Demolition bids going out on Field’s building
Sometime this winter nearly 25 years of downtown history will be turned into rubble and fill.
The West Bend Redevelopment Authority (RDA) agreed to solicit bids for the demolition of the vacant Field’s building between the east bank of the Milwaukee River and Veteran’s Avenue.
Originally built in the mid-1980s as the city’s first outlet mall, the 50,000-square-foot concrete edifice will be removed to make way for future development downtown.
"Once the building is demolished and dispersed, the marketing of the site will be enhanced," said RDA member John Duwell.
Cost of the demolition is estimated at around $125,000.
"We do have funds in place," said City Attorney Mary Schanning, and the city already has the appropriate permit from the state’s Department of Natural Resources for the demolition.
City officials have said the building already was gutted of anything of value. The building is deteriorating and there is a growing concern over mold.
The removal of the building was slowed this year, first by the idea its shattered concrete blocks could be used as fill for a planned reconstruction of Veterans Avenue, then by a suggestion the building could be the new home of the Wisconsin Museum of Art (formerly the West Bend Art Museum).
But the street reconstruction project has been postponed, essentially until there’s a development project in place at the Field’s site, said John Capelle, director of the city’s Department of Community Development, and the art museum decided to stay put on South Sixth Avenue.
The RDA owns the structure and the city of West Bend owns the land it stands on.
The Field’s building has stood empty for nearly two years while the city has tried to find a development project to replace it.
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