Town to Review Conceptual Von Maur Plans Tuesday

A pedestrian-friendly town square would be created next to a Von Maur store, buttressed by two restaurants, a grocer, retail and office development, under plans filed by the Marcus Corp. that the town Plan Commission will review Tuesday. 

Traffic management will be the biggest challenge for a proposed $100 million retail and office complex, north of I-94 and east of Barker Road. 

The site plan calls for building the three-story, 150,000-squre-foot Von Maur store — the first in Wisconsin — along the interstate. The main access point to the complex would be off Blue Mound Road at Jennifer Drive in front of Menards. 

The total 605,000-square-foot complex would also have access off Blue Mound Road at Marcus Drive, which is much closer to the complex Barker-Blue Mound roads intersection.

Relying too heavily on the Marcus Drive access could cause problems with the state Department of Transportation, which recently considered but opted against eliminating a median cut at Marcus Drive due to concerns about turning movements so close to Barker Road.

The Marcus Corp. has not yet filed a traffic analysis and state DOT officials have told Marcus what calculations they want included in the analysis before it is filed, Town Building and Zoning Administrator Gary Lake said in an interview Friday.

A town master plan for that area called for a possible new frontage road to be built from the Menards/Marcus sites east to Janacek Road. But that construction would be costly due to the need to cross Poplar Creek which runs east of Menards.

Lake said the town will consider whether that road work should be mandated as part of the Poplar Creek redevelopment. If the town creates a tax incremental financing district — under a — a frontage road could be part of the public improvements financed by the Poplar Creek tax revenue, Lake added.

The project has drawn officials, who say they fear the new complex will merely shift tenants and jobs from existing shopping centers rather than attract new ones.

Initial plans for Poplar Creek called for a total of 450,000 square feet of retail and office. But the conceptual plans obtained Friday call for 605,000 square feet. The site plan shows eight buildings with a total of 230,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, 225,000 square feet of office and the 150,000-square-foot Von Maur.

The plans call for a 12,200-square-foot "junior anchor" store to be built at the far northeast corner of the site. Two restaurant sites are designated

An existing small shopping center anchored by an Applebees would be razed. 

There would be 1,425 parking spaces, with underground parking and surface lots.

Lake said the plans filed by the Marcus Corp., which owns the former West Point Cinemas there, follow the mixed-use ideas in the town's master plan for that area.

"Conceptually, I think this is what the Plan Commission envisioned for redevelopment of these sites," Lake said.

He added there are "a significant number of engineering challenges here." The town's engineer, Strand & Associates, will join DOT in reviewing the traffic analyses.

"If all the engineering details can be worked out, this would be much more warmly received than just a big-box retailer."

The Town Plan Commission will discuss the project for the first time at its 7 p.m. meeting Tuesday at . Before construction could begin, the town would have to grant conceptual, preliminary and final site plan approvals. Here is the agenda.