WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — The constructed Riverfront Concession Building at Riverlife Park has a proposal.
On Tuesday night at the city of Wausau’s monthly Economic Development Committee meeting, the committee learned of the submitted proposal for the concession building. The proposal comes from the Briq family, of the local ice cream chain Briq’s Soft Serve. Briq’s would run an ice cream shop out of the building while also helping out with other aspects of the park such as maintaining the bathrooms and program the space.
Planning, Community, and Economic Development Director Chris Schock explains how the help of Briq’s would be a benefit for the city. “They’re interested in helping to run some of the other features down there. It is a positive for us because otherwise, the Parks Department has to have a staff person there to handle either the bike share or the paddle board rental.”
Schock thinks the proposal is a perfect fit for the building due to Briq’s successful brand in the area. The city also feels the use of an ice cream shop fits in well with a park location. Briq’s owner Kevin Briquelet Miller also told the city he feels the family environment of the park would be a good fit for their business as it’s a family run company.
The proposal is in its early stages and still needs to be worked on before the committee takes any action. Schock expects Briq’s to have an actionable proposal for the committee at their next meeting in January.
The committee also discussed another portion of the Riverlife area to the south of Fulton Street. At this time Dave Johnson is working on developing a condo proposal to be built at that site. Johnson presented a revised plan to the committee to clear up design issues. Part of that presentation included that the group is trying to find a formula that works. The site lost a floor in its revision and now only has 12 units as opposed to 17, along with different fencing.
Johnson did say there may be the possibility that the project would need city support. The committee agreed at this point they would need more information on infrastructure costs and details to move forward with potentially helping with financing. The city will continue to work with the condo project and plans to see an updated plan at the next meeting.
The meeting also included updates about multiple city projects including the Westside Battery location. The building is in the process of being purchased by Urban Street Bistro to open a permanent location. The group is working to close all loans at the same time before opening and the city expects it to only take another month with January being the latest date.
