By Josh Staloch
Staff Writer
GREEN BAY – Plans to develop a 55-acre parcel of land off Nicolet Drive along the east shore of the Bay of Green Bay are beginning to take shape.
Marina Development, LLC, recently outlined the first phase of a project, which calls for six three-story luxury condominiums with 54 units along Nicolet Drive.
The sale of those condos, which, according to the developer, are expected to range in price from $600,000 to $850,000, will provide funding for the infrastructure necessary to develop a neighborhood of single-family homes on the remaining land.
The developers said they will not seek any funding from the city for the project.
Residents attended an informational meeting with representatives from Marina Development and Mau & Associates, which will assist the developers with engineering.
Green Bay District 1 Alderperson Barbara Dorff, who lives in a home that borders the site, was also there to help mediate the discussion.
“This has not gone anywhere yet,” Dorff said before the start of the meeting. “It is in the infancy stages, It hasn’t gone to the planning commission, it hasn’t gone to the city council. There’s no motion on the floor, there’s nothing for me to vote on.”
Dorff was made aware of the plans a month ago.
Since then, she said she has grown more comfortable with the idea.
“I’ve spent some time talking to the builders,” she said. “I believe they are honest when they talk about how – what they build are luxury condos. That is what they do. They’re not planning on, when it goes to R3 (zoning), to put up apartments that would be at a lower level.”
Al Gokey, of Marina Development, encouraged residents to check out what his firm did with Shore View Condominiums in Sister Bay.
Gokey also addressed a misunderstanding which he said started from an online post about Joliet Park being part of the development plan.
“Just so you know, we don’t plan on touching it,” Gokey said when the subject of the park came up. “I don’t know where that came from. That wasn’t us.”
Also at issue is the perception the six condo buildings will take away the view from existing homes.
Representatives from Mau & Associates, however, clarified the elevation of the 45-foot structures will be at 663 feet above sea level, while the rooflines of the homes that will make up the rest of the neighborhood will be at 664 feet.
The heart of the development, the single-family homes which could eventually fill the cornfield there now, would be in the way before the condo buildings, as far as the view is concerned.
“We looked at a variety of different options for housing,” Jonathon LeRoy, planner at Mau & Associates, said. “We looked at multi-family housing, the typical kind of thing you might see where it’s an eight-plex and there’s a whole bunch of them. We looked at townhomes. We looked at old folks’ homes. We looked at smaller lots and we looked at giant mansions.”
LeRoy said he understands the concerns.
“A lot of the folks who are here right now do not want to see condos,” he said. “But, we do think there are also a good amount of people who don’t want to have a 3,000 square-foot home. There’s a group of people out there who want to live that condo lifestyle.”