Artists rendering of plans to re-purpose Wausau's ShopKo building for storage and retail. Image courtesy: City of Wausau.
WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — After more than a year of sitting empty, plans for the future of Wausau’s ShopKo store have finally come together.
The building in the Crossroads Commons will soon be renovated into climate-controlled indoor storage units and small retail space, according to plans submitted to and approved by Wausau’s Plan Commission last week.
Bill Schofield of The Schofield Group, which owns the development, says he thinks they have found a way to effectively re-purpose the former retail space.
“Storage will take up the oversized portion of the building so we can completely re-build that [to be] patterned after companies like Extra Space or PublicStorage,” said Schofield. “We’re well over 100,000 square feet [for storage] while keeping 30,000 square feet for mid-box retail.”
Scofield adds this plan allows them to keep the majority of the building intact without leveling it or doing any significant remodeling, which proved to be a challenge as he was trying to market to other potential retailers. In many cases, the building was too large for their needs.
Schofield says the storage area would be intended for things like furniture, clothing, or other personal items that need to be kept out of the elements for either the short or long-term. The building would be configured to allow users to drive up to their units, allowing them to unload items completely out of the elements. He expects both businesses and individual residents will utilize them.
In addition to re-working the building, Schofield says plans are in the works for some new strip-mall type developments in the parking lot.
“We’re talking with food, [specialty retailers], professionals from insurance providers to medical- smaller users,” said Schofield.
While he didn’t provide any names, he did suggest that the potential restaurant names for the complex include national names that have “shown an interest in Wausau but didn’t quite have the right site.”
The Plan Commission approved the plans on Tuesday, December 15th. The City Council will consider the proposal in January. Should that pass, Schofield expects permitting could be completed within two months leading up to construction this summer.
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