City of Racine – Today, the City of Racine, Rinka+, and F Street Development Group announced that any plans to present new building design plans for the burned out Lakeview Community Center are on hold. F Street and Rinka+ entered into a 1-year planning option for the Lakeview Community Center site at no cost to the City in September of 2021. The hope was to rebuild the Lakeview Community Center and enhance Lakeview Park overall, however, rising costs of materials and interest rates have created difficult conditions for development putting the Lakeview planning process on hold for the foreseeable future.
“I want to thank F Street and Rinka+ for their efforts to reimagine the Lakeview Community Center. As a reminder, Lakeview Park was always going to stay Lakeview Park. While costs may be prohibitive right now, it remains a goal of the City to explore what possibilities exist to rebuild the Community Center for future generations to enjoy,” said Mayor Cory Mason.
Scott Laurie of F Street Redevelopment Group said,” I thank the City and Mayor Mason for allowing us a year to explore options for the building. Unfortunately, the current market conditions with interest rates and costs of materials increasing creates real difficulty in producing a project of this type. Racine is a great community and it is our hope that when conditions become more stable we can re-engage with the City on this or other projects.”
“We appreciated to the opportunity to engage with and hear directly from residents about their concerns and hopes for the future of Lakeview Park and the Community Center. Should the market settle we remain interested in working with the City to present options for the community center that we hope residents would be excited about. There are many development opportunities in Racine and we continue to be interested in partnering with the City to explore those options,” said Matt Rinka, of Rinka+.
