Developers hope to bring new life to Appleton City Center Plaza with 'Fox Commons'
APPLETON (WLUK) -- A Wisconsin-based development team is showing off its plan for a redesigned City Center in Appleton.
The space will focus on health and wellness and could include retailers and office space.
A redesigned space could help redefine the City Center Plaza on College Avenue in downtown Appleton.
Dark Horse Development Vice President of Operations and Appleton native Cole Alsbach says the mission of the project is to continue the revitalization of the city.
"It’s been a long time coming. We’ve been working on a plan to bring this to fruition for the last two years," Alsbach said.
A new name for the City Center goes along with that.
"The completed project will be rebranded as Fox Commons," said Alsbach.
The interior common space will also get a face lift to make it more welcoming, and Mosaic Health is a prospective tenant.
Alsbach hopes other businesses also plant their roots.
"We aim to attract retail, office, food and beverage," Alsbach added, "to really create a place where community members can congregate and spend time together and grow within the building.”
As it stands right now, the City Center is about 50% full.
Even though things are in the very early stages of development, the developers have talked to the tenants of the City Center Plaza. They say they're very excited about the future.
Appleton Mayor Jake Woodford says the project is not likely to be funded by tax payers.
“This is a really exciting concept," Woodford said. "It connects to long-standing goals in the city.”
And when it comes to Tax Increment Financing, it's too early to say if this venture will qualify.
“It can be tricky with redevelopment projects where it’s not a new build from the ground up necessarily," Woodford explained. "Sometimes, it can be harder to generate the increment needed to get a significant TIF package from a municipality, but that all comes out in the details."
As for Alsbach, the developers don't own the property yet but hope to have that figured out in the next two months.
Developers say the project is about two years away from completion but are optimistic about what's next.
