Time to end the Pabst Farms fantasy

Tomorrow night Oconomowoc is going to have another meeting on the future of Pabst Farms. Oconomowoc Mayor Maury Sullivan is no longer drinking the developer Kool-Aid and no longer believes that Pabst Farms is being developed as a regional attraction with high-end retail.

Sullivan said the outdoor mall has been reduced to a “strip retail center” along Highway 67 and a pedestrian-oriented lifestyle center that has yet to be defined. Sullivan said Pabst Farms has also been unwilling to commit to a completion date of the lifestyle center. The developers have also promised public use areas and a 24-hour security service, but those features would not be in place until the lifestyle center is finished, Sullivan said.

Sullivan said he is withholding judgment until he sees the developer’s final plans, but he does not want the community to be duped into a bait-and-switch situation.

“I bought into the proposal, I supported the plan and I accepted the promise, so if they’re proposing something less than what they have proposed – and in effect promised – then I have some reluctance,” he said.

Although no Town Centre tenants have been officially named, Sullivan said retail recruiter Mid-America Real Estate Group sent him a list of potential tenants, including Target, Kohl’s, PetSmart and OfficeMax. Three of those retailers already operate stores at Highway 83 and Interstate 94 in Delafield.

Sullivan said there were no unique, upscale retailers mentioned in the letter, which he received in September.

This was, of course, predictable when the contract was signed with the developer in question back in 2007.

Now high-end retail is going into the tank along with the economy. High-end stores are looking to close locations, not open them. Meanwhile, a developer lacking experience working with high-end retail is experiencing a crash in its stock price, and yet they're still promising a mall opening in 2010. For its part, Waukesha County is still looking at a $24 million off-ramp construction project to support this development.

If this project is allowed to continue, it's very likely we will only see stores at the Pabst Farms location that are comparable (if not exactly the same) as the stores at the other exits along the same stretch of highway. Nobody has yet made a case that such a development assisted by the government makes good public policy.

It's time to put an end to the Pabst Farms fantasy. At a time when government budgets are tight already, there is no sense in continuing with the highway reconstruction to support Pabst Farms. There is no reason to continue to hope against experience that somehow we can re-create Madison Avenue in the middle of nowhere, especially with this developer in this economic climate at this time. There is no development plan. It's over.

Everybody's going downtown

The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares
So go downtown, things'll be great when you're
Downtown - no finer place, for sure
Downtown - everything's waiting for you

I know I talk about it a lot, but downtown Waukesha is open for business. Pete Kennedy takes a mini-tour of the downtown restaurants and bumps into our mayor in his snow Crocs (okay, Pete doesn't mention the Crocs). My only caution to Waukesha residents is that we shouldn't get discouraged if a few of these new ventures fail. As much as I would like to see them all succeed, I know the probabilities when it comes to new businesses failing. Still, many of them should succeed, and with any luck we'll finally put an end to the city that closes up at 6:00 PM.

I can't help but note the irony that we're building the downtown with the kind of restaurants and bars that are higher end in quality, while Pabst Farms (the planned upscale development in Waukesha County) is dead in the water. Not one big development engineered by the county in the middle of nowhere, but a city embracing a bunch of small developments. Perhaps the unique and high-end stores will follow the crowd and come... downtown.

Jerry: The song Downtown? You mean the Petula Clark song?
George: Yeah.
Jerry: You sure he didn't just mention it because you happened to be going downtown?
George: I think he was trying to tell me something, like it had some sort of a meaning.
Jerry: Okay, so how does it go?
George: 'When you're alone, and life is making you lonely, you can always go...'
Jerry: '... downtown.'
George: 'Maybe you know some little places to go, where they never close...'
Jerry: '...downtown.'
George: Wait a second. 'Little places to go, where they never close.' What's a little place that never closes?
Jerry: Seven-eleven?
George: 'Just listen to the music of the traffic, in the city. Linger on the sidewalk, where the neon lights are pretty.' Where the neon lights are pretty. The Broadway area?
Jerry: No, that's midtown.
George: 'The lights are much brighter there. You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares, just go...'
Jerry: '...downtown.'
George: 'Things'll be great, when you're...'
Jerry: '...downtown.'

Pabst Farms meeting canceled

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting tomorrow night's public hearing on the Pabst Farms project has been canceled due to the expected weather. The meeting is being postponed to sometime in January.

That's okay because who really believes anything is going to be built there anytime soon except a freeway offramp to nowhere? If they're afraid of snow, they should postpone the meeting to spring. The project will wait. And wait...

