The Reid Plan, a blog that concentrates on Milwaukee urban development, notes the following: The UW-Milwaukee plans to acquire land with the intention of building a new engineering school - - in Wauwatosa! When even the city's namesake university flees the city, you gotta wonder ...
Dave Reid writes:
Although UWM's ambitious plan to grow the university has value and promise its choice of location in Wauwatosa will have long term negative impacts on the city, the students, and the region. By locating the new school in Wauwatosa it will add congestion, promote costly freeway expansion, make higher education less affordable, put additional burdens on students, increase pollution, and encourage sprawl.
Locating UWM's new engineering campus within the city has numerous benefits for the students and the city. By locating within the city, students will have better access to mass transit and shorter distances to travel. By locating within the city, students who have gone to undergraduate school at UWM and wish to go on to graduated school won't need to move out of their homes to be close to campus. By locating within the city, students will have better access to internship opportunities at Fortune 500 companies such as JCI and Rockwell. By locating within the city, Milwaukee keeps 300 college graduates who will spur development, support local business, add eyes on the street, innovate, live and work. Keeping UWM within Milwaukee helps the students to help the city.
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel coverage of the story is here.
The Sendik's triangle
The Balistreris have announced yet another Sendik's location, this time in
GreendaleGreenfield (oops). Pick-n-Save has got to be back on its heels - - this is pretty aggressive expansion for what was once considered a "boutique grocery."Freeway proximity is key to why I'm confident two out of three Sendik's locations will thrive. The new Greenfield location is right off the Rock Freeway and en route to and from the popular "Border's-Southridge-Barnes & Noble-Office Depot-Best Buy" strip on 76th Street. With the addition of this Sendik's, expect a retail "boomlet" in an area that already draws most of Franklin's discretionary income.
The Franklin Sendik's on Rawson, while still new and a novelty, seems to have converted a great many "fence-sitters" who may have considered the store too expensive for their tastes and budgets before actually shopping there. Rawson is a main route to and from the freeway, so it couldn't be much easier to get in and out. The parking lot is compact enough to make a quick stop less daunting than the commitment you have to make at a Pick-n-Save.
The Sendik's at Shoppes at Wyndham Village, due to open Summer or Fall '08, faces lack of freeway proximity, potential traffic snags on Drexel, and what I think will be parasitic competition from its neighbor, Target. Its only hope, unfortunately, has been substantially diluted by a very poor site plan; had Carstensen's team spent more time creating a true "village" retail layout rather than retail barnacles surrounding a strip mall-type Target, people would have a reason to venture there even if it's a bit out of their way (i.e. not on the way to or from a freeway).
Still, a single additional top-tier retailer in the Wyndham space could make all the difference - - but, once again, that retailer would have to overlook the dreary site plan.
Fountains of Franklin - - which seems perpetually stuck in neutral ("Announcements forthcoming!") - - would do well to capitalize on that error by doing whatever is necessary to (A) acquire the strip of land that currently (and tragically) bisects its development zone, and (B) generate an outstanding site plan that will bring in some outstanding retailers.
And whoever gets an Apple Retail Store wins instantly - - all bets are off at that point.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Posted at 09:47 AM in Close to Home, Commentary, Current Affairs, Fountains of Franklin, Franklin Photos, Retail design, Shops at Wyndham Village, The Shops at Wyndham Village project, Traffic/Transportation | Permalink | Comments (17) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: city planning, retail design, sprawl
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