What’s wrong with Milwaukee’s Shops of Grand Avenue mall? (UPDATE)

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By Marie Rohde

A suburban knockoff of an urban downtown has become one of the hottest spots in the Milwaukee retail market, while the real thing flounders.

In two weeks, all or part interest in the ownership group for the Shops of Grand Avenue, the traditional main drag of Milwaukee’s retail center on Wisconsin Avenue, will go on the auction block.

Meanwhile, the suburban Bayshore Town Center ranks among the top retail centers nationally for sales per square foot, said Glendale Administrator Richard Maslowski.

Yaromir Steiner, a part owner and the developer of the Bayshore center, said there are no easy answers to the Grand Avenue’s woes. But, he said, public and private city leaders need a shared vision for downtown.

“You need to have a dream of what downtown should be in 2040,” said Steiner, also president of the Columbus, Ohio-based Steiner & Associates. “If they want an entertainment district, they need to decide where it will be located and everyone must be on board.”

Downtown needs some kind of shopping, said Franklyn Gimbel, chairman of the Wisconsin Center District, which operates the Midwest Airlines Center, the Milwaukee Theatre and the US Cellular Arena.

“One of the top considerations when a meeting is being planned is what sort of shopping a city has to offer,” he said. “We are concerned about whether what happens at the Grand Avenue will be compatible with the convention business.”

Gimbel said the stores now in the Grand Avenue are not compatible. The development of suburban malls and the perception of an unsafe downtown led to a retail focus at Grand Avenue from affluent shoppers to those who are younger and poorer.

But as more affluent condominium owners move downtown, the Grand Avenue needs to adjust, Gimbel said.

“The Grand Avenue is a reflection of the evolution of Milwaukee,” said Gimbel, who lives downtown. “You need something unique, some small shops. I’d like to see something that looks like the streets of old Milwaukee.”

Rocky Marcoux, commissioner of the Milwaukee Department of City Development, said the city already invested millions in the Grand Avenue, the largest single tax incremental financing investment of its kind in city history, and cannot invest more.

Municipalities use TIF districts to borrow money to subsidize developments and pay for utility and street work that serves projects. Communities then use new taxes generated by the projects to pay off the debt.

While a district’s declining value would make it more difficult to pay the debt, recent changes in the law provide better protection for the municipalities. Earlier this year, a state law extended the payback period for a TIF loan from 27 to 40 years.

The city through the TIF saved the historic downtown buildings, but Marcoux said he does not believe Grand Avenue can continue as a two-story retail center.

City Planner Bob Greenstreet, also dean of architecture for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, agreed the Grand Avenue’s retail future will have to be different.

“The Grand Avenue needs to be a neighborhood shopping center rather than regional,” Greenstreet said. “It should look at different uses — education, perhaps, small specialty shops — things that are geared toward the people living downtown.”

The mall also struggled with the perception the area is dangerous and parking is a problem, but that’s not the reality, Greenstreet said. Still, the success of the suburban Bayshore Town Center is that it gives the feeling of an urban environment with a sense of safety.

“I’m really a closet fan of Bayshore,” Greenstreet said.

Bayshore is not competing with Grand Avenue or the rest of downtown Milwaukee, he said, a fact that will play out over time with proper planning.

Steiner agreed but said the leadership for the Grand Avenue’s revival needs to be nonpolitical and patient.

“The destruction of the downtown began in the mid-1950s, and it will take 30 to 40 years to turn around,” he said. “No political leader will be around that long.”