500 Monument Square (Racine, Wisconsin)

500 Monument Square, also known as 500 Main Street, is a building in downtown Racine, Wisconsin, facing Monument Square and Main Street, and located on the southeast corner of 5th Street and Wisconsin Avenue. The current building was constructed in 1925 for Zahn's Department Store, which operated there until it closed in 1981. Since then, the building has been vacant. In 1995, it was announced that a, The Imaginarium, would open in the building, but after several years of setbacks and financial difficulties, the project was cancelled in 2001. As of 2020, a project to convert the building into a hotel is currently underway.

Zahn's Department Store (1925–1981)
Zahn's, a dry goods store previously located across the street at 436 Main Street, announced in August 1924 that it would construct a new four-story building at 500-506 Monument Square. In addition to the previous 500 Monument Square building, the new construction demolished and replaced the buildings at 502, 504, and 506 Monument Square, as well as at 501 and 507 Wisconsin Avenue. Demolition of these buildings began in a ceremony on October 6, 1924.

On December 10, 1924, the first floor of the new building was completed and work stopped for the winter. By April 1925, concrete was being poured on the fourth floor, and general contractor Nelson & Co. was lauded by the Racine Journal-News as "making a record for speed in erecting the building." The new store opened on October 6, 1925. Zahn's purchased the neighboring building at 510 Monument Square in 1928, razing it to build a 40 ft-wide annex to the store.

A group led by C. Ellis Goldstein purchased the store in August 1950. The new ownership modernized the building's third floor, which reopened May 22, 1952.

On June 29, 1977, Chandler V. Copps purchased the store from Goldstein, who retained ownership of the building. Goldstein died in December 1978, and control of the Zahn Realty Company passed to his widow and son.

On July 8, 1981, Copps filed for bankruptcy restructuring, and announced that the store would permanently close. The liquidation sale began on July 9, and the store ultimately closed on August 15. Citing the decline of downtown shopping as a reason for the store's decline, Zahn's considered moving to a suburban location such as Westgate Mall Shopping Center to open in late 1981, but this never materialized.

Vacancy (1981–present)
With the closure of Zahn's, the building became one of the largest vacant properties in Racine. In spring 1989, state senator Joseph Strohl proposed converting the building into a "one-stop government center," housing state and federal offices as well as private businesses. The Wisconsin Department of Administration agreed to move forward with the proposal in January 1990. However, the state backed out of the proposal in September due to a lack of adequate parking near the building.

Walgreens considered moving its downtown location into the building, from 403 Main Street, in 1992. Madison-based developer Randall Alexander stated that he was considering redeveloping the building in July 1993, but it was ultimately passed over in favor of Wilmanor Apartments.

Imaginarium proposal (1995–2001)
Zahn's Realty Company sold the building to The Imaginarium of Racine, Inc. (TIOR), a subsidiary of the Downtown Racine Corporation, for $46,200 on August 8, 1995. The DRC quickly announced that it planned to convert the building into a hands-on called the Imaginarium. The museum was inspired by the Fox Cities Children's Museum in downtown Appleton, Wisconsin, which similarly opened in a former department store building in 1993. The Imaginarium was originally intended to open during weekend, 1996, and to attract roughly 100,000 visitors per year. While the DRC's application for $150,000 in block grants was denied, it expected to fund the $4.5 million museum with corporate and private donations.

In March 1996, the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority approved $2 million in funding for the Imaginarium project. The state grant made up a significant portion of the needed money, but the Imaginarium struggled to raise the rest from private sources, and the opening date was continually pushed back. By March 1998, $510,000 of the needed $2.96 million had been raised. The Racine city council gave tentative approval for a $750,000 block grant that month, but some aldermen and community leaders were skeptical of diverting so much money away from other programs. The grant was ultimately reduced to $500,000. The Bank of Elmwood, already responsible for the property's mortgage, lent the project $2 million in February 1999.

Auditors expressed doubts about the project's future in December 1999, but the Imaginarium board decided to continue pressing for the needed funds. In April 2000, the Imaginarium started a new fundraising push, seeking $1.4 million, with the goal of opening in the fall.

Bukacek Construction stopped work on the building in July 2000 due to a lack of funds. The Imaginarium claimed that Bukacek had not finished the work it had been paid $2.9 million to complete. After construction work stopped, Imaginarium executive director Tony Gazzana resigned from his position. The Racine Journal Times revealed that Gazzana was expected to receive $85,000 for the part-time job, a salary that Racine mayor Jim Smith described as "obscene". Bukacek sued the Imaginarium in January 2001 for $445,000 in unpaid services.

The Bank of Elmwood stated that the museum organization stopped making payments on the building's $2.55 million mortgage in June 2000. In July 2001, the bank filed for foreclosure on the building. The Journal Times stated that "the move all but eliminates any chance that the [museum] will ever materialize." Jess Levin, the president of the bank, was also the president of the Imaginarium board, and had to resign from the latter position when the lawsuit began.

2003–2019
The Bank of Elmwood ultimately foreclosed on the building in April 2003. The bank acquired the building in a sheriff's sale that month, paying off the mortgage obligation of $2,191,700. The sale was officially recorded on May 13, and the bank began seeking a buyer for the building, with an asking price of $2.5 million, which was later reduced to $1.99 million.

The Bank of Elmwood shut down in September 2009, and its assets, including the Zahn's building, were acquired by Tri City National Bank. Ownership of the property was officially transferred to Tri City on September 20, 2010, for $1,650,000. Tri City lowered the asking price to $1 million immediately after acquiring the property, and received an offer from an unnamed party. However, the deal quickly fell through, and it was reported on September 27 that Tri City was lowering its asking price again to $850,000.

By the end of 2010, Tri City dropped the price again to $749,000. Wisconsin Redevelopment LLC offered to redevelop the building and neighboring vacant lot into a 38-unit low-income apartment complex, but the plan was abruptly canceled in December 2014. In June 2015, Tri City accepted an offer by Lee Jaramillo of Northterra Real Estate Group to purchase the building for $479,000, planning to lease part of the building to the Racine Public Library as a satellite creative space. The library applied for a grant to fund 10 years of operations in the Zahn's building, but the funding application was denied. With the library unable to participate, Northterra canceled the planned purchase in September.

On January 21, 2016, the property was ultimately purchased by 500 Main Street LLC, a single-purpose corporation created by regional gas station franchisee Bachan Singh, for $275,000. Singh continued to offer the building for sale, raising the price to $595,000. Unlike Tri City, Singh had no intention of lowering the price to attract interest, saying he would wait "till I get the right price." By August 2017, Singh had made at least two contracts to sell the building, but no offers had panned out.

Proposed hotel (2019–present)
On October 11, 2019, the property was purchased by The Main Attraction LLC for $319,500. Working with Dominion Properties, a real estate development firm based in Milwaukee, The Main Attraction proposed renovating and expanding the building into an 80-room hotel, with amenities including a rooftop bar. In addition to the existing Zahn's building, the hotel would use a newly-constructed building to be built in the vacant lot at 510 Monument Square.

Construction on the hotel was originally intended to begin in early May 2020, with a target opening date of May 1, 2021. Installation of a and cooling system began in March 2020, with the goal of making the hotel "extremely energy-efficient" and the third -certified building in Wisconsin. However, construction was delayed due to the, and the city agreed to push the start of construction back to January 15, 2021. As of December 2020, the start of construction has been pushed back again to April 2021, with a prospective opening in spring 2022.