Walk, who also chaired a grassroots neighborhood group called Organizing Strategic Community Assessment and Representation or OSCAR, Palm and Fruhling all said some housing in the area would be beneficial, but the future should not be residential focused.

If done right, Palm estimates the area would have the most diverse mix of uses out of any place in the city.

Ellis, the Rabin representative, said the developers continue to work on an infrastructure upgrade at OM Station, such as laying new electrical lines that allow for individual spaces to be metered, so it is suitable for multiple tenants. He expects about $5 million of work in the approximately $20 million infrastructure project to be done by summer.

TASC — Total Administrative Services Corp. — and AssuredLeads are the two tenants in the nine-story office structure of about 300,000 square feet, Ellis said, but there are several letters of intent for space in the building. He said the owners are first looking to fill the existing buildings before considering new construction, estimating there is about 20 to 25 acres that might be considered excess space.

“In reality, when that place is going, there’s not a lot of extra space,” Ellis said.

Revitalization of the former Oscar Mayer property has already received help in the form of a $500,000 idle-site grant from the state jobs agency as well as becoming a federally designated Economic Opportunity Zone that provides some exemption from capital gains tax on developments.

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