Wisconsin Rapids-WI

7 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 6 WISCONSIN RAPIDS , WI the investment partners involved in giving Rapids’ former Shopko building a new lease on life. “We originally became involved when the chain filed for bankruptcy—we bought about 70 properties across 16 states, and two of those were pieces of land plus a Shopko. How we came to get familiar with Wisconsin Rapids were those two terrains and that little vacant box there behind it—the Shopko itself. For about three years, we looked at this place and thought, What a neat little town. It was such a great property and we knew something ought to be done with it. So, we purchased the building on spec.” It was a trepidatious moment that Richards now recalls with enjoyment, knowing that the calculations behind the purchase all came out right in the end. “It can be a scary time for a developer when you don’t know who your commercial neighbors are, when you don’t know the availability of the workforce and contractors, when you don’t know the city’s process for permitting,” Richards