MANITOWOC, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The Mid Cities and Lakeshore Mall sites in Manitowoc along Highway 42 are getting a long-awaited transformation, the city’s Mayor, Justin Nickels, announced.
It was the early 2000s when stores in the two malls started leaving, as development in Manitowoc shifted to the southwest part of town, where Interstate 41 was built.
JCPenny left Mid Cities around 2010, and shortly after that the mall was demolished. Younkers left the Lakeshore mal in 2018, and the building has been vacant since.
“It’s just been sitting ugly for probably 15ish years, the whole site,” says Justin Nickels, who has been plagued with dealing with the site since he was on the city’s common council. The mall sites were in his district.
Nickels says the private owner of the Mid Cities property wasn’t making progress on developing the land, so the city of Manitowoc bought the land earlier this year.
Now, plans to transform the eyesore are full steam ahead.
“We’re excited because it’s happening very quickly, like I said we just purchased this in the spring of this year, and by spring of next year we really should actually see some building put up and started on the entire development,” he says. “These are the types of opportunities we look for as a city and 30-plus acres of land doesn’t always become available on what I would say is prime real estate.”
By the end of the year, the remaining mall will be torn down, the concrete lot will be removed and the land will be flattened, seeded, and prepped.
The city has an agreement with construction company Tycore Bult out of Green Bay for the land’s next phase.
“They will be developing the entire site, all 30-plus acres of buildable land on the site. They will be building over 40 single-family homes, 150 plus multi-family unit apartments and there’s some pretty large lots for commercial along the drive there.”
Housing on the land was key, as Nickels says like most ther communities, Manitowoc is facing a shortage of housing.
“[It was] very important. Older cities like Manitowoc, Green bay, Appleton, we don’t have much room for growth outward, our growth happens a lot inward, and to have 30-plus acres of land near a residential area right off Lake Michigan, the Mariners Trail, this is going to be a very beautiful place for people to call their home.”
The new commercial properties, including room for restaurants, also checks off what he says neighbors wanted.
“We did hear from the community [that] it would be great to have a restaurant or other commercial opportunities on this side of town, the northeast side of town really doesn’t have that because things morphed to the southwest side of town with the interstate, so that’s why those commercial lots are big for us,” Nickels adds. “We do have an agreement with the developer that the city has the sign-off on any business that goes there so they can’t just sell the property off to whoever and get their dollar back and put up an ugly structure.”
Best case scenario, he says:
“You know, we would love it if a local, family business wanted to start a restaurant and do their own unique thing in that area too, that would be perfect, these are the types of things where the city will still have control over what goes there.”
In renderings posted on his Facebook page, Mayor Nickels included a list of potential businesses (seen below) that could fill the commercial spaces on the properties. He included this note with the photo:
“Please note: The attached photo is a very preliminary design of the site. The specific businesses shown are still being determined, but they are businesses that the developer has worked with and may have shown interest in the site. As noted, the city has the final say in what will be built on the commercial lots, ensuring the highest quality and suitability for this location, a block from Lake Michigan and across from the West of the Lake Gardens and the Mariners Trail. We want a variety of food options on this side of the city, so there are more options than this list if anyone comes forward.”
If a mild winter is in the cards, road and infrastructure work will begin as soon as possible.
“The one neat thing about our development agreement is [it’s on] the property developer. The TIF agreement is that they get payments contingent on how much they build and how quickly they build,” he says. “The quicker and more they build, the quicker they get paid out through the TIF. They’re eager to get going. . . they want people living there within next year so that’s a quick turnaround but it’s doable.”
If a mild winter is in the cards, road and infrastructure work will begin as soon as possible.
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