The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that until an "upscale mall" is firmly proposed, there will be no I-94 interchange built at Pabst Farms in Western Waukesha County.
Retail industry insiders have speculated that Pabst Farms and local officials might have to scale back their vision for a grand shopping mall at Pabst Farms and settle for a cluster of so-called big-box stores - huge, free-standing buildings, each with its own massive parking lot, such as a Wal-Mart.
But Mayor Maury Sullivan has said the city will not allow big-box stores to replace the mall. And Allison Bussler, chief of staff to Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas, said a big-box development would not meet the county's criteria for release of its funds for the interchange project.
"'Certainly, there won't be county funds if that's the proposal," Bussler said.
James Rowen at The Political Environment is unconvinced. As we're seeing here in Franklin, "upscale" is in the eye of the beholder:
I suspect that the announcement about the perhaps delayed interchange - - and I say perhaps because we all know that the state transportation department is just itching to get that far western segment of I-94's future expansion jump-started - - is as much PR as it is economics.
After all, Waukesha County is tax-rebellion country: spending tax money to serve one special interest, upscale or not, might not be how the good folks over at Citizens for Responsible Government want their gas and property revenues used.
2008 is an election year for the locals: how tightly tied to "upscale" and "private" do they really want their campaigns to appear?
So don't be surprised if the next plan for that mall site gets labeled "upscale," or "regional," even if it's just a gussied up Wal-Mart or Home Depot, or a collection of undistinguished buildings that ain't much more than what we used to call a shopping center, or just "the mall."
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