Look at the Idiots that aren't in the football press box

Welcome to the Idiot Politician of the Week, where each week we sift through the politicians and pick the one stand out idiot that causes us to wonder how they feed themselves, let alone get elected.

This week we may have discovered how some of the idiots get elected, with their idiot party’s help. In the big state of Texas, wasn’t anybody in either party smart enough to change the rules ahead of time to make sure they’re on the ballot? Guys, LBJ may be still voting, but he’s dead in the ground. Either get the paperwork in on time, or change the rules.

As Grumps at the Happy Circumstance points out, you’re making Bob Barr look smart. I thought that was impossible.

When the going gets dumb, the really dumb look for places to shop. Proving that all politics are loco, Oconomowoc Mayor Maury Sullivan announced what he heard were the likely chains setting up shop at the “upscale” shopping community of Pabst Farms: Target, Kohl’s, PetSmart, and OfficeMax. Maybe PetSmart sells upscale dog dishes and beds. If this is the best they can do, do we really need to spend over $20 million on a new interchange? Or can we spend $200 at another local PetSmart for the doghouse Maury Sullivan belongs in?

Then there’s Mukwonago Clerk Steve Braatz complaining his job is more than he can handle.

Verifying voters’ identifications as far back as 2006 would be “virtually impossible,” said Village of Mukwonago Clerk Steve Braatz. “We have other work to do besides election work, and we are short-staffed as it is. There is no way we could do this.”

Braatz said that if required to do so, he would be forced to set aside his regular duties as clerk.

“It would affect my work with budgeting, water bills and taxes,” he said. “Those would have to be dropped. This would have an astronomical impact on the general public.”

Because in two years, voter registrations in Mukwonago must’ve exploded more than his abacus and his staff of monk scribes can handle. Psst. Hey Braatz. Did you ever hear of Microsoft? You know, Excel? Access? Databases and spreadsheets?

But to be a real idiot, you need a national stage. Senator Barack Obama has super-duper secret plan to solve the crisis on Wall Street. When The One is elected president, The Obama will part the East River and walk across to Wall Street. The Revelation of His Plan will not only calm the markets, increase credit availability and make everyone whole, His Plan will also cure the sick and cause the blind to see. His Plan is so powerful, it’s like the opening of Ark of the Covenant at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. He can’t reveal it to us now, because it would “roil the markets,” cause the sea to boil and the flesh to fall away from the faces of stock brokers everywhere.

Yeah, right.  Perhaps he should have his buddies at Fannie Mae explain it for him to soften the blow.  That's if they can be interrupted from their hard work writing checks to the Obama campaign. Congratulations Senator Obama. You are the Idiot Politician of the Week.

Fair question

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting Waukesha County officials are waiting to see the plans for Pabst Farms before agreeing to release the funds for the interstate exit.

But county officials say they won't authorize spending the county money allocated for the interchange before they see the names of stores committed to the mall project and determine whether the proposed "lifestyle center" will have the regional draw promised by developers.

"We have to have some names that would be recognized as a regional draw, that was part of the bargain," said Norm Cummings, county director of administration, who helped broker the agreement among the state, county and city to finance the interchange. "It has to be different from other shopping centers."

Thad Nation, a spokesman for Pabst Farms and mall builder Developers Diversified Realty, said developers may not be ready in a few months to divulge the names of retailers planning to locate stores in the Towne Center.

But he emphasized that they would deliver on their promise that the mall will house stores not currently located in southeastern Wisconsin that would lure shoppers from a wide area.

"I think under any scenario, this will be a regional retail center," Nation said.

Revised plans for the shopping center got a cool reception from some Oconomowoc aldermen and county supervisors after developers indicated more common stores, such as Target and OfficeMax, may be anchors in the Pabst Farms mall, as they are in other malls built by Developers Diversified Realty.

I'll repeat what I said before. It may become "a regional retail center" but the question is whether it will merely compete with the already existing retail or provide something completely different. If it's not something completely different, then why bother? Why expend state and county resources to build just another strip mall between here and whatever there? Better to leave the field vacant until someone has a better plan. That's if the current developers have any plan at all.

Go slow for Pabst Farms

The Waukesha Freeman editorial on Saturday hit just the right tone on development at the Pabst Farms. The editors point out that unless more upscale stores are considered the project could stall.

