Packers 'party house' on Shadow Lane for sale for $1 million

Green Bay Press-Gazette

The owners are asking $1 million for this rental house at 1261 Shadow Lane.

GREEN BAY - A newly-listed party house will test just how much Green Bay Packers fans will pay for a view of Lambeau Field.

The owners of 1261 Shadow Lane put the two-bedroom, two-bathroom ranch on the market this month for $1 million. Well, $999,000, to be exact, more than twice its $371,200 assessed value.

“It’s nothing like we’ve ever seen before. I don’t know if it would happen in any other city but Green Bay. Packer Nation extends throughout the world,” Green Bay area Realtor Mark Olejniczak said. “God’s not making any more land that touches Lombardi Avenue.”

Nick Cialdella, of Tucson, Arizona, and two friends paid $170,000 in December 2007 for the house just north of Lombardi Avenue, at 1261 Shadow Lane. They bought it as a place to stay when they attended Packers games, calling it the PackerPlex.

When they’re not using it, they rent it for up to $3,500 for a game-day weekend, according to their rental website. Cialdella said the trio decided to test the waters after seeing other homes in the same stretch of Shadow Lane listed for as much as $800,000.

“They don’t make many views like we have,” Cialdella said. “If we get it, we get it. If we don’t, we don’t. If we do sell it, we’re going to have to be wowed by the buyer.”

Realtors in the Green Bay area want to see what happens, too.

Olejniczak, owner of Mark D. Olejniczak Realty Inc., said the area surrounding Lambeau Field is no longer a normal segment of the housing market anymore.

Wisconsin Realtors Association data indicates the median purchase price for a home in Brown County this year is $170,000, about the price of a house for sale right now in the 1200 block of Thorndale Street, just a block north of Shadow Lane. In the 1200 block of Shadow Lane, the prices of the four homes for sale are $475,000, $599,000, $800,000 and the $999,000 PackerPlex.

Olejniczak said the Packers’ on-field success, development of the Titletown District west of Lambeau and corporate interest have pushed prices to the seven-figure level on Shadow Lane and on Stadium Drive, Valley View Road and June Lane, all south of the stadium.

This home at 1261 Shadow Lane is for sale for $1 million.

“Some are using them for family and friends. Some are using them for business purposes where they’re putting on a first-class party before the game for 50, 75,100 people who are customers,” Olejniczak said. “It’s a great time and it’s great for business.”

Cialdella said he’s noticed the trend Olejniczak mentioned in the decade since the trio bought 1261 Shadow Lane.

“What’s really changed on the south side of Shadow Lane has been the acquisition of properties with the idea of tearing them down,” Cialdella said. “You’ve got more and more people just buying the land. You’re buying the land and the view of Lambeau Field. You’ve got two absolutely gorgeous properties (built) in the last two years.”