By Shereen Siewert
WAUSAU — A grant for the city to pursue a Wausau Center redevelopment market study and plan has not yet been finalized, according to officials with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.
Wausau Economic Development Director Chris Schock on Tuesday told members of the ED committee that the city will undertake the study with a grant from the WEDC. A public kickoff meeting has already been set, slated for 5 p.m. on May 31 at City Hall.
But Mark Maley, public affairs and communications director for WEDC, said such a grant has not been approved, and the entity involved is the Wausau River District, not the city itself. Wausau River District is an organization that aims to promote and facilitate the economic vitality and historic preservation of downtown Wausau.
“We have been talking to the Wausau River District, the downtown organization, about a possible grant, but this is still pending and has not been approved yet,” Maley wrote Thursday, in an email to Wausau Pilot and Review.
The amount of the proposed grant is not yet public.
“I believe the WEDC will be making a separate announcement/information on the plan process as the kickoff gets closer,” Schock wrote, in an email to Wausau Pilot and Review. “We engaged them for assistance and they are assembling and paying the consultant team, we don’t know the amount as yet.”
At Tuesday’s meeting, Schock said the grant would be used to help the city form a vision to redevelop the struggling Wausau Center mall, which has been without an anchor store since late April.
Maley said additional information will be available when the grant is finalized.
