Old Gas Station Landmarks Status Continues in Limbo

Editor's note: This story has been updated to because Jo DeMars is looking to purchase the gas station for the East Points Coalition, not the Waukesha Preservation Alliance. Several members of the Waukesha Preservation Alliance will help with the project, according to Mary Emery.

"The Coalition will have preservationists, old car enthusiasts, bicyclists, and other community members," she said in an e-mail to Patch.

The Waukesha Family YMCA will have to wait another week to learn if the Administrative Review Board will overturn a previous decision by the Landmarks Commission to not remove the landmarks status at 422 East Broadway.

The board began deliberating Monday night after more than three hours of testimony from witnesses from the Waukesha Family YMCA and from the Landmarks Commission. The board will release its findings during a meeting at 3:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 31.

The former gas station, a house-style building at the corner of East Broadway and North Hartwell Avenue, was declared a landmark in July 2010, only months after the Waukesha Family YMCA bought the property.

“I can tell you flat out that the YMCA would not have bought the property in the first place” if the nonprofit organization had known the property would be designated a local landmarks, said attorney Stan Riffle, who is representing the YMCA.

The YMCA challenged the landmarks ruling before the Administrative Review Board last year, lost the appeal and found a loophole in the law that could have the landmarks status removed if there was no interested buyer who wanted to maintain the landmark property.

The Landmarks Commission had a tie vote earlier this year when the YMCA requested that the landmarks status be rescinded because the property was not sold. The YMCA is

The YMCA, which had argued that it had aggressively marketed the property to find a buyer, presented sworn testimony from a buyer who stated he would have likely bought the property, despite some cons in the small size of the lot, but decided against purchasing it because of the landmarks status. The man did not want to purchase the property because he was afraid of reselling it in a poor economy with the landmarks designation still attached to it. The YMCA had received a written $55,000 offer and a $76,000 verbal offer.

“Had the YMCA received an offer in the neighborhood of $150,000, we would have accepted it,” Riffle said.

The Waukesha Family YMCA placed the property on the market at $159,900 and lowered it to $152,500, which is what the YMCA paid for the property in May 2010.

“The YMCA board was not interested in potentially losing significant funds on this acquisition,” said Chris Becker. “… The $55,000 offer, the board elected not to counter that low offer. We simply declined the offer at that point.”

The YMCA further pointed out that it had worked with Waukesha resident Mary Emery to sell the property. Emery helped push the landmarks designation of the property.

“The typical approach would be ‘Hell no, you are not going into our property’” Riffle said.

While the YMCA argued it had done its work to sell the property, others disagreed. Several people testified on behalf of the Landmarks Commission that they believed the property was listed too high and not enough work was done to sell the property.

Alderwoman Kathleen Cummings, who is the chairwoman of the Landmarks Commission, admitted she had asked the city’s assessor’s office to re-assess the property, which is listed on Waukesha County tax records as being worth $125,000.

Cummings testified she voted against rescinding the landmarks status because of several reasons, including she felt the YMCA had not done enough to market the property and because of the listing price.

“Here the Y was not only asking what they bought it for, they were asking to make a profit,” said Cummings, although the $159,900 asking price was subject to negotiations.

The attempt to save the property

Meanwhile, Jo DeMars, president of DeMars and Associates, said she has given another written offer to the YMCA for $118,000 for the property. The YMCA had until midnight to accept the offer, and Riffle said the YMCA would be prepared to accept the offer if it was for $150,000 and did not include contingencies of additional land for a setback for the property.

DeMars said she would not be able to find financing to purchase the building if the price beyond the assessed value of the property.

“In my opinion, I could not justify a property price beyond the assessed value given the comparable properties and the rental income this building would produce,” DeMars said.

DeMars was looking to purchase the property to set up an information and a bicycle rest stop. She said she would locate a tenant with a compatible business, such as a small café, a bicycle sales and repair shop or an ice cream shop.

 DeMars said she would help form East Points Coalition to obtain federal and state grants to pay for the project and then turn it over to the East Points Coalition, which will involve members of the Waukesha Preservation Alliance. The Waukesha Preservation Alliance has already raised $17,000 in the efforts to save the building.

“My interest was to preserve the property, which I think does have a very good potential life in the city,” DeMars said.

A four-page plan description of

The Waukesha Preservation Alliance has made it through the first round of the Pepsi Refresh Competition for a $50,000 grant, according to a news release from Emery. The grant would be used to develop the former Bartles-Maguire gas station into a tourism center/bicycle rest area. If the Waukesha Preservation Alliance makes it through the next round of the competition, voting will begin in November with the top 10 candidates receiving $50,000.

The Waukesha Preservation Alliance is continuing to take donations toward the preservation of the building.