The developer of a proposed west side waterfront hotel in Sturgeon Bay says the inability to reach a consensus during a mediation process conducted by State Representative Joel Kitchens means no work will be done on the site for this year. Bob Papke told WDOR News that there is no truth to the rumor that he has pulled out of the effort to build the Lindgren Hotel on the former Door County Cooperative and Coast Guard properties. Papke says when it became obvious that representatives of a “friends” group were unwilling to work out an outcome that would be beneficial to both sides, the mediation effort was called off. Now, the focus turns to the Department of Natural Resources and the determination of a high water mark for one of the two parcels involved.
Papke says, based on the current timeline, the hotel, as proposed, may not be completed until the spring of 2019. He says it’s unfortunate that people will have to put up with piles of sand and lost tax revenue because a compromise couldn’t be worked out. One city official said it’s too bad that the fate of the waterfront couldn’t have been decided by the people, city government and the developer locally and not a judge from Waupaca County and an environmental group from Madison.
