By Neil Johnson njohnson@gazettextra.com - July 12th 2022
JANESVILLE
The Rock County Board is considering selling off its now-vacant Rock County Job Center building on Janesville’s south side. The prospective buyer is a gas station chain whose operators intend to raze the 60,000-square-foot building off Center Avenue.
What will go in its place? Another new Kwik Trip gas station and convenience store.
If the county board later this week approves a $1 million offer from La Crosse-based Kwik Trip to purchase the former job center site at 1900 Center Ave., that would set up the 4-acre lot for redevelopment. A new Kwik Trip is planned to built on the east portion of the lot, according to a memo sent to Rock County supervisors.
The county board is set to vote at a meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 14, in the county board room at the Rock County Courthouse, 51 S. Main St. County board meetings can be viewed live on YouTube.
The move would unload real estate that the county no longer has use for since it discontinued operations at the former Job Center site last year. The county’s human services division and its job center staff —about 300 people—now work out of the new multimillion-dollar human services center in the renovated former Pick n’ Save just to the north at 1717 Center Ave.
Kwik Trip Expansion
Kwik Trip has expanded rapidly in the Janesville market in the last two years.
A site survey for the project shows Kwik Trip intends to build a full-scale gas station and convenience store similar to its new “generation 3” store concept used for locations built within the last two years on Humes Road and East Milwaukee Street. Kwik Trip also has proposed another similar store on North Wright Road on the city’s east side.
According to the county’s memo, Kwik Trip and the county reached agreement on an offer to purchase in early June. Rock County last fall appraised the property at $1.3 million. Also according to a memo, county officials say they consider Kwik Trip’s lower offer of $1 million, which came in early June, to be a “fair” sale price because the building needs a new roof. The county estimates the roof work could cost as much as $800,000.
South-side redevelopment
The Kwik Trip plan is the second retail redevelopment project to be announced on Janesville’s south side this month.
Last week, a developer working with the city got zoning approval to redevelop a former Clark-branded gas station closed since 2018 and to add 5,400 square feet to the building. Those plans would convert the building into an 8,500-square-foot grocery, sandwich shop, barber shop and office space.
The Clark station is adjacent to the former Pick n’ Save that now houses county offices.
Roman’s Market, a small grocery market that opened in 2021 along Center Avenue just south of the proposed Kwik Trip, closed earlier this year after its operator opted to launch a larger-format store in Beloit.
Prior to that, Maurer’s Market, a Madison-based grocery chain that had operated a grocery on Janesville’s east side, had considered building out a grocery store in the former job center.
Janesville’s economic development office had announced in February that it was pursuing possible state grant funding that city officials said at the time could help transform some or all of the former job center into a grocery store.
It’s not clear whether Kwik Trip has had any discussions with city or state officials over tying incentives to its plans on the south side.
County Administrator Josh Smith said last week that the county has earmarked several acres of outlot land it still owns at the former Pick n’ Save property for potential sale for future developments.
The county has owned the job center building since 2014, buying it then for $1.9 million, according to city of Janesville property tax records. In recent months, the job center space had been sporadically used as a private COVID-19 testing and vaccination site.
The county still has about two years left to pay off a loan on the former job center. Options for the county board include approving the county’s use of the sale proceeds to pay off remaining debt or applying the proceeds from the building’s sale to public projects over the next two years.
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