Moving from disaster to success
Sun Prairie connects for a better downtown
When a 2018 natural-gas explosion occurred in the heart of Sun Prairie’s downtown, causing one fatality and leveling two prominent buildings, downtown redevelopment took on a challenging, urgent dimension for city officials.
Keeping central business districts vibrant, active, and inviting is an ongoing challenge for city officials across Wisconsin. But the scope of the work in Sun Prairie, from demolition and site clearance to finding new developers to fill prime real estate in the charming business district, began immediately and continues today.
One of the tools Sun Prairie officials tapped in their drive to recover was a membership in Connect Communities, a WEDC program that links them to resources, research, and collaboration with other communities.
“Connect Communities allows us additional resources that we really need,” says Colleen Burke, Sun Prairie Business Improvement District (BID) and tourism manager.
Idea sharing and research power
Connect Communities enables selected communities to access webinars, workshops, and roundtables where participants can share ideas and discuss what works—and what doesn’t—in in their efforts to keep central business districts vital.
Colleen Burke, Sun Prairie Business Improvement District (BID) and tourism manager
“We don’t have an individual staffer dedicated solely to the downtown,” says Burke, who devotes half of her time to the BID. “We don’t have the time to curate the data ourselves, and we don’t always have the expertise and experience to answer some of the questions about how we’d like to grow.”
Burke says accessing WEDC experience, often through WEDC Senior Downtown Development Director Errin Welty and her team, has been critical to the city’s efforts.
“When we started, I figured that if it’s a Monday afternoon and I get an answer by the end of the week, I’ll be sitting pretty with what I need to do next,” Burke says. “But I almost always get a response by the end of the hour.”
Being able to access to Connect Communities webinars and roundtables has also helped the city further its development efforts. The webinars are timesavers and are full of helpful information on specific topics, Burke says.
“I can jump on a webinar and find out about how to use public art or social media to our advantage,” she says. “Any support I can get is helpful, and they’ve proven that they’re able to put those classes out there for us.”
That sort of connection helps to inform how the fast-growing city of 36,000 grows and thrives.
Rebuilding with vision, connections
The Bougie Building in downtown Sun Prairie
A few years after the tragedy, Sun Prairie has made notable strides in redeveloping its central business district. Glass Nickel Pizza, which lost its building in the blast, in 2022 constructed the Bougie Building nearby in downtown with the help of a Community Development Investment Grant. The structure is a three-story, mixed-use building with the pizza restaurant on the first floor and apartments above. Plans are underway to restore the two blocks that were wiped out in the explosion. On one corner, a four-story Cobblestone Hotel & Suites is proposed; on the other, a four-story building is now under construction, with commercial space at street level and residential space above. Another local businessperson is planning to move her women’s boutique into a vacant historic church at the edge of the BID; the business is considering adding a men’s boutique and a venue for live music as well.
“If you’re ready to be active and if you have a learning mentality and are open to new relationships, you can learn so much from other communities who have likely experienced the same thing your community is going through,” says Burke.
