2009 Preview: NO NEW MALL in 2009
Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of Ocono.com’s predictions for 2009.
There will be no new mall in Pabst Farms in 2009.
The caliber of anchor for the alleged Mall at Pabst Farms has dropped ever toward the mundane as economic times get tighter.
Oconomowoc leaders will face hard realities regarding the “Shoppes at Pabst Farms” in 2009. They’ve given Developer Peter Bell the legal standing and ability to pretty much drop whatever big box he wants to at the development’s south end, so don’t be surprised when your new mall is anchored by a Kohl’s Department Store and surrounded by a Shopko and a new Taco Bell. With any luck, Oconomowoc will also get a beeper pawn shop and a check-into-cash store. Congratulations, Oconomowoc, your $24 million has bought Beaver Dam in the 1990’s and a gold sign. Good spending. We’re guessing the 1000-friends of Wisconsin’s proposed Pabst Farms Arboretum doesn’t seem so ridiculous to you all anymore.
That being said, we’re not sure that Oconomowoc really needed the kind of upper-class hoorahhrahh that was promised by Pabst Developers with tax-payer-funded golden dollar signs in their eyes. We love Oconomowoc, and would hate to see it become one of those uber-plastic shrines to consumerism that so-called upscale shopping centers become. We don’t really need our own “Rain Forest Cafe” in Oconomowoc do we?
Join us tomorrow when we consider what’s in store for Downtown in 2009.
