Sheboygan to buy Verifine Dairy building
City of Sheboygan had sought to construct a bicycle path through the basement
SHEBOYGAN — The City of Sheboygan is looking to purchase the former Verifine Dairy warehouse along the Sheboygan River.
Located at 834 North Water Street in the Harbor Centre District, the building was originally listed for sale last summer by its owners Blue Moon Studio. The city is interested in buying the 17,400-square-foot warehouse, which is next door to the Garton Toy Factory Apartments. Just across the Sheboygan River, the city’s Redevelopment Authority purchased several properties including the former Mayline plant on Commerce Street. Work is underway this summer on cleaning up the land and reconstructing the street as part of a larger redevelopment project.
The first step towards purchasing the property will take place Monday evening at City Hall. The Finance and Personnel Committee will meet to discuss the proposal. If the resolution moves forward and if the Common Council approves the purchase offer, the City of Sheboygan would acquire the building for $899,000. While it is not clear what the city would want with the 100-year-old building, city officials did have plans 25 years ago to build a recreational trail through the building.
The Sheboygan-based Verifine Dairy Products Corporation since 1911 was sold to Dean Foods in 1987. The sale price was never disclosed and in 2002, the company sold the riverfront building for $175,000 to Blue Moon Studio, Inc.
In 1996, the city began spending millions of dollars as part of an effort to revitalize the Water Street Neighborhood, which used to be an industrial district. The Sheboygan Redevelopment Authority paid $65,000 to acquire land from Dean Foods to build the Workers' Water Street Park. It is the only public park in the city’s public system owned by the Redevelopment Authority.
The Abandoned Riverwalk
The recreational trail, or the Sheboygan Riverwalk, abruptly ends at the building’s south wall. Users of the trail traveling south from Kiwanis Park or Erie Avenue are forced onto on the street or sidewalk along North Water Street before rejoining the trail in front of the Sheboygan Outboard Club. The trail also abruptly ends at the Pennsylvania Avenue Bridge where users will find concrete steps leading to the street above.
In 1999, the City of Sheboygan purchased the Pirate Cove tavern at 931 Pennsylvania Avenue for $91,499. At the time, the city had plans to extend the riverwalk from the North 8th Street bridge to the Pennsylvania Avenue in 2005. But 25 years later, the riverwalk was never extended. The Pirate Cove land has remained vacant ever since, most recently being occupied by a homeless encampment.
Today, over grown brush and weeds has started to overtake the trail along Garton Toy Factory Apartments and north of the Outboard Club. There is no signage to indicate the trail’s abrupt end. In fact, there is no wayfinding signage at all between Workers’ Water Street Park and the Pennsylvania Avenue.
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