Hello Washington County! This week, we're talking to West Bend's City Administrator Jay Shambeau about some of the great developments in West Bend.

In this episode, Jay joins me to talk about the Downtown West Bend Main Street renovation, the west side of the Riverwalk, and Christmas decorations.

We also talk about what is going in to the old Boston Store building: Old Navy, Dunhams, and Ross Dress for Less. And what is going in the old ShopKo building: Five Below, HomeGoods, Big Lots, and Sierra.

Plus there some great new development in TID 16 (the old concrete plant).

Mentioned in this episode:

• Economic Development in West Bend
• West Bend broadens redevelopment plan for industrial land near downtown

If you like the show, please consider subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts.

New episodes on Tuesday.

Thanks for listening!

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Fuzz Martin 0:08

Hello, Washington County. Thank you for listening to 15 Minutes with Fuzz. I'm your host and Fuzz Martin. And each week, we talk about positive things going on in and around Washington County, Wisconsin. And again, it's important to tell you Washington County, Wisconsin, because there are like Baskin Robbins numbers of Washington counties in the US. I believe there are 31 is what we counted. So, Washington County, Wisconsin, why is it important to talk about positive things here? Well, take a look around you. It's election season. There's a whole bunch of negativity everywhere. And I don't want those not so positive things from any side to drown out the good happening in our area and I just whacked a microphone handle as I was explaining the area, West Bend right now is alive with a ton of great development going on. As an owner of a business near downtown. It is really fun to watch. And West Bend. City Administrator Jay Shambeau joins me today to talk about the new TID district, the Riverwalk, the new retail stores that are opening up here very soon. And some have actually already opened the downtown Main Street renovation project and more. All right here on Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz.

Fuzz Martin 1:35

Jay, thanks for coming back to Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz. Good to see you again here now on season two.

Jay Shambeau 1:40

Great to be here. Thanks for having me.

Fuzz Martin 1:42

Absolutely. So always get great interest in the things that are going on around West Bend, especially with all the new developments that are going on and things like that. So we wanted to get an update on how things are going. I know there's a ton of movement in town it's it's really exhilarating. Seeing all the the cranes and the work going on in town. I had heard about TID 16. Can you tell us about what this TID 16 development is about?

Jay Shambeau 2:06

Fuzz Martin 2:47

We're going to have probably the best setup for assisted and retirement living in the area, I would say for sure. With all the cool new developments that are going on.

Jay Shambeau 2:56

Yeah, we should be taking care of our seniors and this helps do that. Yeah.

Fuzz Martin 2:59

on from there, though. Were there other things that are going into 16? Or is that the basis right now,

Jay Shambeau 3:05

this is the first development that's going in and then The We Energies complex, that service center has indicated that they want to relocate somewhere without somewhere without being within town in the city. And so then that would free up that land for redevelopment and then the Jacobus oil property in the north as well. But no, the only known development that we have coming now is the assistance.

Fuzz Martin 3:25

I got to see the riverwalk the other day it was over at the hub and the progress that's being made is fantastic. So talk to us about Riverwalk west.

Jay Shambeau 3:33

Fuzz Martin 4:11

Yeah, if you listening haven't seen the riverwalk West project, they put up a Steel Wall and then they laid down railroad ties so the Steel Wall was to to divert the river away from this side of the wall and then they were able to drive dump trucks on the railroad ties was just amazing to watch. And that's the speed at which they built this was amazing.

Jay Shambeau 4:34

That's been really great. The fact that the DNR trusted the city enough to issue a permit to allow us to build a road a literal road temporary but literal road in the river is a pretty neat accomplishment.

Fuzz Martin 4:45

Yeah, that's very cool. Well, congrats on that and it was also cool to see the guys out there with paint brushes. I'm working on the wall. So if there been any businesses yet downtown that have embraced the Riverwalk and started to do some things on that on that side of the river. Yep,

Jay Shambeau 4:59

yeah, the new restaurant for sure has Copper River has created an awesome patio with lights and they are not able to use it so much in any more this time of the year but

Fuzz Martin 5:09

sure that was the old Cafe Sourret and the Oaken Hogg, right?

Jay Shambeau 5:13

Yep. Okay, absolutely. Tracy Serwats has done a great job with that building. And Brent really built it out in a nice way. I would say Kevin Schultz is as well for Mountain Outfitters. He's adding some new concrete and a deck and Beth rose just repainted the back of her building. We have a couple of other projects that are in the works as well. So yes, business owners are definitely embracing the Riverwalk and starting the tourney separate front facing portion of their business and building to the river.

Fuzz Martin 5:38

I'm really excited for that. I'm just just thinking about how that's going to live and up West man is just really exciting. So that and then the main street reconstruction, we'll wrap that all together should be pretty proud of that of things that are happening.

Jay Shambeau 5:51

Yeah, our downtown is really thriving and, and there's just a lot of excitement about being downtown and businesses that a storefront that comes available is really competitive to lease out and, and for sale. So it's that's a great sign for thriving downtown.

Fuzz Martin 6:07

You had mentioned to me the downtown Historic Preservation district. He talked about what that piece is.

Jay Shambeau 6:12

Now we've had discussions with our business improvement district for the last few years about the possible creation of a historic preservation district. We're really close. So next week, Jess Wildes, who serves as the executive director for the bid and myself will be going to Madison, and the Shippo, the State Historic Preservation Office will be acting on our application. And our understanding is, as long as we make it that far, we're going to receive it. So it's really exciting. And the bid received an update at their last at their meeting last Tuesday. And then fast forward a week we're going to receive designation and then be able to accurately and definitively promote, and encourage folks to come to the officially designated historic downtown.

