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Music Venue/School Building Planned at 3rd and Jefferson

A vacant lot used for parking at the northeast corner of 3rd Avenue and Jefferson Street in Sturgeon Bay, where the Moeller’s Garage auto dealership once stood, could be developed with a building for music performances and lessons.

Shirley Weese Young, who recently purchased the parcel, appeared Tuesday before the city’s Finance/Purchasing and Building Committee to present the project plans.

Young said the first floor of the development would have a 6,809-square-foot music venue/school called Muse, along with a 1,200-square-foot outdoor patio and a 475-square-foot area for public restrooms.

She said the building’s second floor, with 6,809 square feet, would have apartments with 430-450 square feet of space that would be leasable for around $775 per month plus utilities.

This would not be the first downtown project for Young, who rehabbed the former Door County Advocate building, turning the downstairs into an event space and administrative offices with restrooms for Third Avenue PlayWorks and the second floor into three apartments.

This drawing depicts what a proposed music venue and school with apartments on the second floor would look like at the northeast corner of 3rd Avenue and Jefferson Street in Sturgeon Bay. Submitted.

She also oversaw the renovation of Third Avenue PlayWorks, which is now connected on the ground floor to the former Advocate building.

Young said she now wants to bring a music venue to Sturgeon Bay.

“We kind of drift off of the other buildings on 3rd Avenue to come up with something that we hope we can afford, that’s good looking, and that sits quietly among the other buildings,” she said.

Young said she would maintain ownership of the building while leasing the programming for the venue to a nonprofit organization. She said she is also in the process of closing on the sale of additional property to the east and will then own that entire block north of Jefferson Street from 3rd to 4th Avenue, which would be the second phase of developing the area.

Young – who is seeking a development agreement with the city for the music venue, for which the committee went into closed session – said she is willing to guarantee an assessment of $4 million at the completion of the project.

She said the major thing from the city is the development agreement.

“I can’t do it myself,” she said.