State accepts $1.25 million bid for tourism center property

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State and federal authorities have accepted a $1.25 million bid for the 16-acre tourism center property on Interstate 94 in Hudson, according to one of the partners in the purchase.

Commercial real estate developer David Robson said last Friday that Hudson Holdings LLC received a letter in late March saying that Gov. Scott Walker, Wisconsin Department of Transportation Secretary Mark Gottlieb and the Federal Highway Administration had signed off on the transaction.

Hudson Holdings submitted the high bid for the tourism center when the Wisconsin DOT put it up for auction last fall.

The center had been vacant since the state closed it in May of 2009. The reason given for the closure was that the Hudson tourism center didn’t have enough traffic.

Visits to the center declined after it lost its direct access to I-94 when the Carmichael Road interchange opened in 1991. The property is now accessed from Crest View Drive.

Robson said Hudson Holdings will close on the purchase of the tourism center “fairly soon” and then move forward with developing a plan for the property. He said the partners don’t have specific plans for it as of yet.

The preliminary plan, Robson said, is to create a commercial development similar to the Ban Tara commercial area on the east side of Carmichael Road south of I-94.

The partners may also reserve some property for public use, such as a UW-River Falls building and an express bus center.

Robson said the partners have met with UW-River Falls and city of Hudson officials about the property. The university is interested in the property, he said.

He said he didn’t know if the Twin Cities Metropolitan Council has considered the property as a possible site of a mass transit hub.

“Time will tell,” Robson said of the ultimate uses of the 16 acres.

Randy Hanson is assistant editor for the Hudson Star-Observer.

Tags: news, wisconsin, travel