| By Neil Johnson, anchor/reporter, Big Radio |

Things could really be looking up at the Uptown Janesville mall.

Along with being home to the future Woodman’s Sports & Convention Center, Uptown Janesville could see new infusions of city funding.

City Economic Development Director Jimsi Kuborn says the city seeks to expand an existing tax increment financing district along Milton Avenue so its boundaries would wrap northward around the Uptown Janesville property.

That’s significant because it would create a new conduit to city development loans and other city tax incentives for projects that would revitalize the mall, which has large-scale vacancy on its east side.

The TIF would encompass the mall’s east side, including acres of  unused mall parking lot space along Liberty Lane. That’s where Uptown Janesville owner RockStep Capital has said it could pursue a hotel, apartments, or other revamps to the mall.

RockStep officials have said such projects would hinge on the city and private stakeholders building the Woodman’s Center, a planned ice hockey arena, multi-sports complex and convention center, next to the mall.

Now, as the Woodman’s Center construction rolls, Kuborn says the proposed TIF expansion could help RockStep spur serious revitalization plans at and around the mall.

The TIF the city looks to expand, TIF 38, was established in 2019 around Diamond Ridge Apartments, a set of dozens of town homes located off Milton Avenue just south of the mall.

The site of the former Sears store at the mall, which the city soon will demolish to make way for the Woodman’s Center, is now registered as city-owned land. The central parking lot west of the former Sears, and the future Woodman’s Center itself, would remain under city ownership when the facility’s completed.

That means the Woodman’s Center would be excluded from the expanded TIF district that would wrap the rest of the mall property. Law prohibits city-owned land and buildings from being part of any TIF district.

The city’s joint review board and plan commission look at the plan later this month. Kuborn says the city council could review the deal in early April.

For more on this story, tune in to WCLO Radio News.