New businesses change look of Port’s Wisconsin Street

A Dollar General convenience store and a used car lot and auto repair shop are the latest changes proposed for Port Washington’s Wisconsin Street neighborhood commercial center.

The center, a cluster of businesses between Whitefish and Monroe streets in an otherwise residential area of the city, has been a focus of attention in the past decade given its prominent location.

“That stretch of Wisconsin Street has become a lot more attractive,” Bob Harris, the city’s director of planning and development, said.

When the city rebuilt Wisconsin Street about a decade ago, it took care to increase landscaping along the roadway. Officials have also worked to ensure green space around the businesses.

“It’s an attractive little corridor overall. What we’re trying to do is keep it as attractive, if not more attractive, going forward,” Harris said.

The center’s transformation can be seen in the reuse of buildings. For example, a former Sentry grocery store at the northeast corner of Wisconsin Street and Whitefish Road is today a busy cluster of shops and professional offices.

“That’s been a nice little change,” Harris said. “It came together quite nicely.”

The Dollar General and proposed auto business are following the trend, “repurposing” vacant buildings in commercial areas, Harris said. 

The Dollar General store is in the former Shopko Express building at 1011 N. Wisconsin St. — previously Port Apothecary — while the car lot and repair business is proposed for the Gary’s Automotive Solution at 922 N. Wisconsin St. — previously Peiffer Auto.

Representatives of Dollar General could not be reached for comment, but lighted signs are the most recent sign the convenience store is nearing completion.

Yet to be installed are landscaping improvements for the site, Harris said. Those improvements, which consist primarily of additional landscaping around the perimeter of the site, must be installed by summer.

The Common Council is expected to consider on Feb. 2 a request from Muhamed Abdiu for a conditional use permit for the proposed Port Washington Auto Sales.

The Plan Commission last month recommended the city not approve the permit, saying Abdiu’s plan has not addressed their concerns.

Many of those concerns center around the need for a landscaped buffer, Harris said, noting the site is adjacent to residential properties.

But Harris said it’s not unusual for properties used for auto-related businesses to continue to house related businesses.

“When something is an auto-oriented business, it’s rare that it goes to something else,” he said, noting the property is zoned for that use with a conditional use permit.

Harris said the commercial center was likely the northern end of the city when the businesses began popping up, with the neighborhood growing up around it.

Whether the commercial properties will ever be used for residential purposes is a long-term question, he said.

“Perhaps there is room for a larger redevelopment down the road,” Harris said. “It’s commercial now and those businesses are there.

“It could certainly accommodate residences if the market or property owners wanted to move in that direction.”

But, he said, those changes generally take a significant amount of time to take hold.