $33.77 million in improvements along Wisconsin 29. The village would get $13.6 million toward the estimated $13.725 million in Centennial Centre road, water and sewer improvements if the grant is approved. The grant announcement will be made Feb. 17.
Willman and Vickers believe the Green Bay metropolitan area will grow substantially to the west, with Wisconsin 29 connecting Green Bay, Wausau and the Eau Claire area. Improvements are under way on U.S. 41 between De Pere and Suamico, and 41 ultimately will be added to the Interstate Highway System.
“Green Bay is really poised to mature, whereas Milwaukee and Madison already have,” says Willman. “And Green Bay can only grow to the west. So these villages like Hobart and Howard and Suamico, we all need to share our resources and expertise.”
When asked why someone should build in Hobart, Vickers repeats a familiar mantra: “Location, location, location — that’s the number one principle of real estate. We’re kind of the starting block for development going west of the city. We’re where development will be naturally over 15, 20 years; we’ve jump-started the process.”
The village also touts a six- to eight-week fast-track project approval process, with reviews by village staff and a site review committee.
“One of our strongest features has been our ability to be nimble and fast in our dealings with business,” says Willman. “We’ve got the land to sell. We are the developers.”
How to preserve quality of life
In addition to convincing the village board to make the investment, Willman and Vickers had to convince village residents, who wanted to see the village’s rural character preserved. At one listening session, one village resident said, “I don’t want to open my front door and see the back end of Walmart.”
“I promised the residents that this development would be nothing like you see along [U.S.] 41,” says Willman. “This will be complimentary to what you see in the area — an environment where you just want to be. We’re creating a common environment there, quality of life in addition to [tax] revenue. The whole village values quality of life and the rural lifestyle.”
“We’ve created this future tax base to alleviate taxes on 3 percent of our property,” says Vickers. “We’re affecting the least amount of character of this village as possible. And development’s going to happen there anyway.”
Centennial Centre’s plan includes a circular area, what Willman calls “future downtown Hobart,” bordered on the north by 29 for retail. The northern half, closest to 29, will be targeted for big-box retail; the southern half, nearest existing high-end homes, will be targeted for boutique retail. A new single-family residential area will act as a buffer between retail and existing homes.
“There’s not a lot of retail uses that wouldn’t be compatible with that area,” says Vickers. “We want those niche shops, but Hobart’s also a market for a franchisee.”
A study by Buxton LLC of Dallas identified 50 national retail businesses that would be appropriate for Hobart. The village is now recruiting the top 10 of that list.
The village’s size — geographic and population — is one issue with attracting retail: “You’re not going to recruit retail and business with three persons per acre,” says Willman.
Vickers calls 172 “a line in the sand here. We have upscale, more densely populated subdivisions with homes of $300,000 to $4 million. And on the other side we still have a lot of farms.”
If 172 is “a line in the sand,” Wisconsin 29 is a deadline. The state plans to upgrade 29 by adding interchanges at Brown County FF and North Overland Road and overpasses at Brown County U and Pine Tree Lane.
“These DOT improvements are planned; they’re going to happen,” says Vickers. “We said we can plan things, or we can be as helpless as you think we are right now.”
Foundations have been installed for 48 multifamily housing units that will be completed March 1. Work will start on 10 single-family homes this month.
“We’re sort of building ‘paygo’ east to west,” says Willman. “We’ll build infrastructure out as building happens.”
Hobart worked with Schreiber Anderson Associates of Madison on the Centennial Centre layout, Martenson & Eisele of Menasha on creating the TIF district, and financial advisor Mike Hallmann, who worked to improve the village’s Standard & Poor’s bond rating to AA-minus “while the village takes on some significant debt” for infrastructure improvements, Vickers says.
The village’s lawsuit against the Oneida Tribe of Indians over a water and sewer easement to Centennial Centre and the poor national economy represents ironic good fortune for the village. The village was able to get lower bids for professional work on Centennial Centre from companies wanting to keep their employees working in a slowdown.
“The theory is that we’re not going to be stuck when the economy comes back and we have no plan,” says Vickers. “It truly has — minus the opportunity costs that we might have some businesses already if the economy hadn’t slowed down — almost been a blessing in disguise.”
“We were told it’d never happen,” says Willman. “We were told by the naysayers, you’re stuck now. Well, we’re not. If we stay at the pace we’re going, we’re going to be really on our way within five years. If we get that TIGER funding in February, I think we can move forward even sooner.”
“She’s an optimist; I’m a realist,” says Vickers. “We’re on a 15-year schedule. We’ve done well here. Granted, we don’t have $40 million of houses here. But a year ago we didn’t even have a name for this yet.”
Willman thinks Centennial Centre something on which other Green Bay-area communities can build.
“I almost see this project that is building real progress for others in a real dark economy,” she says. “I think the way out may be ‘if Hobart can do that, so can we’ out there.”
