State continues negotiation to buy Oshkosh adult video store
January 7, 2009
Site needed for expansion of Washburn Street
BY JEFF BOLLIER
of the Northwestern Oshkosh could lose one of its adult video stores now that state officials have changed tacks in negotiating to acquire the land it occupies.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation now wants to buy the site occupied by Supreme Video, 945 N. Washburn St., outright whereas past negotiations centered on the taking the land through the state’s power of eminent domain, DOT Northeast Region Operations Director Will Dorsey said.
By not using eminent domain proceedings, Dorsey said, the state would avoid one of the issues that has delayed its acquisition of the property: The need under the state’s eminent domain law to find a comparable location for the store.
“In doing it this way, we’re looking to buy out the business,” Dorsey said. “The relocation is really up to the owners of Supreme Video if they elect to relocate. It’s no longer really part of our negotiations.”
Dorsey said the DOT is “optimistic we’ll get to a resolution soon,” he said.
The state needs the site to complete the widening of North Washburn Street to two lanes in each direction to handle increased traffic expected during the reconstruction and widening of U.S. Highway 41, which is slated to begin in 2011. Dorsey said the project would continue as planned if for some reason the Supreme Video property could not be acquired, but that traffic capacity on North Washburn Street would be less-than-optimal without it.
“The acquisition of Supreme Video will not alter our plans for the expansion of 41,” he said. “It’s peripheral to the project, but we look at it as an entire system with highways and adjacent town and city roads. If Supreme is still there, it would choke traffic on Washburn.”
The state’s purchase of the site could also help developer Art Pommerening attract more interest in development on land he owns west of Lowe’s Home Improvement and north of Supreme Video. Pommerening said the sites once interested Best Buy, but the adult video store’s proximity was one reason the big box retailer passed on the site and chose a location on the other side of Highway 41 for the store it will move into this year.
“Best Buy absolutely would not sign a contract until there was a definite date on which (Supreme Video) would be gone,” Pommerening said. “It’s going to help if we get that store out of there. I’m hoping the DOT gets it resolved soon.”
Messages left at Supreme Video for the owners were not returned Wednesday.
http://www.thenorthwestern.com/article/20090107/OSH0101/90107146/1987