GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – New plans for a Shipyard District in downtown Green Bay has most businesses reacting with approval.
The area up-and-down Broadway Street is much different now than it once was.
“It was a rough area,” explains Ken Jensen, who has owned a vacuum repair shop on Broadway for 60 years. “The first 90 days we were in here we replaced our front window five times from people smashing the window.”
Over the years he has seen a number of projects, mostly on the north end, usher in positive changes to the area.
“A lot of changes,” he says.
Now, he’s hoping for the south end to experience some growth.
“Everything has been focused on north of Walnut and it would do good for the area,” explains Mark Beerntsen, owner of Beerntsen Candies. “I believe it would clean it up and spur investment and I think it’s a great idea.”
The new $10 million “Shipyard District” proposal would turn empty land on the Fox River near the Mason Street bridge into a public gathering space — with amenities such as an urban beach, a beer garden, a dog park and a great lawn with space for concerts and festivals.
He thinks a project like that will have a positive impact on everyone.
“There’s always people that’ll walk before a concert before they do anything take a look at the area,” says Beerntsen.
The redesign comes after the Green Bay Bullfrogs, now Booyah, decided to build a new stadium in Ashwaubenon, thus scrapping plans to build in the Shipyard District.
Beerntsen insists he likes the new proposal more.
“I think the current proposal will have a greater impact on the area be used a lot more than a baseball field,” he says.
Others, think it’s more of a “plan B.”
“I think Green Bay should’ve had should’ve accepted the proposal and put the ball diamond in there because I think that would have been a better draw for the area,” says Jensen.
The Green Bay city council is expected to vote on the new proposal next week and the goal is to have construction completed by next summer.
Anyone interested in seeing the new plans can do so at an open house that will take place at the Farmers Market on Broadway next Wednesday, July 17.
