By Alex Hummel
of The Northwestern April 22, 2006
Doubts may be swirling whether the developer of proposed, $60 million Five Rivers Resort can muster private financing to float the Oshkosh, riverfront redevelopment project.
But that's not slowing a local real estate company that has nine agents aggressively trying to sell the complex's 312 units.
"We're getting inquiries from all over the world and throughout the country, and what we're doing now is taking reservations for the pre-construction sales," said Kris Villars, a sales associate with RE/MAX Valley REALTORS' Five Rivers Resort team. "We have several reservations already."
Realtors have no incentive to pooh-pooh one of their pending projects. But Villars said Five Rivers agents are touting the resort's riverfront access and nearly 60,000-square-foot convention space as key selling points.
The city of Oshkosh has authorized nearly $16 million in tax-incremental finance assistance for the redevelopment zone surrounding Five Rivers, west of Jackson Street on the Fox River. The developer, Tom Doig of Five Rivers Investments LLC, has until May 31 to lock a private financing package.
"The Wisconsin Realtors Association, as an example, has tried several different places to have a convention that will hold anywhere from 1,000 to 1,500 people, and I'm hoping this is a great avenue for them and some of those other associations like them from around the state," Villars said.
"We have missed the boat as far as marketing our area with this wonderful resource we have in our waterways in the Winnebago System."
The Five Rivers project garnered controversy in February when the city council convened a closed-door meeting with Doig and asked some questions about the voracity of private financing. After Doig left the meeting room, the council discussed a fish-or-cut-bait strategy and agreed to the May 31 deadline - an amendment to the city-developer "term sheet."
If the project moves forward, a formal developer's agreement will be inked.
Oshkosh Mayor William Castle has been among city's seven council members more willing to give the resort project every last chance to lock financing and become a reality.
"If we can end up putting that $50 to 60 million in improvements down there, that's the biggest thing that's going to happen in this city," Castle said. "The more fronts they are attacking it on, the better it is in my point of view."
Villars said Five Rivers' architects are developing a virtual tour attached to the project Web site, www.fiveriversresort.com, that will allow interested condo-hotel unit buyers to check out its interior.
"We're really excited about it," she said. "We want this to work. Oshkosh needs something. Why not utilize this waterway system."
Alex Hummel: (920) 426-6669 or ahummel@thenorthwestern.com.
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