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Published - Tuesday, June 06, 2006 New life on Copeland Copeland Avenue, at the north entrance to downtown La Crosse, had seen better days.
But all of that is changing, with construction of the new Three Rivers Plaza retail-office-condominium project. A new 47,000-square-foot Festival Foods store opened March 21 at 30 Copeland Ave. as part of the project. So far, Cottage Garden Floral, Cost Cutters hair salon and a Quiznos Sub restaurant have opened in the new multi-tenant retail building at 40 Copeland Ave. And Peaberry’s Coffee, which will sell coffee, tea and kitchen items, is expected to open in July. Paul Borsheim, president of Northside Development of La Crosse LLC, which is developing Three Rivers Plaza, predicts the entire multi-tenant retail building will be leased by the end of the year. The 19,600-square-foot building probably will have eight to 12 businesses, he said. Also under construction in Three Rivers Plaza are The Landings, a 44-unit condominium development that will be completed by Thanksgiving; and a three-story office building that will be completed about Nov. 1. Fortress Bank will occupy the first floor of the office building, the Wipfli LLP accounting firm will occupy the third floor, and the second floor is available for lease. Office space also is available in the former Buchner office building, which has been gutted in preparation for remodeling. About 10,000 square feet of office space are available on two floors, Borsheim said. “But it could be 10,000 to 15,000 square feet, based on whether we put an addition on or not,” he said. Partners in Northside Development are Borsheim and Doug Stanton, who together own Borton Construction in Holmen, Wis.; developers Mike Keil and Marvin Wanders, who own the Holmen Square shopping center and other retail and office property; and Charles and Derek Kasten, who operate Interstate Roofing and Waterproofing in Onalaska.
Quillin’s considered the project for a store to replace the Quillin’s in the Menard Plaza shopping center on Lang Drive, which was demolished last year to make way for a new Menards megastore. Northside Development acquired the Bernie Buchner Inc. site at 20 Copeland Ave. and the former AutoMax car dealership location at 40 Copeland Ave. Except for the Buchner building, all of the buildings were demolished to make way for the new ones. “When we were looking for grocery sites for Quillin’s, he threw this one at me,” Borsheim said of local Realtor John Young. “I had looked at a couple different sites, on Copeland Avenue, on Lang Drive.” The Buchner and AutoMax sites were large enough for both a grocery store and multi-tenant retail building. High traffic counts on Copeland Avenue and proximity to downtown were major considerations in choosing that location, Borsheim said. “I really feel this is just an extension of downtown to the north,” he said. “It’s going to help both downtown and this area,” he said of the $20 million to $25 million project. “I think the entire project — Three Rivers Plaza including Festival Foods — is a tremendous addition to the entire city and especially for the entrance into historic downtown La Crosse,” said Bud Miyamoto, executive director of Downtown Mainstreet Inc. “I believe it will stimulate additional growth in that area,” Miyamoto said. A separate restaurant might become part of the project, if Three Rivers Plaza is expanded to the north to include the Parr’s Cars property at 50 Copeland Ave. “We have had interest from a couple different restaurants in that site,” Borsheim said. “We haven’t signed anything.” He hopes to know in three to four months whether Northside Development will buy that property for a new restaurant. s
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