By Shereen Siewert
The developer spearheading a multi-million dollar downtown Wausau apartment complex is accusing two city alders of breaking the law and intentionally derailing his project, in a letter published this week.
The Wausau Sentinel published a letter from Terrance Wall in which he calls for Alders Tom Kilian and Gary Gisselman to resign or recuse themselves from future deliberations regarding The Foundry on 3rd. In the letter, he accuses both alders of “bullying” and intentionally causing his development to fail. T. Wall Enterprises is the developer for the project, which has drawn strong support from downtown businesses but criticism from some alders and members of the community.
In his letter, Wall accuses the alders of violating the law “by swearing on the record that no matter what they hear in future hearings, they will vote ‘no.’” That, he said, “proves to me not only did the developer not get a fair and unbiased hearing [Monday], but that these two alders intend to never give us a fair hearing by the law.” In an email to Wausau Pilot & Review, Wall cited a zoning case, Marris v. City of Cedarburg, in his argument and said one of the key takeaways from that decision is that an alder should recuse himself or herself “if they have become an advocate for one position and cannot consider the case impartially.”
Wausau City Attorney Anne Jacobson said she is not familiar with any law he is referencing with regard to Kilian and Gisselman.
Ultimately, the letter could place the publication in legal jeopardy if the claim Wall makes is baseless. According to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a principle called “republication liability” subjects newspapers and broadcast news stations to liability when they publish defamatory letters to the editor.
“In most jurisdictions, one who repeats a defamatory falsehood is treated as the publisher of that falsehood and can be held liable to the same extent as the original speaker,” the Reporters Committee guidelines state.
Neither Kilian nor Gisselman have said whether they intend to seek legal recourse.
In an email to Wausau Pilot & Review, Wall accused Kilian specifically of causing the delay that resulted in Monday’s vote, which allowed the development agreement to enter default but directed city staff to tweak the agreement within 60 days. The new agreement is likely to contain language that ensures taxpayers are not on the hook for expenses related to Chuck Ghidorzi’s decision to disallow contractors access to the project property to remove contaminated soil.
Ghidorzi spoke several times over the past several weeks about his decision, on behalf of Wausau Opportunity Zone, Inc., to delay the cleanup at the former mall site, a process that is being overseen by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. When the mall was demolished, a cement cap was left in place as a default protection from contaminated soil beneath. As part of the initial developer’s agreement, the city is responsible for removing that soil.
City officials hired a contractor to excavate the soils, but WOZ, under Ghidorzi’s direction, rejected site access which left the contaminated soil uncovered.
“I made the call,” Ghidorzi said in early August. “I think it was the right call. Still is. So I contacted our contact at the city, Eric Lindman, and I said Eric, Eric, essentially we aren’t ready to remove those soils. And so that was the sequence…and so at that point we met with T. Wall and tried to figure out what their timeline would be and what things they still had to do at that point.”
But Wall, in his letter, appeared unaware of Ghidorzi’s actions. When asked about Ghidorzi’s role in the delay, Wall responded “I am not aware of what you said about Ghidorzi; and no one has the authority to order the city do anything so I don’t see how that can be.”
Instead, Wall is blaming the delay on two members of the City Council.
“These two alders have now caused a 60 day delay that will ripple through the development schedule, delaying everything,” Wall wrote. “So they made a false accusation about us and a delay (which was not true), but now they caused a real delay of at least 60 days that will result in the environmental clean up being delayed, and probably result in the project missing a fall start and then having to wait until after winter to start sometime. They’re so concerned about a false delay, but they were more than happy to cause a real delay.”
Emails from Kilian to the Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources show the Dist. 3 alder asked not for a delay, but only about the possibility of a temporary cover to protect workers and downtown residents from contamination after the cap covering the soil was removed.
Wall, in response to questions from Wausau Pilot & Review, declined to name the contractors he is working with. “Why drag them into this?” he wrote.
The development team is seeking an amendment to the development deal in place that would delay groundbreaking until spring 2024 and opening to 2025. The Foundry on 3rd will create 154 market-rate apartments and commercial space, relying on more than $10 million in public assistance.
At the same time, T.Wall plans more than 1,300 apartments, a parking garage, single family homes and other spaces in another city – Green Bay. According to the Green Bay Press Gazette, T. Wall paid $4.5 million for the plan site in an auction and seeks $10 million in upfront assistance from a new tax increment financing district there to support the project they envision.
