A few cosmetic changes here and there, but Pabst Farms is still big box heaven. On the plus saide, the developer has evidently made some strides in indicating internal roadways and pedestrian walkways through the mall.
"That was one of my concerns," city Planner Jason Gallo said Thursday. "I didn't want to see people crossing parking lots."
[Plans are posted at the Metro Milwaukee Development News blog.]
Not the case here in Franklin. The central feature of Shoppes at Wyndham Village (aka The Target Strip Mall; c'mon, let's be honest here) is a huge parking lot.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Pabst Farms plans tweaked
Shopping area developers drop hotels, move stores back, add small pond
By AMY RINARD
[email protected]Oconomowoc - In revised plans submitted Thursday, developers of a proposed shopping mall at Pabst Farms have eliminated two hotels, moved some big-box stores slightly and added a small pond at the corner of I-94 and Highway 67 after city officials objected to the original site plan.
Two weeks ago members of the Plan Commission sent Developers Diversified Realty back to the drawing board. Commissioners concluded that they did not like the way several large big-box stores planned for the I-94/Highway 67 corner turned their backs to the intersection, which is considered a key gateway into the city.
Pabst Farms spokesman Thad Nation said Thursday that the revised plans provide for an attractive entrance not only to the city but to the shopping mall. The I-94/Highway 67 intersection would have considerable landscaping and a large sign that would read "Pabst Farms Oconomowoc."
"This is the gateway to Oconomowoc, and we want to treat it in a way that respects the type of development we're trying to do and the image the city is trying to project," Nation said.
The stores now are back farther from roadways, but the plan still calls for the backs of the buildings to face Highway 67 and the I-94 westbound exit ramp at that corner of the mall, he said. However, he said, the buildings would be built in such a way that each side would be equally attractive.
Developers had told Plan Commission members that the locations of those big-box stores were "sacrosanct" because retailers wanted to be at such a visible spot along major highways.
Commission members also had questioned the proposed height of the two hotels in the previous plan. A variance from the city's zoning code for residential buildings would have been needed to build the two 65-foot-high hotels.
"At this point, they're out of the plan," Nation said of the hotels. "If there's demand in the future, we would come back before the Plan Commission."
In the revised plans, developers have better indicated the system of internal roads and pedestrian walkways through the mall.
"That was one of my concerns," city Planner Jason Gallo said Thursday. "I didn't want to see people crossing parking lots."
New developer, new vision
Developers Diversified took over the mall development after its previous developer, General Growth Properties, bowed out of the project last fall.
In their plan for the more than 1 million-square-foot Pabst Farms Town Centre, Developers Diversified officials proposed what they called a community shopping area along Highway 67 and the westbound I-94 off ramp.
It would feature a string of large and smaller, single-story big-box stores rounding the I-94/Highway 67 corner.
The project's upscale lifestyle shopping area, complete with small lake, would feature specialty shops anchored by three larger stores and a cinema, and would be located behind and slightly east of the big-box stores that would be lined up along the project's most visible area.
A public hearing on the revised mall plan is scheduled for Feb. 7 before the Plan Commission. Commissioners are expected to decide that night whether to advance the plan to the Common Council.
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