Phone company moving its home downtown

0 Comments | La Crosse Tribune, Oct 29, 1998

With the help of a $1 million state grant to the city, CenturyTel plans to consolidate its Midwest Region and Wisconsin Division offices in a new 65,000-square-foot building between Riverfront Park and the Freight House restaurant.

The new regional headquarters, expected to open in late 2000 or early 2001, initially would have about 250 employees, company officials said Wednesday when the project was announced at the United Coulee Region fall conference at the La Crosse Center. Gov. Tommy Thompson announced a $1 million brownfields grant for the project.

The number of employees in the building could increase to about 350 within three years, said Ken Cole, president of CenturyTel's telephone group. The building could house even more employees, he said, depending on an upcoming reorganization.

The company hopes to break ground next spring. "If we have not come to a final conclusion on how many we anticipate housing over the next five years, the building will be built in such a way that it can be expanded easily," Cole said.

The city already owns about three acres, including the former Cargill Heating and Air Conditioning and Luxco warehouse sites, and would use state grant to buy seven acres from Charles Roberts. Under the proposal, the city in turn would sell eight acres to CenturyTel and give the communications company an option to buy two more acres.

There is some groundwater contamination in the area, said Larry Kirch, city planning director, and testing that will determine whether the state Department of Natural Resources will require any cleanup work. There are traces of heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, chromium and zinc in the ground water, Kirch said, and in places the ground has been contaminated by spilled petroleum and coal dust.

The contamination makes such property eligible for state brownfield grants, which help with the acquisition and cleanup of contaminated industrial sites so they can be redeveloped.

"At this point, we don't know who caused it or how many years it's been there," Kirch said. A number of manufacturers operated in that area in the past century, and railroad cars also passed through it, he said.

If a cleanup is required, Kirch said, possible ways to finance it include federal community development block grant funds, a brownfield tax increment financing district or a regular TIF district.

Two years ago, La Crosse developer Jay Hoeschler built his RiverPlace Apartments on two acres nearby, as the first phase of his plan to develop nine acres into apartments, condominiums and a restaurant. The CenturyTel project could eliminate the possibility of Hoeschler developing more land there.

"They're (CenturyTel) going to get eight acres with an option on two," Mayor John Medinger said later Wednesday. "If they don't use two acres, it could be used perhaps for Jay Hoeschler. We're trying to work out some of the details of that. The hope is there will be some land for Jay Hoeschler to build another building like RiverPlace One."

Besides bringing more jobs downtown, the plan announced Wednesday would ensure that CenturyTel's Midwest Region and Wisconsin Division offices remain in La Crosse. The company looked at other cities, Cole said. CenturyTel needs more space because of acquisitions and tremendous internal growth, said Duane W. King Jr., vice president of the Wisconsin Division.

"We think it's good to bring 250 jobs to downtown La Crosse," Ring said. "It's also a great location for us and our employees. And we're looking forward to having everything under one roof."

"Right now, our operations in La Crosse are strewn over four buildings, and soon to be five," when another is leased, Ring said. The company will sell its East Avenue building and leases others, he said.

The company plans to keep its wire center and switch building at Fifth and Jay streets, spokesman Cary Heyer said later.

Deal in works would bring 600 jobs

Gov. Tommy Thompson said Wednesday in La Crosse that he hopes a distribution center that would create about 600 jobs will locate in the region.

The proposed site is in Monroe County, state Sen. Brian Rude, R-Coon Valley, said later Wednesday. Rude declined to be more specific, except to say the site is along an interstate highway.

During his speech at the United Coulee Region fall conference, Thompson said he talked Wednesday with company officials about state assistance for a project that would bring 600 jobs "not in the immediate area, but very close to this area."

In an interview after his speech, Thompson declined to name the company or the city it is considering. Thompson said said he hoped to make an announcement soon. "We have worked very hard on it. I've got people meeting with them right now, and I just called them on the way in from the airport and I think I closed the deal. But they have to go back to their home state and talk to their board of directors. But it looks very, very promising.

"I think they're very close," Rude said.