Wausau Mayor Jim Tipple defends mall proposal

The USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin's recent Q&A feature with mayoral candidates was interesting to me and highlighted the candidates' styles and positions.

Some of the candidates, including City Council member Keene Winters, continued a negative position of playing politics over the interests of our citizens and businesses. Winters notes that he would take economic development seriously, which is comical given that his voting record as City Council member has never prioritized it.

I didn’t know much about being a mayor when I ran many years ago, but what I have learned is that the mayor's main jobs are telling our positive story; promoting our city for investment; welcoming new residents and new businesses; encouraging investment in our quality of life; and being a positive advocate. For all of us, I hope the candidates learn this quickly and focus on our positive future rather than bullying, bad attitudes and negativity, which seem to permeate some of the candidates' commentaries.

Q&A with Wausau's 5 mayoral candidates

I’m especially proud of my administration’s record on economic development, and the numbers speak for themselves. We’ve used our tools judiciously, leveraging tax increment financing and our public resources to leverage private investment, build public infrastructure and set a foundation for more growth. In the negativity of this campaign, perhaps the facts get lost or, sadly they don’t fit their campaign speeches, but let me be clear that our resources:

• have been directly tied to nearly 700 new manufacturing jobs.
• have facilitated the major redevelopment of aging commercial and blighted areas, including many major projects at: Stewart Avenue and 17th Avenue; Bridge Street; the east end of Kent Street with a state-of-the-art curling facility and soccer complex, to name a few.
• completed major downtown projects including the Jefferson Street parking ramp, The 400 Block, and major work assembling and remediating the riverfront. In the past decade, there has been over $100 millin in new investment and over 2,000 new jobs downtown.

A capstone to this work, the East Riverfront Redevelopment Area proposals, are attracting the largest private investment in the city’s history. That’s taxable value for all of us, major new needed housing options (sorry, candidate Jay Kronenwetter — the market proves you’re on the wrong side of history), and awesome new public park and trail facilities along the river for our residents.

To be negative on these efforts is not only ridiculous for a mayor; it is also dangerous for our city.

Mall plans will build local economy

And while the East Riverfront Redevelopment proposals are easy to be positive about, leadership is not just making obvious decisions in easy times; it is also making hard yet pragmatic choices when necessary. Many of the candidates, for their political purposes, have been negative on the reinvigoration plan for Wausau Center mall. They either don’t have alternatives or propose even more expensive and less practical plans for redevelopment. Let me take this opportunity again to be clear on the facts:

• We all agree that something should be done to reposition Wausau Center since the City has a major investment in the mall as the landlord. I assure you we couldn't "walk away" even if we wanted to.
• Since June, I have been committed to finally get a practical deal to reposition the mall, which has been in debate for years. It’s not easy but I am confident we are doing what’s necessary and what’s right.
• We are not loaning money for the operations of CBL & Associates Properties Inc., Younkers, or anyone else at the mall. This is a loan only for physical improvements to the buildings, which are on our land. It is a loan to improve our rental property, and while unsecure in the sense that we already own the land, if they don’t pay it back, we have rights to evict them just as any landlord.
• I don’t like it, but CBL and Younkers need these resources. They’ve been open with their current leveraged situation and they need public resources to fill the gap. The definition of our public resources is "gap financing"-tools when private resources aren’t available. Wausau Center is the definition of needing the resources, and our experts highlight again and again that it can be a successful, diversified retail project if loan resources are available for improvements.
• Most importantly, I believe the plan can work. It is practical, it is bang for buck, and requires the fewest resources to get the mall repositioned, preserving the 500 jobs, the hundreds of thousands in sales tax revenue and the many national and local businesses. While I can’t share details, it’s important that you know, since the plan has been discussed, we have been meeting with national restaurant chains, new fashion anchors, theaters and major anchors who have expressed serious interest in the center. We have met with many of them, toured them through Wausau, talked through potential layouts, and witnessed the positive interest.

Frankly, it’s sad when out-of-town companies express more confidence in Wausau than do many of our own mayoral candidates. Tell your candidate that our mayor is our face to the world: We need it to be a positive one. We need it to be one who believes Wausau will succeed. We need it to be one who believes the practical is not only possible but that it needs to get done.

Jim Tipple is mayor of Wausau. He is not seeking re-election this spring, but is running for Wausau City Council in District 11.