There is new urgency to a plan by the city of Wausau to save its struggling downtown mall. A top executive with the mall’s corporate owner says the Wausau Center will die if the city doesn’t act soon.
CBL Properties is asking for a $4.1 million loan to move the department store Younkers to the space vacated by JCPenney. CFO Farzana Mitchell said without quick action, Younkers will leave and take the mall down with it.
“It’s the end of Wausau Center. Sorry to say, but that’s what’s going to happen. And that should not happen,” said Mitchell. “If the city of Wausau does not take this seriously, and take it in their own hands, then you will have a big hole in your ground.”
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Wausau Mayor Jim Tipple agrees that time is running out.
“I would not agree with the big hole in the ground. There would still be a building there that would have to be repurposed,” Tipple said. “But I think she’s indicating the gravity of the situation, and we need to pay attention to that.”
Tipple and Mitchell both said the Wausau Center Mall can be reinvigorated if the loan is approved.
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