Cause of fire at Linetec in Wausau under investigation, no injuri...

The Wausau Center mall opened with a grand opening celebration on Aug. 3, 1983, in downtown Wausau.

Megan Stringer | Wausau Daily Herald

WAUSAU - Tracie Rajek was so excited for the Wausau Center mall to open in August 1983 that she stopped to check it out when she was on her way to the hospital in labor with her first son.

"I remember the checkout lady asking when I was due, and I told her I would be having the baby shortly because my contractions were three minutes apart," Rajek said.

She gave birth to her son, Allan, an hour and a half later and never forgot the priceless look on the J.C. Penney cashier's face.

The allure of the downtown mall was undeniable to everyone in the early years. Rajek, who lived in Weston at the time and now lives in Ringle, had never been to a shopping mall before that day at the Wausau Center. After her first son was born, she returned with him often to take photos with Santa during the holiday season and have fun at the gaming stores, like Game Stop. He later got his first job at Younkers in the mall.

Photo Courtesy of the Marathon County Historical Society

Rajek and others said the mall proved to be the great thing Wausau needed at the time, revitalizing downtown and transforming it into a regional shopping hub. It wasn't just for Wausau residents, but for anyone traveling from the Northwoods or other towns in central Wisconsin to share in the excitement.

As time passed, storefronts shuttered and enclosed shopping centers lost their appeal all over the country.

{{props.notification}} {{props.tag}} {{props.expression}} {{props.linkSubscribe.text}} {{#modules.acquisition.inline}}{{/modules.acquisition.inline}} ... Our reporting. Your stories. Get unlimited digital access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now

Now, Wausau is left with a downtown anchor that's over 420,000 square feet with 50 available store spaces but only around 20 occupied today, according to the mall's website.

There has been recent good news for the mall. Pho Zone, a sit-down Vietnamese restaurant, opened in June in the food court and HOM Furniture opened Friday in the former Younkers space. A new store called The Boho Farmhouse is coming soon, according to the mall's website and the store's Facebook page.

Still, many wonder what will become of the giant, struggling shopping center. Will the lights simply turn off one night, never to come back on? Will it see the underside of bulldozers? Or, will downtown slowly gain back eight blocks for an entirely new development?

Photo courtesy of the Marathon County Historical Society

The mall brought Wausau back to life.

One gloomy day in August 1983, Wausau’s downtown streets filled with people for the opening celebration of the Wausau Center. A parade included people dressed as Star Wars characters Princess Leia and Darth Vader. Someone was in costume as Vanna White from "Wheel of Fortune". Marching bands and high school students abounded. Sales at beer tents went off the charts.

It was a crowd many say we haven’t seen since — one full week of celebration all for the grand opening of the Wausau Center mall.

Andrew Filtz was 12 years old when the mall opened. He watched as eight blocks of downtown were demolished in preparation for the Wausau Center. People walked off with bricks and wood, preserving memories and re-purposing bits of old downtown as a new shopping experience came to fruition.

"You don’t exactly know what’s going on, but you know something is being built," said Filtz, who now lives in Sheboygan. "There was still that excitement, that something great is gonna come to Wausau. I believe we were all like little kids waiting for Christmas to come."

Wausau Daily Herald archives

Before the mall, businesses like Herberger's Chips, Bob's Musical Isle, Roger's Cinema and Tea Shop lined the streets — not to mention at least four furniture stores.

After the mall, downtown Wausau gained a new golden age in retail.

Kevin Tambornino grew up in Wausau and was 3 years old when the Wausau Center opened. Before its decline the mall was his whole world, a spot to meet friends and socialize.

As a kid, Tambornino had a system. First he would stop by Aladdin's Castle video arcade right by the front door. His parents would then take him to get back-to-school clothes at Sears or J.C. Penney and if he was lucky, his dad would give him a coin to toss in "those futuristic-looking dome fountains." He'd pass by a music store where he could find the latest tunes on audio cassettes before finally entering Kay-Bee toy store.

1 Potato 2, a restaurant in the food court, always stuck out to Tambornino for its funny name.

"I pretty much figured that if you can't find what you need at the Wausau Center mall, it probably doesn't exist," said Tambornino, who now lives with his family in Japan, where he works.

While the mall seems sad now, it served a purpose in its heyday, said Dave Torkko, who used to serve as the citizen chairman of the city’s redevelopment committee working to bring the mall to Wausau. He also co-owned the Everest Inn before it was recently sold to transform into a convent so Torkko and his wife could retire.

"The idea was if the mall came downtown, it would push and revitalize the area," Torkko said. "If the mall came to a cornfield, it would decimate downtown."

Today he stands by that view. Torkko credits the mall with past and current developments like the Dudley Tower and the upcoming Woodson YMCA remodel and new Aspirus clinic.

"Without the mall creating economic development downtown, those things may or may not have happened," Torkko said.

