St. Augusta, Minn.-based ETC Enterprises, which wants to build a 71-room GrandStay Residential Suites hotel in Sheboygan, has changed the proposed site of the project from the South Pier District, near the Blue Harbor Resort and Conference Center, to a city-owned parking lot at the northwest corner of North Seventh Street and Niagara Avenue.
The new location is almost one mile from the original proposed site.
Madison-based Great Wolf Resorts, which owns the Blue Harbor Resort and has struggled to consistently fill its rooms, other South Pier retailers and some Sheboygan city officials raised concerns about the original GrandStay plans in the South Pier District. The district is a 42-acre peninsula between Lake Michigan and the Sheboygan River that was formerly used for coal storage. The property became a massive brownfield, which is being redeveloped by the city. The district is now anchored by Blue Harbor.
Several South Pier retailers said the peninsula would not be a good location for GrandStay, said Paulette Enders, director of planning and development for Sheboygan. Instead, those retailers want other restaurants and stores on the peninsula to help attract more people to shop there, she said.
GrandStay is an extended stay hotel chain with locations in Ames, Iowa; Mankato, Minn.; St. Cloud, Minn.; Oxnard, Calif.; Rapid City, S.D.; Eau Claire, La Crosse and Madison. A new GrandStay hotel is under construction in Apple Valley, Minn., and the company plans to build locations in Lancaster, Calif.; Iowa City, Iowa; Des Moines, Iowa; and Minneapolis.
The new location for the hotel, “will assist in the revitalization of downtown,” Enders said. “In particular, that Seventh Street corridor, you are really looking at the backs of buildings.”
In downtown Sheboygan, Seventh Street is lined with parking lots along the west side of the street. The GrandStay hotel will replace a parking lot that is usually unused, Enders said. The city wants to develop underutilized parking lots, she said.
The city plans to make several traffic changes that could attract more development to the area. Both Seventh and Ninth streets will be converted from one-way streets to two-way streets by the end of the summer. A portion of Niagara Street between 8th Street and 7th Street, which has been closed for years for the parking lot, will be re-opened for the hotel development.
Construction of the GrandStay is expected to begin later this year and be complete next year.
The hotel could provide a boost to Kohler Co.’s efforts to bring the Ryder Cup golf tournament to Whistling Straits in 2020. The PGA of America has granted the tournament to Whistling Straits, located along Lake Michigan just north of Sheboygan, on the condition that an additional 1,600 “quality hotel rooms” are built within a 40-mile radius of the golf course by the end of 2014, according to Kohler Co.
Brookfield
Minneapolis-based CSM Corp. plans to do a mixed-use development at the southwest corner of North 124th Street and Bluemound Road. The 25-acre property is the site of a former Quebecor World Inc. printing plant. The Montreal-based company closed that plant last year. CSM has not yet submitted any detailed plans for the site, but city officials expect a mix of retail, residential and office uses said Dan Ertl, Brookfield director of community development. “They’re probably trying to land a grocery store anchor,” Ertl said.
Glendale
Chico’s, Johnston & Murphy and Vera Bradley plan to open stores at Bayshore Town Center. Chico’s is a women’s specialty apparel retailer. Johnston & Murphy sells men’s shoes. Vera Bradley sells handbags and accessories for women.
Milwaukee
Trend Foods Inc. plans to open a French-influenced deli bistro in a 1,576-square-foot space in the Grand Wisconsin apartment building at 720 N. Old World Third St. in downtown Milwaukee. The bistro will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and will feature fresh foods and its own coffee blends. The Grand Wisconsin is the former Hotel Wisconsin building. Hotel Wisconsin Co. LLC, an arm of Aventura, Fla.-based Apartment and Land Management LLC, spent about $23 million to restore the 12-story, 94-year-old building, converting it from a hotel into a 108-unit luxury apartment building with 6,500 square feet of retail space.
A couple plans to open a new Latino restaurant in the emerging Latin Quarter area of Milwaukee’s south side. Jorge and Olga Ramirez plan to convert a Chinese restaurant at 625-31 W. National Ave., Milwaukee, into Quimera Cocina Boricua, a Puerto Rican and Latin Caribbean restaurant. They recently received approval for a $136,000 Milwaukee Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) loan and $204,000 in additional financing to purchase the 3,484-square-foot building.
Kenosha
Aurora Health Care plans to build a 12,450-square-foot medical clinic at the southwest corner of 15th Place and 27th Avenue. At the southeast corner of the intersection, Roselle, Ill.-based Robinson Homes plans to build five, 4,000-square-foot multi-tenant office buildings.
Bruce Marquenski plans to build a 14,236-square-foot multi-tenant retail building at 5512 75th St. The tenants will include a Carquest Auto Parts store, which is relocating from a nearby location because of a road project.
Muskego
Stella & Chewy’s Raw Pet Food recently opened a 12,000-square-foot plant at W145 S6550 Tess Corners Drive in Muskego. The plant employs 15 people. Marie Moody founded Stella & Chewy’s in March of 2003 in New York City when she had a sick dog, Chewy, and couldn’t find a commercial pet food that was as wholesome as the food she was making in her own kitchen.
“A raw food diet provides your pet with exactly the kinds of food that they would naturally seek out in the wild,” Moody said. “Nothing can replace wholesome foods in their natural, unrefined state. Raw foods contain whole nutritional complexes, and the nutrients in raw foods are totally bio-available. That means that your pet can easily absorb the nutrients they need. As a rule, the closer to the natural source food is, the healthier it will be.”
Opening the plant means that Stella & Chewy’s has stringent quality control over the entire manufacturing process. That quality control begins with the procurement of wholesome ingredients and continues throughout the processing stages.
“Opening this plant has been a dream of mine for some time,” Moody said. “My customers want the best food possible for their pets. We are uniquely positioned to become a national brand. Right now most of our customers are on either coast but we definitely have plans to expand now.”
Menomonee Falls
Oconomowoc-based Frontier Development LLC plans to build a multi-phase development on 11 acres at the northwest corner of Silver Spring Drive and Lilly Road. The first phase will have a 6,772-square-foot First Bank branch and a 19,200-square-foot and a 9,600-square-foot multi-tenant retail building. The second phase will have two restaurants another multi-tenant building. Frontier has an option to purchase an additional 3.3 acres for a possible third phase for the development. Five homes will have to be demolished to make way for the development, and a sixth would be demolished for the possible third phase. Oconomowoc-based First Bank has seven branches and about $480 million in assets.
Milwaukee-based Megal Development Corp. plans to build a 19,250-square-foot two-tenant commercial building on a vacant, two-acre site south of County Line Road and east of the McDermott Cue building at W146 N9560 Held Drive. Bodycrafters Collision Center plans to move from 8661 N. 107th Street in Milwaukee to occupy 11,000 square feet of space in the building.
Waukesha
Waukesha-based Kelly Industrial Coatings Inc. plans to build a 16,200-square-foot industrial building on a vacant 1.5-acre lot at the southwest corner of Corporate Court and South Corporate Drive in the Waukesha Corporate Center.
Wauwatosa
Menomonee Falls-based Continental Properties Company Inc. plans to build a Wauwatosa Credit Union branch at the southeast corner of North 124th Street and Burleigh Street.
