The Oconomowoc Plan Commission will review the new plans for a regional mall at Pabst Farms tonight (Click here to view a PDF of the Pabst Farms regional mall plans).
Originally, Chicago-based General Growth Properties Inc., one of the nation’s largest mall operators, had planned to build the regional mall at Pabst Farms, but that company dropped out of the project, prompting Pabst Farms to look for a new partner.
Pabst Farms then selected Beechwood, Ohio-based Developers Diversified Realty Corp. to replace General Growth as the regional mall developer.
Developers Diversified’s new plan for the regional mall at the Pabst Farms calls for an open-air town center, somewhat similar to Bayshore Town Center in Glendale. General Growth’s plans for Pabst Farms was primarily for an enclosed mall. However, the trend for mall development in the United States has shifted almost entirely to open-air lifestyle centers, so that is how the Pabst Farms regional mall will be built, Pabst Farms spokesman Thad Nation said.
Developers Diversified’s plan calls for 2.4 million square feet of gross leaseable space, not including two hotels with 150 rooms each. The development will include: 1.1 million square feet of retail space in the regional mall, called Pabst Farms Town Center; 400,000 square feet of residential space (for 400 units); 300,000 square feet of office space; and four to six big-box stores, with a total of 600,000 square feet of space, on the east end of the property.
Pabst Farms Town Center will have four anchor stores, a 16-screen movie theater, 15 restaurants and a 33,000-square-foot bookstore. Developers Diversified is working on obtaining specific retail tenants, Nation said.
Pabst Farms already has a Hilton Garden Inn hotel and two more hotels are being planned for the area southwest of I-94 and Highway 67. Add the two hotels planned by Developers Diversifield Realty Corp. and Pabst Farms is expected to have a total of five hotels once it is completely developed, Nation said.
Construction for the Pabst Farms regional mall is expected to begin this year and be complete in 2010.
