The oldest family-owned bar in Madison, Wisconsin, shut its doors earlier this month after a decadeslong battle with Hovde Properties, co-owned by Eric Hovde, a Republican businessman running to unseat Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI).
Silver Dollar opened its doors in 1933, just steps away from the state Capitol, and became a staple in the community. One bartender said, “Everyone from the gutter to the governor’s office” could be found at Silver Dollar. The Teasdale family, who owned the bar for four generations, sold the building to Hovde Properties, an investment bank, late last year. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed due to a nondisclosure agreement between Chuck Teasdale, the bar owner, and the Wisconsin State Journal, but the bank has announced plans to demolish the bar.
Hovde’s father, Don, originally sought to purchase the building in the 1990s after he purchased other buildings on the block. Silver Dollar Tavern refused to sell, saying they were “low-balled” by the company in a new Rolling Stone report. At the time, Don compared the situation to negotiating peace in the Middle East.
“It’s like, ‘Can the president put a peace accord together with the Israelis and Palestinians?’” Don told the Wisconsin State Journal in 1998. “That’s a much more major global issue, but negotiations are a very tender thing.”
In 2000, Hovde Properties announced plans to tear down the buildings surrounding Silver Dollar, which the bar owner believed was an attempt to pressure him into selling. Now the company plans to raze the block. They previously floated the idea of building a new museum for the state’s historical society on the site, but Hovde said in an interview this month the project did not move forward because Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI) did not “want a conservative developing the project.”
The loss of a beloved dive bar in the Badger State comes at a challenging time for Hovde’s campaign as he faces criticism from Wisconsin Democrats about his residency. Democrats were quick to challenge Hovde on his residency in America’s Dairyland when he announced his campaign.
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“California bank owner Eric Hovde is running for Senate to impose his self-serving agenda, putting ultra rich people like himself ahead of middle-class Wisconsinites,” Arik Wolk, Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesman, said in a statement.
He is the CEO of Sunwest Bank, one of the largest in Orange County, California, with assets near $1.3 billion, which he says is his main business. Hovde also owns a $7 million home in Laguna Beach, which is worth three times as much as his Madison home, according to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist. Hovde said he splits his time between California and Wisconsin.
