$15 million would be used to purchase and renovate vacant Printpack building

STAR JOURNAL REPORT

A resolution, which would authorize Oneida County to borrow $15 million from the state of Wisconsin Trust Funds for the purpose of financing a “pass-through loan” to the Northeast Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (NEWEDC) for the purchase and renovation of the vacant Printpack building in Rhinelander and purchase of the related capital equipment, has been forwarded to the full County Board for consideration at next Tuesday’s meeting.

The county’s Administrative Committee backed the resolution Tuesday after meeting in closed session. If approved, the loan, which the state Board of Commissioners of Public Lands would have to agree making, would be payable within 6.5 years from March 15 preceding the date the loan is made. The resolution also calls for the loan to be repaid in annual installments at an annual interest rate of 3.75 percent from the date of making the loan to the next March 15 and annually thereafter as provided by law.

The NEWEDC, a sister corporation of the Oneida County Economic Development Corporation, has been negotiating to enter into a lease/purchase contract with Rhinelander Coated Products, a business unit of Expera Specialty Solutions, which this summer had been granted a conditional use permit from the city of Rhinelander to increase the height of the vacant Printpack building at 114 W. Kemp St., where Expera would have to purchase the property to use the permit.

Expera’s Rhinelander mill manager, Jeff Verdoorn, told the city’s Planning Commission this summer that the company is out of space at its existing facility in the city to be able to do “more of the same” with the process equipment it currently has in place.