Interest in the 12 Platteville houses formerly owned by Darrel Kallembach turned out to be more extensive than appeared to be the case two weeks ago.
In response to the city’s Request for Proposals for purchasing the 12 houses, the city received 88 bids, 69 of which met the minimum bid price for that property.
The city also got two bids to purchase all 12 properties; one bid met the exact $236,000 of all 12 houses’ minimum bids, the other was for $120,000.
The fate of the houses is now in the hands of the Common Council, which will recommend and possibly vote on the bids at its next meeting Aug. 26. The bid documents state that the city “will select the proposals that are determined to be the most advantageous to the community. This may include proposals that do not include the highest bid amount.”
Nine of the 12 houses had the same highest bidder — Rigafellers Enterprises LLC of Sun Prairie, which in each case states it would “renovate and restore the property for rental or for sale as a single-family home.” The properties on which Rigafellers was not the highest bidder were both Southwest Road houses and the County B house.
Rigafellers was one of four bidders to place bids on every houses. The other three were River to Valley Initiatives of Prairie du Chien, John and Dustan Duggan, and JPC Castle Enterprises LLC. JPC submitted the lowest bid on every property, and none of its bids met the minimum bid. The Wisconsin Partnership for Housing Development placed a bid equal to the minimum bid on each house for all 12 houses.
The next most common bidder was Leonard Kallembach, Darrel’s father, who bid on nine of the houses, in each case to be used as a single-family rental. Droessler Properties LLC placed bids on five houses, with two options on one. Professional Properties LLC bid on three houses individually, in addition to the $120,000 bid for all 12 houses.
The most popular house for bids was the house at 440 Southwest Road, which received 15 bids, 13 of them at or above the minimum bid. River to Valley Initiatives’ bid specified demolishing the house, along with the house at 420 Southwest Road, and building a three-unit townhouse on the combined lots. The other bids called for renovating the property, either for ownership by the bidder or as a rental.
Two houses — 260 S. Chestnut St. and 335 Division St. — got just four bids each, three each of which met the minimum bid.
Most of the bids called for renovating the existing property. The house at 185 Center St. got two bids to demolish the house and replace it with a single-family house, one owner-occupied, one as a rental. The house at 255 Division St. got two bids to demolish the house, one of which as an owner-occupied house, one to demolish a house and rehabilitate the garage for the use of the next-door home owner. The Irene Street house got two bids to demolish the house, one to replace it with a four-bedroom rental house, one to replace it with a duplex. The County B house also got a bid to replace the house with a new owner-occupied house.
