slantbob, I agree with you. Amizon Station was the greatest thing ever for kids in the Janesville area. It would be nice to have something like that again in the old Menards store.

Well I did hear somethimg about a Cabela's coming to janesville. I rather see something like that than another dollar store but that was a rumor like everything else in this town..

My vote is for a Sportsmans Warehouse. Way better than Gander Mountain.With a skatepark out back. Plenty of room!

Sorry Reader1 I didn't tell the whole story the parents were in the garage the cop was being a jerk that night! And yes we always did go to The Amazon station they're were a lot of kids hanged out there, not sure why they closed but I would love to see something like that come back!!

Dz discovery zone

Well, I'm just glad its not going to be a big empty eyesore sitting there.

I had mentioned after Mendard's planned new store in an email to council members that I thought that location would be great for a Hotel. However, not just a hotel, but a hotel with an indoor water park. It's unfortunate that didn't come to be, because we really don't need anymore retail. We have a few stores that are already teetering, I don't think adding more retail is going to help.

I just found a link to this place, it sounds perfect....

"Fun and adventure begins here! a Family Fun Center offering an 18-hole miniature golf course, go-karts, video and redemption games, indoor soccer, flag football, golf simulator, and bumper boats. If laser tag is your sport of choice, it features the premier laser tag arena in the state. Rain or shine there is always something for all ages to enjoy. From burgers and fries to frozen drinks and soft serve ice cream, the food is fun and delicious. This is also an ideal location for birthday parties, group events and corporate outings"

Oh yeah, we already had this place, it was called Amazon Station. If the kids in this city are so hard pressed for something to take up their time you would think it might still be in business. Janesville seems to suffer from a gigantic case of ADD, the residence get bored with something real quickly and then they close up shop. So I doubt you will be seeing anyone open up a recreational facility in town anytime soon.

They shouldn't have been out past curfew. But since that's not the topic here - I like the Slumberland idea.

It would be nice to turn into a recreation hall for kids. There is nothing for pre-teens or any age to do in this town. Maybe they're would be less kids getting in trouble. Example and I can't wait for my son's court date it was a hot thursday night and the kids were playing basketball and playing between the three yards and us parents were ok with it and bam a cop arrested the boys for curfew and then a disturbing the peace. The officer said no one turn them in but sense he saw one in the road he can do such a thing so slap with A $150 fine to me that is bull.We need something for KIDS!

localboy, "general retailer" means something like Target, Big Lots, perhaps even Walgreen's. Menards dealt with only one category, home improvement, so it is a "specialty retailer" in industry speak.
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The question is not whether Menards was successful or not, but how traffic will change when you have people coming to smaller stores just to pick up a few items, or get a haircut, pay an auto loan, and so forth. Shorter visits in aggregate means more traffic even with no change in size or utilization of the parking. That's going to be difficult for Pontiac Place to handle. (Have people already forgotten the traffic jams at Deerfield Drive and Humes Road once Pine Tree Plaza became successful?) It would be easier if the site had a south entrance near Michael's Cycles or where the church is on Holiday, but that seems unlikely to be easily acquired.
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As it is it won't be attractive to many businesses that normally prefer high-traffic strip malls, unless there is a major tenant that creates traffic, like a smaller department store or whatnot.
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It's too bad that a hotel developer isn't interested, because the site would be perfect for that use. Visually adjacent to the interstate, but not requiring road frontage, with very limited in-and-out traffic needs. Maybe they can still put one in back where the lumberyard was.

Too big for a Qdoba...but that'd be nice.

And ANOTHER dollar store!!

You know they'll zone it out to a Mexican restaurant, an auto parts store and two Check N' Go's.

I think it would be nice to have a furniture store(Ashley's Furniture, Slumberland,ect.) in the former Menards location. There is enough interior space and warehouse space. Dividing it into mulitple units makes me question if it's going to end up like the former Walmart building. While it looks nice, there is a lot of unused space currently.

Retail is retail, but the parking and traffic will be different at say, a Dollar General as opposed to a Home Depot, as opposed to a Walgreens as opposed to a furniture store. People spend entirely different amounts of time at each of those kinds of retail stores. Think about it...

retail is retail isn't it?

He must repair his house very often, evertime I was there is was packed

That site doesn't attract as much traffic as a general retailer??? If Menards isn't a general retailer, what fits that category? Did anybody see what kind of business Menards did? They had to build a much larger site due to the volume of traffic. I wonder what he meant.