Ragtag Ventures partners with the City of Fitchburg to support public safety training at future Bowman Plaza site.
Ragtag Ventures is pleased to announce their partnership with the City of Fitchburg to make the building at 2932 Fish Hatchery Road, the future site of Bowman Plaza, available for training exercises for the Fitchburg Police, Fire Department and other local public safety departments. Fitchburg residents or one of the thousands of people who drive on Fish Hatchery Road every day might have already noticed the public safety departments utilizing the space.
With demolition of the existing structure scheduled for this summer as part of the redevelopment process, Ragtag Ventures saw a unique opportunity to support the community while the building remains in place. Rather than leaving the structure vacant ahead of redevelopment, the company has opened the property to the city’s public safety teams so they can conduct valuable real-world training exercises.
In recent weeks, the Fitchburg Fire Department has been utilizing the building to conduct a variety of trainings. One of the training simulations they ran was for the Rapid Intervention Team (RIT). This team is a group of firefighters who are called in to rescue fellow firefighters when they get trapped or hurt while fighting a fire. This critically important training requires large areas to search and special conditions to simulate, like dense smoke and dynamic temperatures.
The Fitchburg Police Department has been able to spread the training opportunity out across multiple municipalities. There have been officers on site from Middleton, Sun Prairie and the Dane County Sheriff’s Office. Officers from Middleton, Sun Prairie and Fitchburg have a joint task force called the Special Response Team. This team is responsible for responding to intense tactical situations or mobilizing for special operations. They had the opportunity to run various complex scenarios in the building and practice drills that require unique structures and environments.
By utilizing the structure prior to demolition, the City of Fitchburg gains access to a rare training opportunity while Ragtag Ventures ensures the property can provide meaningful benefit to the community during the redevelopment transition.
"We’re incredibly proud to be able to offer the building to the City for training. Since the structure will be demolished later this year, it made perfect sense to allow Fitchburg’s police and fire departments to use it as a hands-on training environment. What else would we use it for? It’s a small way for us to give back while also supporting the people who work every day to keep the community safe.”
— Chase Zimmerman, Co-Founder and Associate of Ragtag Ventures
The training partnership will take place over the coming months leading up to the building’s scheduled demolition. Following that, Ragtag Ventures will move forward with redevelopment plans for the site, which will become Bowman Plaza, a new mixed-use community designed to bring modern housing and commercial space to the busy Fish Hatchery Road corridor.
Ragtag Ventures remains committed to working closely with the City of Fitchburg throughout the redevelopment process and continuing to find creative opportunities to contribute positively to the community.
For more updates on the Bowman Plaza project, or any other Ragtag project, please follow us on LinkedIn or continue to check out our website.