Photo Courtesy of the Marathon County Historical Society

People aren't interested in enclosed shopping centers anymore.

At the pinnacle of its success, the Wausau Center mall boasted a vacancy rate of less than 5%. In July 1994, mall management said of the 63 spaces in the mall, only three were available, according to a Wausau Daily Herald report. In March 1996, seven new stores opened in the mall, bringing the total number of businesses to 62 and occupying 93% of the mall's capacity. In April 2001, the mall held 65 businesses with only two vacancies.

Then the Wausau Center lost all three of its major anchors. J.C. Penney closed in 2014, Sears in August 2016 and Younkers in April 2018. Smaller stores like Yankee Candle, Things Remembered gift shop and Hibbett Sports closed in January.

Wausau's mall isn't alone in its decline. Shopping centers all over the country, and nearby in central Wisconsin, have suffered.

Stevens Point demolished its CenterPoint MarketPlace in 2012 after the city declared it was blighted for economic reasons and condemned it. Rapids Mall in Wisconsin Rapids closed in February 2018 and is being converted into a joint YMCA and Boys & Girls Club facility. In Marshfield, the mall owner suggested redeveloping some of the property into a strip mall after the loss of two of its anchors.

People just aren’t as interested in enclosed shopping centers anymore, said Mark Craig, regional general manager for Compass Properties and manager of the Third Street Lifestyle Center next to the Wausau Center. Craig also managed the mall for a few years in the late '90s.

Instead, he sees residents looking for boutique retail and lifestyle centers. It’s about the experience now, making a unique, walkable space "somewhat of an adventure."

Click to show more

The fourth anchor of the mall — downtown itself — is doing just fine. The only vacancy in the city's thriving shopping district, where boutique retail took over the streets, is the empty storefront on Third Street next to Evolutions in Design, said Craig.

Residents find downtown’s colorful shops in historic buildings more exciting than the halls of an enclosed mall with retailers they can find online. The Third Street Lifestyle Center is an enclosed shopping area that includes local shops and eateries, like Second Peek Boutique and City Grill, rather than big-box department stores.

In his role with Compass Properties, Craig rents to local shops on Third Street between Washington and Jefferson streets: Daly’s bar and restaurant, Sweet Lola’s bakeshop, Jalapeno's Mexican restaurant, the Ugly Mug coffee shop, Polito's Pizza and more.

Craig said the development that brought downtown back to life in the ‘80s isn’t necessarily the type of project that will work for the community today. Something new is needed to move the city forward. While downtown is thriving, it lost eight city blocks to the mall that it won’t see returned the same.

"There’s a huge opportunity," Craig said. "Anytime there’s a problem it presents an opportunity."

Wausau Daily Herald file photo

What can the city do about the mall?

In public meetings and plans, the city has made clear it hopes to spur re-use at the mall site. Director of Planning, Community and Economic Development Christian Schock said the city wants to see something happen and continues to have "frequent conversations" with the mall's owner, Rialto Capital Management.

Schock said the city would like the owner to sell sooner rather than later but that Rialto is still exploring the idea. The city has taken steps to encourage change at and around the mall and prepare for a possible new owner, he said.

The city bought the former Sears property in 2016 and approved a plan to convert it into a movie theater. But that fell through in late 2017 when the owners of the theater company and the mall's owners failed to reach an agreement.

At one point in January 2018, the city talked quietly with downtown developer Compass Properties about re-purposing the Sears spot, too. Most recently, a Plover-based developer made an offer to the city on the former Sears space. However, without a defined plan, it came to a standstill.

A May 2019 study also proposed to transform the streets and transportation around the Wausau Center and downtown. The plan could go to the City Council this summer, council members said in city meetings. It aims to make retail and other storefronts downtown more accessible and visible off two-way streets rather than one-way streets.

However, the city isn’t directly responsible for what happens to the mall. That future lies with the owner, investment managers Rialto Capital Management, which hires Mid-America Real Estate Group to manage the building.

A representative from Rialto who manages press for the Wausau Center did not respond to multiple phone messages requesting an interview.

Even though there's no plan on the table for now, Wausau residents shared their own ideas with the Daily Herald for what could become of the space — conference centers, entertainment and sports hubs, office space, housing.

Schock said the most likely — and most needed — new uses for the site would be housing and entertainment.

Photo courtesy of the Marathon County Historical Society

Sally Scinto-Reinertson worked on the entertainment committee for the grand opening celebrations of the mall in the '80s. Although the mall offered great variety at the time, she said, the city won’t be able to return the historic buildings that once stood in its place.

But she still sees opportunity for the space. A recreation center, green space with an area for children to play, an office building or some high-rise housing would make sense to Scinto-Reinertson, who lives in Wausau.

"One decay leads to the blossoming of another," she said. "So the mall is now decaying. What will blossom there?"