June 1, 2025
VIROQUA, Wis. – The city Viroqua has agreed to sign onto a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Viroqua businessman Lavon “Spanky” Felton to enter phase one of a development that will include pieces of the old Hanson farm homestead. Felton presented his preliminary proposal for the commercial lots along State Highway 14 to the Viroqua City Council on May 21 at the regular monthly city council meeting.
The process of developing the property began in 2023 when the approximately 23 acres of farmland and buildings in the center of Viroqua’s north side was purchased by the Viroqua Development Association (VDA) for $650,000. The city has since purchased the property from the VDA and signed agreements with at least four developers to develop the residential areas of the property, but three commercial lots along State Highway 14, just north of Culver’s, have not attracted any developers, until now.
Felton said he left is role as president of the VDA so he could pursue some ideas of how to develop those commercial lots. Felton said when he sold a different piece of commercial property recently and was facing potentially large capital gains bill, he started to think about how he could invest that money back into the city rather than pay it in taxes.
“So the commercial area up front (along State Higheway 14), we were trying to come up with a plan,” said Felton. “We spent about a year and a half hoping somebody would come to the table, and then I decided maybe I would come to the table. So here we are.”
Felton said his ideas are still in the conceptual phase, but he would like to do a commercial development that preserves as much of the farmstead as possible while still doing new construction that builds off that farm theme.
“I’d like to do some kind of a commercial new, basically new structure, but I’d like to keep the theme of the farm,” said Felton. “So we didn’t take the pine trees out. We didn’t take the barn out. We didn’t take the silos down. How’s that all going to come about? Stay tuned. But I’d like to be able to do commercial buildings that are new and code and everything, but put it together on a site plan that makes sense. Maybe that barn is a, we will have to lift the barn off but we can keep the rafters, and we will have to put a new bottom on it. Set it over here, tuck it back in there around the silos. Maybe it’s a distillery, a brewery, some kind of thing. I don’t want to say event center, because I don’t want to be in that business. But maybe there’s somebody that does and they’ll come to me. And then some other outbuildings that have space for tenants, but maybe they follow that theme. Maybe they look like they were together there on that farm theme. Maybe one of them looks like a horse barn, or a chicken coop.”
Felton said he has had a number of variations of a plan already but he would like to have four or five buildings on the approximately four acre site.
“I’d like to keep this together a one commercial thing, but with the theme of the farm,” said Felton. “This takes the right tenants. It takes the right thing, and it’s going to take a little bit of thought and a little bit of betting on what’s coming. But I’m okay with that, because I think it’s a cool idea.”
Felton presented some preliminary drawings for what some structures could look like, but nothing has been finalized.
Felton said his goal would be to have the property flow to, or be connected to, the park/green-space area that will be included with the residential area of the development.
City Administrator Nate Torres explained the MOU proposed between the city and Felton. The development would be done in two phases with phase one being general concept and land acquisition, and phase two encompassing detailed plans and a development agreement. Under the phase one MOU, if Felton does not flesh out a more detailed plan he will be required to sell it the property back to the city for what he paid for it.
Under the terms of the phase one agreement Felton would invest $1.421 million into the property for three years with $50,000 of that being a donation going to development of the adjacent park. Of the remaining $1,317 million, $1 million would be used to build out infrastructure and pay down costs. If the project moves forward to phase two the city could keep the $371,000 and enter a phase two agreement with Felton. If the project does not move forward the city would buy the property back for what Felton paid and the city can sell the property to another developer.
“This is a true public private partnership,”said Torres. “Basically Spanky is investing this money into the project short-term in order to help hit cash flow early on (for the Tax Incremental Finance District), while we’re still waiting for development to happen. Which is a huge benefit to us because it helps us pay off the land acquisition loan very early on so that we stop basically bleeding interest costs. Then at a time in the future, regardless of whether the phase two development happens or not, we turn the million dollars back over. So it’s three years of investment into the into the project. And essentially, if the project goes forward and we sign a phase two, we say, yep, the project you’ve turned into us that’s fully fledged and built up, fleshed out, we keep the $371,000 for acquisition. And that’s just the cities permanently. But if he doesn’t do it, and it just finds out it’s not working, then we buy it back and we can try to sell it off. That’s why it was important when I was talking about there’s a phase one to this, which is the land acquisition. But if phase two doesn’t happen, it’s ours to get back.”
Felton said the idea with the agreement is to help the Tax Incremental Finance District (TID) get some income early to make it successful.
“If my plan didn’t work out, I want that to be developed as quickly as possible,” said Felton. “And the extra money that I left in there, it was about the same as what I would have had to pay in short-term capital gains on that. So for me, I would way rather donate that money to the city to get this project rolling. And this TID seven is going to really roll. I mean, this thing’s going to spin over the next three years. It’s going to be amazing. So we’re going to prefund TID seven a little bit here, and three years from now when I get paid back that money, granted, I’m getting paid but you keep the interest. You get it right. TID seven is going to be in great shape in three years. It really is. There’s so much going on inside TID seven.”
Felton said between phase one and phase two if the city, or another developer, comes up with a different approach he is willing to walk away from his plan.
“To be honest with you, if somebody came up with a master plan that was really great, I’d step away,” said Felton, “I’d let them have it. I would, because I this isn’t about money. I’m serious. It’s about what’s best for Viroqua. I really do. And if there’s something out there that’s really the right thing for this spot, and I needed to step back, I’d do it.”
The council unanimously approved the MOU between the city and Felton.
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