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Brown Deer approves $21 million development agreement for Marketplace shopping center

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Brown Deer approves million development agreement for Marketplace shopping center

The Marketplace of Brown Deer, one of the highest-priority areas for commercial growth in the village, now has a developer ready to take on a new $21 million mixed-use redevelopment project.

Preliminary plans include a big box retailer to anchor the location and a mixed-use building with apartments and commercial space.

The Marketplace shopping center has struggled with high tenant vacancy rates in recent years.

But on Monday, Dec. 16, Brown Deer’s Plan Commission and Village Board both unanimously approved the development agreement with Nebraska-based developer Woodsonia Real Estate to revitalize 21 acres of the southern portion of the Marketplace.

Here’s what we know:

Where is the Marketplace in Brown Deer and what’s there now?

The southern portion of the Marketplace to be redeveloped is located at the intersection of North Green Bay Road and North Deerbrook Trail, just north of Brown Deer Road. It is currently anchored by a Pick ‘n Save and a Party City, which just announced the company is “winding down” operations and that Friday, Dec. 20, is its last day of employment.

More: Party City is closing all its stores. Here’s where they are in Wisconsin.

Why redevelop the Brown Deer Marketplace?

Since the shopping center was first built during the mid-1970s, it has long been a commercial center for the Village of Brown Deer located in one of its most visible areas off Brown Deer road, the village’s Community Development Director Nate Piotrowski said.

But for the last 15 years, the Marketplace has been struggling to keep tenants, a phenomenon that has accelerated within the last five years. To name a few: Kohl’s, T.J. Maxx, Burlington (formerly Burlington Coat Factory), a T-Mobile store, tile shop and Bob’s Discount Furniture have all closed up shop at the center, he said.

By itself, the southern end has a vacancy rate of over 50%, and the northern end’s is right around 50%, Piotrowski said.

“It’s a really bad look to have acres of parking and just kind of this desolate looking space,” he said.

What could the Marketplace redevelopment in Brown Deer include?

The preliminary redevelopment proposal from Woodsonia and Graef, an engineering and design consulting firm headquartered in Milwaukee, includes:

  • A 128,000 square-foot retail building that would be home to a commercial anchor, a big box retailer that the village said it could not name publicly yet, though a few sleuthy residents on Facebook have noticed “bullseye’s playground” written on the floor plans,” launching speculation it could be a Target. The floor plans also name Starbucks and CVS Pharmacy.
  • A mixed-use building featuring three stories of around 100 market rate apartment units and over 21,000 square feet of commercial space on the first floor.
  • Three new commercial outlots along Green Bay Road that would complement the existing 10,000-square-foot outlot anchored by Kitchen & Kocktails.

Village hopes to free a section of Beaver Creek previous developers built a parking lot over

As part of this redevelopment, the village will seek to acquire a portion of the northern Marketplace property where Beaver Creek is currently located underneath a parking lot that was built over it during the 1970s.

The village plans to “daylight” the waterway so the creek can flow out in the open again, allowing those visiting to enjoy the area’s natural amenities, and the village to “correct the sins of the past,” Piotrowski said.

“There’s not many places where you actually have a natural area and residential spaces in the middle of a shopping area, and so we think that this mix of uses would really help beautify the space, and change the whole tone and narrative about how you experience that development,” he said.

Are there any redevelopment plans for the northern part of the Marketplace?

According to the staff memo included in the agenda, there are currently no redevelopment plans for the northern half of the Marketplace Shopping Center. However, staff noted in their memo that they hope this effort will catalyze improvements to that property in the future.

However, no details have yet been ironed out or approved.

Many have said revitalizing the Brown Deer shopping center is a priority

Village staff, officials and residents alike have expressed a desire to revitalize the shopping center and see it transformed into a destination, not just for Brown Deer residents but for those across the North Shore region.

A 2022 community survey showed overwhelming support to redevelop the Marketplace. In 2023, an update to Brown Deer’s comprehensive plan, a long-range road map municipalities use to guide development and land use, listed the Marketplace as the highest priority redevelopment location in the village.

“Even when it was fully occupied, it was not really what people wanted to see,” Piotrowski said. “It was just acres of parking and a kind of underwhelming retail design. People were also asking for more dynamic uses. More sit down restaurants, some entertainment, things like that.”

Redevelopment dragged due to lack of owner engagement, village says

For several years, the property has been owned by large, multi-national organizations that had little interest in redeveloping the site, Piotrowski said.

“We tried to engage with those owners to say, ‘hey, let us help you help this property out.’ And we never got anywhere,” he said.

When New Jersey-based Namdar Realty Group bought the entire property, including the northern and southern ends, for $10.5 million around three years ago after it had been originally assessed at over $30 million, Piotrowski said the village knew the Marketplace was in dire shape.

By early 2024, the village was ready to revitalize it, and the Village Board approved a TIF district that could help facilitate incentives for redevelopment.

Namdar had no interest in redeveloping but agreed to work toward selling the property, Piotrowski said.

Then Woodsonia came along in partnership with the big box retailer. The two are expected to close on a deal in March of 2025, Piotrowski said.

How will the $21 million development be paid for?

Early in 2024, the village created the TIF district. During closed sessions in recent months, the Village Board has been weighing more specific options to incentivize Woodsonia to take on the Marketplace redevelopment project.

The agreement the village came to would return up to $12.8 million to Woodsonia over the life of the TID at an annual rate of 90% with the village retaining the remaining 10%. In return, the development is projected to average $40 million in guaranteed value throughout the life of the TID, which will last until 2052.

What happens next?

Site plans are scheduled for discussion and consideration for approval before the Plan Commission and Village Board starting in February, Piotrowski said.

If the land purchase between Namdar and Woodsonia goes through in March, demolition would start shortly thereafter and the big box retailer could open by the end of 2026, he said.

At the Dec. 16 meeting, Piotrowski and Woodsonia President Drew Snyder explained that the firm would plan to build on the site once it has tenants to occupy the individual storefronts or buyers to purchase them.

Woodsonia will begin leasing for the outlots once the firm has built interest in the new spaces among potential vendors and occupants, meaning those could be open for business sooner, Piotrowski said at the meeting.

The existing tenants would need to temporarily relocate during the redevelopment or accept buyouts of their leases, he said.

Contact Claudia Levens at clevens@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @levensc13.

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