I agree, and I also agree with those Oconomowoc aldermen and Waukesha County Supervisors that there is no rush to develop Pabst Farms. Far better that it be done correctly than done in a hurry. Pabst Farms must be unique, the regional attraction that justifies the attention and the subsidies.

Because if Pabst Farms is just going to be like any other development along I-94, then there really isn't any reason for the county to consider adding one more exit to the freeway at taxpayer expense.

We all want to see the plan, part II

This does not make me feel good about Pabst Farms signing a contract with a new developer:

Oconomowoc Mayor Maury Sullivan said Monday he was happy to see plans for the retail center moving forward.

But, warning that the city is sticking to its vision of a high-quality regional retail center, Sullivan said he hoped Developers Diversified Realty's plans for the mall are similar to the proposal by General Growth. A plan for a collection of free-standing large-format stores, also called "big box" stores, will not be welcomed, he said.

"As positive and hopeful as I am about DDR, we have to wait to see what plans they submit," Sullivan said. "The city has an ordinance in place that's specific about what the city's interests are for that site."

Nation said a timetable has not been established for submission of plans to Oconomowoc. But Nation said he expects DDR to start looking for tenants next year.

Shouldn't Pabst Farms have seen the plans first and then signed a deal with the developer?

DDR owns and manages about 740 centers in 45 states, plus Puerto Rico, Brazil, Russia and Canada, totaling more than 160 million square feet. The company's tenant list is long and includes national retail chains typically found in malls across the country. Anchor department stores in DDR properties include those owned by Bon-Ton Stores Inc., the parent company for Boston Store; Dillard's; Kohl's; J.C. Penney; Macy's; and Sears. High-end department stores, including Nordstrom, Von Maur, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, were not on the list. {emphasis added}

It's like signing a contract with an artist to have your portait done and then discovering he's only worked with black velvet. Pabst Farms doesn't have to be developed right away. It doesn't even have to be developed at all. But if it's going to be done, let's get it right. This doesn't look like it's being done right, just in a hurry.

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We all want to see the plan

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting Pabst Farms in Oconomowoc has a new developer.

Pabst Farms has signed an agreement with Developers Diversified Realty of Beachwood, Ohio, for the planned shopping center at I-94 and Highway 67 in Oconomowoc, Pabst spokesman Thad Nation said Monday.

Okay, now let's see the plan. What kind of stores and what kind of mall? Will it be the same kind of residential development or something smaller in scale? What kind of government subsidies is this thing going to continue to draw? What kind of track record does Developers Diversified Realty have?

I'll ask the Jim Rowen question, how much water is this thing going to suck up?

Let me say something completely radical in development-crazy Waukesha County: We don't have to have Pabst Farms. Unless this thing is really a unique asset to Waukesha County and doesn't directly compete with the revitalization of Waukesha's downtown and the downtowns of other communities, we can leave the whole thing a giant empty field.

Heck, plant a few trees or build a wind farm. Put up some cell towers. Drill for oil. Strip mine it.

But let's take advantage of this pause to really put this shopping mall under the microscope. If it's a Wal-Mart, a Best Buy and a Odd Lot Outlet, who needs it?

Pretentious? Moi?

Concerning Mayor Nelson's remarks about the ostentation and pretentiousness of Brookfield and Delafield, I comment in this week's column that I don't think the mayor is anyone to talk,

...this is the same mayor who promotes the downtown Art Crawl and is the prime proponent of the luxury Clarke Hotel and The Black Trumpet restaurant. Hanging out with Robert Redford in Sundance, Colo., to discuss water conservation is not the activity of the ordinary proletariat. And last I checked, most people don’t visit the factory in Europe to see their new Saab come off the assembly line.

But I also add that I don't think an apology is in order:

After all, just what would he say? "You’re right, I forgot about the big ugly mall in Brookfield and the giant glop of retail stores right off the freeway in Delafield. There’s nothing ostentatious or pretentious about them. In fact, they’re really just common examples of suburban sprawl."

I tapped into my inner Jim Rowen for those lines.

A quick and somewhat related note on the news the Pabst Farm developer is getting cold feet, is this really a bad thing? I came late to the Pabst Farms issue and so have been reluctant to stick my nose into it, but it looks like to me the county just saved $1.75 million in freeway costs, we saved a few million gallons of water, and we aren't artificially subsidizing competition to the business districts in already existing areas (ya know, like downtown Waukesha). Take this land off the books as retail property and you've just made the existing retail property in the county that much more valuable.

It seems to me we've just been given a chance to re-think the entire idea, and we should take advantage.

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