By KRISTYN HALBIG ZIEHM
Ozaukee Press staff
Downtown Port Washington will get a holiday gift in the new year as two businesses prepare to open shop in the former Lueptow’s furniture store on Franklin Street.
The businesses — Lakeshore Kitchen and Funky Fine Arts — will be the first tenants in what building owner Merton Lueptow hopes will become a mall.
“I’m developing an area called the Shoppes of Port Washington,” Lueptow said Tuesday. “This is the start.”
The concept is to have a number of small businesses, primarily retailers, occupying spaces in an open-style mall, Lueptow said.
“It could be a start-up business, a shop in another community that wants to open a branch here or a small established business,” he said.
The first tenants, he said, are businesses that are somewhat established.
Lakeshore Kitchen is run by local contractors Brian Marquardt and Peter Burke, who have been doing kitchen remodeling but need a showroom, Lueptow said, noting they expect to open in late January. Funky Fine Arts is operated by Deb Melton, a local artist, and is expected to open in mid-January.
“They are both in business now, but they don’t have the space to do what they want to,” Lueptow said.
He envisions the former furniture store could become home to anywhere from 10 to 20 shops, depending on the space each requires.
Because of the way the space will be set up, shop owners can work together in a variety of ways, Lueptow said, adding he hopes the current tenants will spur other businesses.

TWO BUSINESSES will make their home in downtown Port Washington next month as tenants of the former Lueptow’s furniture building. Photo by Bill Schanen IV“I’m hoping a group of artists will come in,” he said. “Other home-improvement shops would fit well.”
Lueptow said the mall concept is an ideal use for the building, which has largely stood vacant since Lueptow’s Furniture and Appliance closed three years ago.
“There’s no other space in Port Washington where you can rent just 250 square feet,” he said. “Most of the buildings in downtown are about 1,000 square feet.”
Lueptow said he’s been working on the concept of creating a mall in his former store for about a year. Although the building has been for sale since the furniture store closed, the sputtering economy and lack of buyers forced him to come up with a new idea for the space.
“I came to realize there was nobody big enough to use the whole area by themself,” he said. “I’m adjusting to what tenants are looking for.
“I’m excited. I think this will be good for Port Washington.”
There’s been a lot of interest in the space, Lueptow said.
“As the economy is loosening up, we’re seeing more interest,” he said.
City Administrator Mark Grams said it will be good to see the building occupied once again.
“It’ll be nice to have those businesses in there,” he said.
Randy Tetzlaff, the city’s director of planning and development, said Lueptow’s plan is a good short-term solution to fill the empty building.
“This gives him the most options,” he said. “There aren’t buyers jumping right now. Filling the space is better than leaving it empty. It will give people options downtown.”
But when the building sells, Tetzlaff said, the use will likely change.
“If someone’s going to buy it, they’re going to buy it to redevelop it,” he said.

FRANKLIN ENERGY is scheduled to move its Port Washington offices into the Smith Bros. Marketplace building this weekend.
                 Photo by Bill Schanen IV

Firm’s relocation to Smith Bros. building clears way for new Port senior center, sale of city’s historic firehouse

Franklin Energy Services will move into its new downtown Port Washington headquarters in the Smith Bros. Marketplace building this weekend, setting in motion a unique lease agreement with the city.

Company spokeswoman Jan Peiffer said the firm will have vacated its current offices in a remodeled church on Foster Street in Port Washington by Monday, clearing the way for the  city to lease the building for use as a new senior center.

The city, in turn, will vacate the historic firehouse on Wisconsin Street that now serves as a senior center perhaps by March, City Administrator Mark Grams said. Aldermen have decided to sell the building,
which the Port Washington Historical Society has said it would like to use as a museum.

The deal was designed to not only keep the fast-growing energy-efficiency program management firm in Port Washington, but encourage it to move downtown to a virtually unoccupied landmark building. The only other tenant in the spacious former Smith Bros. Restaurant is a coffee shop.

The agreement also provides the city with a new senior center to replace its current, cramped facility, which is in need of significant maintenance work.

The city has agreed to a three-year lease with KAB Enterprises, which owns the remodeled church and leases it to Franklin Energy, that will cost the city about $222,000. The city also plans to invest between $200,000 and $246,000 in improvements to the building, bringing the total three-year cost for the senior center move to as much as $468,000.

After three years, the city has the option to purchase the building for $550,000 — a move that would bring the total city cost close to $1 million. It could also renew its lease or move to a different site. Officials
said they think the remodeled church will make a good senior center but consider it an interim location.

Grams said this week that although the city will very shortly be free to move into remodeled church, it will probably be March before it is ready to accommodate the senior center. The city still has to have its plans for the building approved by the state, and the remodeling work, which includes the installation of an elevator, could take several months.

The work for Franklin Energy, however, is just about completed, Peiffer said. The company will be operating out of its offices on the second floor of the Smith Bros. building by Monday.

Initially, 41 employees will be working out of the downtown offices, Peiffer said, adding that number is expected to increase.

“We have about 30 job openings, although not all the people that will be hired will be working out of this location,” she said.

The Common Council is expected next week to finalize changes that will provide parking for Franklin Energy employes at the north end of the north slip section of the marina, Grams said.

Founded in 1994 by longtime Port Washington resident and current CEO Paul Schueller, Franklin Energy Services was purchased in October by Cortec Group, a New York private equity firm, from Brass Ring Capital, a Milwaukee-based private
investment firm.

At the time of the sale, Schueller said the company remains committed to Port Washington. It has signed a 7-1/2-year lease for the Smith Bros. property.