Historic apartment building sold

0 Comments | La Crosse Tribune, Jun 13, 1998

Forty-four years after it opened, the Elliott Arms Apartments building at 804 Cass St. was sold Thursday to Glenco Properties Inc. of the Milwaukee suburb of Greenfield.

Thursday also marked Marian Elliott's retirement as general manager of the eight-story, 103-unit complex, which she said is the largest apartment building in La Crosse.

Her late husband, John A. Elliott, was one of the 10 original investors who completed the apartment building in 1954. He became sole owner in 1973 and died in 1994.

Until 1972, John Elliott also owned the Stoddard Hotel at Fourth and State streets, where such notables as Elvis Presley, Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy were guests. The hotel has since been demolished.

Marian Elliott said Friday the apartment building was sold by the John A. Elliott Foundation to Glenco Properties for an undisclosed price. She said she plans to continue to live in her apartment there.

"This is an appropriate time" to sell the apartment building, Elliott said. "And I certainly have high confidence in John Wirth." Glenco Properties is owned by Wirth and Glenn Jonas, both of the Milwaukee area. With this week's acquisition, their real estate investment and management organization owns nearly 1,000 apartments in Wisconsin and northern Illinois.

"We found out through a real estate broker in Milwaukee that the property was available," Wirth said. He said he and Jonas were interested "because of its extremely high-quality construction. It's had excellent management and is a stable building in a stable market."

Wirth said his company will spend about $750,000 updating the building over two years. Work will begin in the next several months and will include new energy-efficient windows, updating the controls for the two elevators, redecorating the common areas and lobby, and cleaning and tuck-pointing the brick exterior.