Aldermen Are Mum About Negotiations Over Old M&I Property

The Port Washington Common Council went into closed session Wednesday night to discuss a possible agreement between the city and Port Harbor Investment LLC, the owners of the former M&I Bank buildings at 122 N. Franklin St.

Aldermen emerged from that closed session with little information they were willing to make public.

Upon resuming the open session, the council agreed to have City Attorney Eric Eberhardt continue negotiations with Port Harbor as laid out in their discussion in closed session in an effort to reach an agreement on the fate of the property.

That was it.

None of the council members commented on what that discussion entailed or what the agreement might involve.

Port Harbor purchased the former M&I buildings in December 2007, with plans to renovate the area into a more useful downtown structure. But the buildings are in disrepair and pose a potential danger to people walking by them.

Port Harbor , and ultimately never followed through on its promise to repair the buildings. The city filed a lawsuit in November 2008 asking that the buildings be declared a public nuisance, which meant a judge could order them repaired or razed.

In February, Eberhardt and the courts with Port Harbor in which the company agreed to raze the buildings if the city dropped the suit.

But the on approving that agreement and instead asked Eberhardt to research more appealing options.

Aldermen at that time expressed several reasons for not wanting to raze the buildings, such as their historical value and because demolishing them would leave vacant lots downtown.