Recycle work at former mall wrapping up

GREEN BAY - Downtown Green Bay's former mall is nearing its end as a recycling project is approaching completion.

The Port Plaza Mall was once the place to be in downtown Green Bay. It opened in 1977, and became a regional retail center.

"In its heyday, in the '70s and the '80s, it was a very important property it was an important part of this community and we know there are a lot of great memories," said Jeff Mirkes with Downtown Green Bay, Inc.

And only memories. In 2001, the mall changed hands, becoming Washington Commons. And then, after losing repeated attempts to keep tenants and customers, it closed in 2006.

Mirkes said many of the malls put up in downtowns throughout the country are experiencing similar issues.

"A trend for national retail to become more suburbanized, wanting to be closer to the highways, and closer to the rooftops. Those are some of the things that did contribute to it," said Mirkes.

Now reality is setting in after years of talking about changing the downtown Green Bay landscape, as recycling work on the old mall nears completion, with demolition to come soon after.

"The project is finishing its eighth week right now and with that we've taken out all of the salvageable metals, wire mostly, and electrical equipment, transformers, panel breakers," said Dan Roarty, a consultant for Hurt's Recycling.

Roarty said the company has gathered and sold about 100 tons of material from the building.

Roarty added a $70 thousand guarantee to the city has been fulfilled, however while progress is being made, not everything is going as expected.

"We did anticipate perhaps a few more sales than what we're getting. That's been very sluggish," said Roarty.

The recycling work is expected to be complete by next week and the building razed by the end of this year.

"It's exciting to know that this property is playing a big part in the momentum that downtown is experiencing right now," said Mirkes.

Next year, Schreiber Foods is expected to begin construction on a multi-million dollar corporate headquarters at the old mall site.

"It's almost unfathomable. A $50 million corporate development. They are really setting the stage. They're an example to other companies locally that are choosing to have their headquarters downtown," said Mirkes.

Mirkes said having a company like Schreiber be a part of the downtown influences other big picture components.

He said, for example, the former Hotel Northland now has a much better chance of coming back as a historic hotel.