MAN BANKING ON DOWNTOWN TURN-AROUND
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 -- 11:20 AM
Conventional wisdom is this might not be the best time to invest in commercial property.But a northern Wisconsin man is bucking the trend in downtown Neillsville.
Several factors have led to a lot of vacancies downtown; in fact, we did an unscientific survey that found, of the roughly 28 storefronts on the 400 and 500 blocks of Hewett Street, only 12 are occupied. That?s about 43%.
Mark Lisenbee lives in Minong. That?s a good 2-hours north of Neillsville. He and a business partner have taken advantage of the depressed market and purchased three downtown buildings and three others in the outlying areas.
"This has given my partner and I a chance to buy commercial property that we otherwise wouldn't have been able to afford to buy," he says.
On top of the poor economy, the downtown has had a problem with notoriously bad renters, many of whom occupy the 2nd story apartments in the 500 block.
Lisenbee has been working hard to remodel those apartments in the hopes of finding more reliable renters.
"We've been gutting the residential units to the bare studs so they're new apartments," he explains. "It's take a little bit more time to rent them because we're being a bit more selective, but it helps to cash flow the buildings."
It?s been a lot of work. Lisenbee and his crew are in town almost every weekend.
They all have high hopes for what the downtown could look like.
"I'd like to see what isn't redone already redone, and draw some new business to the area," he says.
The entire 500 block of Hewett Street is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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