Wisconsin Downtown Action Council

The next WDAC board meeting will be held August 28, 2009 in Madison at Schreiber/Anderson Associates, 717 John Nolen Drive.

Contact Tim Anderson at 608-255-0800 or tanderson(at)saa-madison(dot)com for more information.

Downtown Waukesha has been on the verge of success for the last 3 years. After suffering a set back in 2007 when several retail businesses closed or left the downtown, Waukesha has made a remarkable rebound with dozens of new businesses opening by the end of 2008. Undoubtedly one of the catalysts for the migration of businesses to downtown Waukesha was the announcement that a new boutique hotel and gourmet restaurant would be opening in a historic building that encompasses nearly an entire city block in the heart of downtown. The downtown is currently experiencing a level of commercial synergy that it has not seen in years. With each new restaurant or business that moves in, the buzz amplifies and the numbers of new customers and visitors downtown increases. The Waukesha Community Visit highlighted some of the success stories downtown has seen and also some of the early catalysts of development and revitalization that brought the downtown to this tipping point.

The Clarke Hotel and Black Trumpet Restaurant, a modern hospitality facility, was built in a historic building that had been vacant. This project ran into a number of challenges in route to completion. As the owners got deeper into the interior demolition a number of major structural problems revealed themselves. The interior was gutted down to the original stone/brick walls. The entire roof had to be removed and replaced. Once this was completed the exterior stone panels started to fall off the building. This resulted in all the exterior stone being removed and replaced. The project was delayed by over a year due to the construction challenges that were faced. However, the result is impressive and well worth the wait. Every detail has been thought of to accommodate business and leisure travelers alike. The restaurant has quickly become a fine dining favorite for business people as well as residents. The project has truly delivered what it promised when first proposed. The synergy created by the opening of the hotel and restaurant has attracted several other restaurants and businesses to downtown adding hundreds if not thousands of new patrons to the downtown.

Over 10 years ago Jeff Seymour opened a small café that featured art and was a meeting space for artists. This was the birth of an arts movement in downtown Waukesha. Downtown Waukesha is now home to over a dozen art galleries, 5 art crawls per year and hundreds of artists. The arts community has had a major impact on the economy of downtown and has been a key in the revitalization of downtown. It only took one forward thinking person to start a movement that would have a fundamental impact on the local economy and the quality of life downtown.

The Waukesha Civic Theatre, which relocated downtown in 1999, has played a prominent role in this arts community. The theatre is located in the heart of downtown and continues to be a major partner in the success of downtown. The theatre provides an enhanced quality of life for residents and also attracts patrons from the entire county. This facility provides not only quality live theatre performances but also educational programs that enrich, challenge and entertain both participants and audience members.

Finally, The City of Waukesha started the revitalization by constructing an extensive riverwalk and a beautified public and recreational space along the Fox River that runs through downtown Waukesha. The city had basically turned its back on the river until the community came together to clean up the river and its banks as well as create highly attractive and useful recreational areas along the urban areas of the river. The riverwalk project was the first catalyst of the downtown revitalization. As a result of this important project, the downtown has seen 10’s of millions of dollars of private investment. This award winning community project was funded jointly by the City, the community at large and the DNR. It has been a true economic success story that continues to pay back every year to the City of Waukesha.

The City of Onalaska is aggressively pursuing plans to revitalize its downtown area. A 1999 Downtown Redevelopment Plan set in motion a number of City initiatives to improve and re-energize the city center.

With nearly 17,000 people and a location central to La Crosse’s urbanizing area along the Black River and Lake Onalaska, Onalaska’s downtown has great potential. It is the center for the convergence of many features including the Great River Road, Great River State Trail, Onalaska’s Main Street, an $8M civic campus, significant archaeological history, the Black River, Lake Onalaska and the Wittenberg Marsh which is home to bald eagles and other wildlife.

As part of the WDAC visit, Onalaska profiled an early redevelopment project entitled the Kolve Dayspa and Hair Studio. In 2000, the City sold the former Police Department building and site to Sue Kolve, a local businesswoman who owned a growing spa and hair salon. In order to make the deal work for everyone involved, the City wrote-down the property, forgoing $100,000 in value in exchange for a guarantee by Ms. Kolve to invest nearly $900,000 on the property in an attractive architectural landmark designed by Brickl Brothers of West Salem, Wisconsin. The resulting project created an architecturally beautiful structure in the heart of downtown, attracting up to 70 new customers to the downtown daily and influencing other businesses to reinvest in their storefronts.

WDAC’s community visit energized local downtown advocates and provided a valuable look into the community first impressions program. This can be a useful tool in identifying areas for improvement. WDAC invited general discussion about Onalaska’s downtown as well as other case studies, resulting in an excellent exchange of information about downtown redevelopment. The 50 attendees represented a wide array of interests from local and regional planning staff to downtown business owners and potential investors.