Fuzz Martin 6:55

What kind of things does that mean, in terms of being a historic preservation area, from a marketing

Jay Shambeau 6:59

standpoint, it really helps us separate West Bend from other municipalities. And then for the building owners themselves. It it allows them prepares them the opportunity to apply for tax credits, and that they can use to then offset the cost of reconstructing and maintaining their building. Well, that's

Fuzz Martin 7:18

exciting for business owners, and it's exciting for people who will be coming down and visiting downtown West Bend or those who just live nearby, right?

Jay Shambeau 7:24

Yep, really exciting.

Fuzz Martin 7:26

Speaking of that, let's jump ahead to the upcoming Main Street reconstruction. Can you give us some updates on where that's now?

Jay Shambeau 7:32

Yeah, we have what 60% design phase at this point completed, and we'll be getting that to 100%. And then bidding the project in December, January of this year, there have been a ton of meetings with businesses and with the Business Improvement District Transportation subcommittee, lots of conversations, trying to determine how best to reconstruct that road, we're going to be adding over 40 parking stalls to the downtown, which is something we hear often that we need more parking. So that's certainly an exciting component. And then just having smooth sidewalks again, and a reconstructed surface for the Main Street to be on is going to be short term pain, no doubt for businesses, and we're working as closely with them as we can to make that as minimal disruption as possible. But long term, it's going to be awesome for the city.

Fuzz Martin 8:19

So again, for those who may not be familiar with that yet, that is just Main Street through downtown West Bend from the stoplight up to the roundabout, right. Yep. Okay, perfect. And that will be happening next year. And like you said, that's still waiting on bid and what the phases will be and things like that.

Jay Shambeau 8:34

Fuzz Martin 8:37

And speaking of downtown, so just this past weekend, or this past week, you guys lit up the Christmas tree right?

Jay Shambeau 8:43

We did Merry Christmas. Merry

Fuzz Martin 8:44

Christmas to you too. You know, this year for some reason I am embracing Christmas early. Why not? I just I went into the beat goes on and I bought a couple of records are at Christmas CDs for my my father in law because I know we're going up there on Thanksgiving weekend and he'll start playing him the day after Thanksgiving. So just kind of started early but you guys got the Christmas decorations up. Right or they're going up.

Jay Shambeau 9:07

They're up we we always have recent history planet to correspond with Moe as blooming holidays, their big kickoff to the winter that occurred this past weekend and starts Thursday night, Thursday night of last week. So that's when the tree gets lit and we embrace it as well. The city does such a great job in the business improvement district has done an awesome job of improving the lights and the tree. Why not enjoy it for two solid months? Yeah,

Fuzz Martin 9:32

it was exciting to to see the video so you guys had with Erica, the comedian, Erica Rhodes, Erica Rhodes, and that you guys coordinated with the band and all of that it was we came downtown for dinner on Saturday night and just it just felt alive. It was great.

Jay Shambeau 9:48

The band reached out to us and asked if they could partner with us on this event and we added some musical acts including the local choir from the high school and that was awesome to see the kids out there and Singing River City regulars Have playing music before and after. And then the band as well with Erica was just great. We've grown that event event over the last few years and happy to share it. It was a beautiful night and there were a ton of people downtown on Thursday night.

Well, one last thing I want to ask you about. So south of downtown, we've got a whole bunch of new construction and new retail outlets that are opening, can you give us an update on the old Shopko center and some of the other pieces that are going on?

It's pretty cool to be able to say the old Shopko center and soon, Sierra HomeGoods Big Lots and Five Below. That's what it's going to be known as, and we'll stop talking about yes, the old Shopko or what chapter was sorry, I said that's okay. I think it's great. It's been a great transformation. And it looks so nice already. And only two of the stores are really close to being open. A car will be the first and then followed by HomeGoods within the next few weeks.

And then I saw a news that there's a new coffee shop that got approved as well. Where is that going in that that same ladder in the Hobby Lobby lot that's actually

going in the Hobby Lobby lot. It's called Seven brew, okay, it's a new chain that's coming to this area,

and I saw the walls are going up at the Panera and what's the other one? Chipotle Chipotle, okay. And so I saw those are up and then on the other side of the freeway, we've got Dunham's and Old Navy, right?

Dunn's Old Navy. Old Navy is set to open this week really? Okay, and they get final occupancy. They're really close. And Dunham's just recently opened we can say Old Boston star for now.

If you didn't see me sweating when I was starting to ask you those questions.

And then Ross Dress for last is coming in spring, I could use some new

wardrobe items. So probably be at all maybe here soon. They make nice jeans for my body type. Thanks, Jay. This was great. I appreciate all the updates. And I know the audience appreciates getting all these updates. And again, it feels like West Ben is alive with developments and things that are going to bring us into that area where people want to come and shop, eat. Hang out. It's great work.

Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for having me. There's a lot of exciting things going on in West Bend. But there's a lot of work yet to do. So we'll continue to do that.

All right. Well, we'll we'll check in with you again in a few months. All right. Sounds great fun. Thank you. Thanks, Jay. Thank you again to West Bend's city administrator Jay Shambeau for joining me to talk about all the good things happening in West Bend right now. It's always fun to have Jay on. And lots of cool stuff going on here in West Bend that we should all be proud of. If you have an idea for the show, shoot me a message either on Facebook or Instagram @fifteenwithfuzz spelled out "fifteen." You can also email me fifteenwithfuzz@gmail.com. Again, 15 is spelled out. I'm always looking for ideas for the show. Even if you've already given idea to me before, don't be bashful. Give me more feed me. All right, more information at fifteenwithfuzz.com. We'll talk to you next week right here on 15 minutes with fuzz