Tim Ryan, tryan@shawanoleader.com
The city, in partnership with ThedaCare, has engaged a marketing firm to find a developer for the Shawano Medical Center property, but there is still no answer from heirs to the property who would have to agree to scrap a century-old deed restriction.
SMC will move to a new location adjacent to ThedaCare Physicians sometime next year.
The city appointed an ad hoc task force to look at possibilities for future use of the existing property, with help from consulting firm Vandewalle & Associates, which was contracted by ThedaCare.
For now, any future use is in limbo.
The property now home to SMC was originally part of a larger property owned by Andrew Smalley. It later belonged to his widow, Susan, who donated a three-acre parcel to the city in 1901, according to a news article in the April 30, 1931, edition of the Shawano County Journal about plans for a hospital on the site.
The donation included a deed restriction saying the property had to be used as a park and would revert back to the heirs if used for anything else.
Officials have no explanation for why a hospital was allowed to locate on the property, and there is nothing in the record that shows the deed restriction was ever waived.
SMC purchased additional land over the years, and the hospital campus now occupies about 10 acres. The deed restriction applies only to the original three acres.
The city hired the law firm of Davis and Kuelthau in December 2012 to track down the heirs and get their approval to strike the park restriction from the original deed.
The agreement called for the city to pay Davis and Kuelthau $245 an hour, plus whatever expenses the law firm incurs. Should this turn into a court fight for some reason, the firm anticipates referring the case to another attorney at a rate of $300 an hour, according to the agreement.
It took until February to identify and contact the 11 heirs, including two daughters from a previous marriage of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
Seven months later, the city has no response from the heirs.
According to City Administrator Brian Knapp, a group of the heirs hired an attorney months ago, but there has not been any response from the attorney, either.
“We’re getting close to where we’re going to have to do something to initiate some action,” Knapp said at a Common Council meeting Wednesday.
The council at that meeting approved an agreement with ThedaCare and Bottom Line Marketing and Public Relations Inc., of Milwaukee, to market the SMC hospital campus for reuse or redevelopment. The city and ThedaCare will each pay half of the firm’s $45,000 fee for one year of marketing efforts.
The resolution also stated those marketing efforts should be toward redevelopment of the property consistent with the recommendations of the city’s ad hoc task force.
The task force offered two proposals, both of which would be anchored by a waterfront supper club and lodge south of the property the task force was asked to examine. That proposal would require obtaining five properties south of SMC.
Under one proposal, the existing SMC building would become a mix of senior housing, wellness center and community center, with a row of residential town houses to the north.
The alternate plan would raze the hospital building to make way for condominiums and town homes, along with additional green space and a park shelter. Two single-family residential lots would also be created in the far northwest corner, along Second Street.
The alternative plan also envisions a public path along the river, but Wolf River Beach would be discontinued.
Officials stress, however, that both plans are only concepts for the type of development the city would like to see.