Something that served as a planned a destination, as Partarican1 has suggested, or something able to draw traffic from the Interstate that wouldn't otherwise stop could be a real plus for Janesville's economy.

Yeah, that was in the Gazette a few days ago. Mercy already owned some of the land under the Riverview building, and now they will use it for administrative offices and so forth. It won't sit empty for long.
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Kubotan, the 14 interchange will (almost certainly) be changed to a diamond (this was already partly done on the east ramps). I don't think it needs more ROW. The new lanes will gobble up part of the median most likely. Cloverleafs are deprecated these days.
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BunBun, during the early discussions about a private or public/private ice arena, this site was mentioned. Obviously nothing happened.
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li713, as I said, a hotel would be a better use of the site traffic-wise, but it would require razing the structure. Anything retail, including a strip mall approach, would be hampered by low visibility and thus low rents. The city has to work with the site as it is. I don't think they forced Menards to buy it in the first place. Now it's a vacant, tricky site, and the city can't change that.

Lemke...Mercy is buying that building from Dean, so they will fill it up, and leave something else empty...

Outlet mall is needed.

And now the Dean's Riverview Clinic will sit empty as well. I just drove past there today and it was as empty as could be with signs all around saying they moved to the new Racine address. Another empty building to sit there and look at.

http://www.menardsrealestate.com/menards...
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After going to their website, I found out that the Machesney Park store is available. Did they build a bigger one there too??

More new buildings go up, old buildings rot. This will NOT attract new business!

When 39/90 is expanded to six lanes, it's interchanges at 26 and 14 will require major upgrades. 26 probably has the real estate to handle it but I doubt 14 does. I wouldn't invest in a piece of land unless I had assurances it would not be gobbled up by eminent domain.

Just curious, does anyone know what Menards is asking for this property ?
Thanks.....

Personally, I would love a Brennan's Market - but I think I've been saying that since the early 80's.

@frusion

Yeah, I say 65% serious. I know there have been some places for teens in town, and depending on what they are there is low turn out, but mainly that is cause they really are not places that the teens want to go. And for the the others, they have been shut down. For noise, or saying that there are drugs in the parking lot, or whatever else is the reason. The kids need a place to go, instead of wasting gas on Milton Ave.

How about a hospital?

zam6669, are you joking around or are you serious? I ask because I don't think the "places for teens" get shut down. They close because of poor attendance. People have tried to make a go of it with teens being the target customer and they don't have enough customers to keep afloat.

I bet we will soon hear about a new location for an updated/improved ice arena

I love that Janesville's manager of building and development services thinks that "it would probably be better, given the existing traffic flow, if it was the type of place that people don't go into and out of all the time, like they did when it was Menards." So in other words, they want someone to spend money on the building and renovations, but want it to be something that isn't too busy (ie sucessful). Instead of considering options to fix the traffic problem and make the property more usable to potential buyers (don't have to actually do it at this point, just come up with a plan, but try not to spend $100k on it), let's just hope someone wants to invest all the money in something that isn't too busy. If that's the attitude of city representative, I just can't even imagine why so many things in this town fail and/or are horribly planned and executed. (I seriously hope that was some kind of misquote on the part of the Gazette)

What retailer or developer wouldn't want to expand to Janesville, land of joy and optimism? Actually the access road was and remains the primary reason the property stays vacant. Had not the lanes been added south of the rental business, Menards would not have lasted there as long as they did. City or state planners used a faulty design and until it's corrected or improved, occupation is unlikely.

Stubby, a roundabout at Pontiac and Pontiac Pl. (the stoplight) would actually be ideal. Most people coming out of the Menard's property or the plaza opposite have a fairly long wait to make a left turn, even though there isn't continuous north-south traffic, and a roundabout would eliminate that nuisance.
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I don't think it's a problem per se, but access is something that potential tenants are going to look at. Right now the site is only good for certain uses, even subdividing the existing structure, and there's a lot of competing empty retail space in the area. Aside from perhaps a hotel, I don't think many commercial redevelopment opportunities exist for the property unless some of the frontage on Pontiac were also available. At least a couple of the businesses there are doing pretty well, though, and would have to be given relocation support.
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Short answer: Probably nothing is going to happen until the regional economy picks up pace again.

Auto parts stores & dollar stores are experiencing a boom in this economy. Be happy that those sectors are doing so well or things could be much worse. That said, I like the outlet mall idea.

How about a large dance clube for kids 16 to 20 so that the youth in the area actually have a place to go. Everytime someone opens a place for teens it gets shut down. Won't someone think of the children...

I never had a problem driving to the old store.
What was so hard about getting there?

Perhaps a roundabout would help? (/sarcasm)

It is a nice attractive location, except the traffic pattern around there sucks big time. That whole area needs to be reworked, and I don't have a good idea of how to do it. I lived pretty close to that store and hated going there, it was much more enjoyable to drive 3 times as far to get to the new one as it was going to the old one. That needs to be fixed before anybody is seriously going to look at it. and please, no casino for beloit. just what that area needs is a casino

I always thought the Menard's property would be good place for a water park...great location, already on city services, accessible by foot, bus, and car...

"It's the economy, stupid."
-- B. Clinton

if one wonders why this property is still vacant, perhaps all they have to do is look at the negativity that is spewing through the posters on the janesville newspaper website.
I would have to say that the accessibility to this property is the number one reason it is still vacant. It is going to cost the city, ie the taxpayers, a ton of dough to make it attractive to any developers. Basically i think someone would have to be bought out and razed in order to create a new access.

two words; general motors

This is news why???

If I remember correctly, Walmart had to establish a reuse for their Milton Ave. property as one of the hoops they had to jump through to get their permits for their Deer field Dr. store. Why wasn't Menard's subjected to the same conditions? A propety of this size and prominence that stays vacant for such a long time is just plain blight!

Labeler80. I love your reply. With all these Pay Day Loans and Car Title Loan Stores on Milton Ave., we could relable the Milton Ave. shopping corridor "Janesville's Financial District". To keep Mr. Price's vision of a Mixed Use property for the vacant Menards, we could have another Pay Day Loan store to finance the visit to the bar next door, then go to the Car Title Loan Store to pay the Auto Parts Store for parts to keep the "beater" running so that we can go to work to get the next Pay Day Loan. Oh, and don't forget to pack in another recycled clothing store and another Dollar Store. We need threads to go to work. Of course, all of this shopping is dependent on keeping the taxes, fees, permits, etc., low. When the casino opens in Beloit, guess where Janesville inhabitants will be spending their money?

Bass Pro Shop!!!

Maybe with all that space we could put in another payday loan place or another autoparts store.

I was thinking once the building was gone, not sure how big the entire property would be. I just think if Beloit is seriously considering going ahead with the Casino, Janesville should get a jump and develop the properties close to I-90.

An outlet mall would be great! What about a Gymboree or Monkey Joes...something for the kids to do?

I agree that intersection is terrible even w/o Menards there now.
emac- isn't it too small for outlet mall?

Two words; Outlet Mall. If the Casino is coming in the future it would be an excellent location for an Outlet mall.