I wager they're talking to Target and/or Kohl's right now.
UPDATE: I learned through The Political Environment that there is an online poll at the Daily Reporter website (a Wisconsin construction news source) asking whether the state should fund an interchange near Pabst farms. Vote and view results here.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Pabst Farm zoning won't permit big boxes
Mayor says city will wait for upscale retailers
By AMY RINARD
arinard@journalsentinel.comPosted: Oct. 8, 2007
Oconomowoc - Mayor Maury Sullivan said Monday that zoning and land-use plans do not permit so-called big box stores to be built on the Pabst Farms site where a large shopping mall has been proposed, and city officials will wait as long as it takes to get the upscale retail development they want there.
"If somebody comes here with a row of big boxes, they know what our expectation is and what our reaction will be," he said. "We're not into big box row."
With last week's announcement that General Growth Properties was backing out of its plan to build a large regional shopping center at the northeast corner of I-94 and Highway 67, retail industry analysts had speculated that big box stores, such as a Kohl's or Target, could replace it.
General Growth had proposed an upscale "lifestyle center" complete with more than 100 stores, several restaurants, two hotels and a multiscreen cinema. That plan won approvals from the Common Council, which adopted a zoning ordinance and master land-use plan designating that site for a high-quality retail center.
Even without General Growth's moving forward with its plan, that zoning and land-use designation for the site remain in effect, the mayor said.
"We've adopted a master plan and zoning for that location, and it does not have big boxes in it," Sullivan said.
Peter Bell, president of Pabst Farms Development Inc., said he is talking with several other national developers of upscale regional shopping malls about taking on the Pabst Farms Town Centre project and opening it in 2010.
Sullivan said the city does not view development of the mall as urgent and is willing to wait to get the type of high-quality project that city officials envisioned when it endorsed the General Growth plan.
"That ground has been idle for years. We can just wait and see what comes along," Sullivan said.
In its later stages, General Growth's plans for its mall at Pabst Farms did include a separate section east of the enclosed mall that was to be the site of several free-standing big box stores, each with its own parking lot. At the time General Growth withdrew from the project, the city had not approved its request to add a big box area to the overall plan for the retail center.
Sullivan said the city had been willing to consider including big box stores in the plan only because they were linked to the upscale mall.
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