By Gene Kemmeter

The development of a strip mall and two four-story student apartment buildings is proposed for the former Kmart department store parcel at 111 Division St. N. The store closed in January after nearly 50 years of operation.

The Stevens Point Plan Commission held public hearings and endorsed rezoning the property owned by K/M Stevens Point LLC, Winnetka, Ill., and granting a conditional-use permit to construct the apartments Monday, April 2, during a meeting at the Stevens Point Police Department, 933 Michigan Ave.

Mike Ostrowski, Stevens Point community development director, said the proposal calls for rezoning the property from B-4 Commercial District to “PD” Planned Development District because of mixed-use development on the property.

He said a 16,000-square-foot commercial center would be built on the west side of the property along Division Street North and two apartment buildings with 133 units to provide 421 beds would be built on the eastern half of the property.

The two apartments would have an angled exterior and would be separated by a private drive, which would line up like an extension of Isadore Street, and a field area with synthetic turf that would be flooded for skating in winter. The drive will continue north on the property and result in a roundabout where Isadore would meet an extension of Academy Avenue, thereby creating two more lots that would be available for development on the north side of the property.

The project is expected to begin this summer and will be completed in July 2019, allowing for rental of apartments that August. Because the project is adjacent to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point campus, Ostrowski said the apartments will have 134 parking spaces instead of the normal 225, plus it will have two bicycle parking areas.

Joel Pickus, architect for the project, said that bicycle parking area will be covered to protect the bikes so tenants don’t have to carry the bikes to their rooms and will have 120 spaces. He also said the development is designed to have traffic primarily enter the property from Division Street at Academy Avenue, so parking will be on the north and east sides.

He also said that because ingress-egress is designed from the north side, traffic would be encouraged to enter the commercial property from that direction, rather than from a driveway to a commercial property south of the project.

Alderperson Shaun Morrow, District 11, said he has friends who live in downtown Chicago and their apartment buildings have covered space for bicycle parking.

He also said he’s heard nothing but good things about the Kmart redevelopment because the old Walmart store on the east side is still open 10 years later. “I think it will be good for students and the community,” he said, urging an affirmative vote for the proposals.

The commission was unanimous in recommending rezoning and conditional-use permit. The project will now go to the Common Council at its April 16 meeting.

K/M owns other student apartment buildings near college campuses in Wisconsin and BMOC, a Madison-based marketing and management firm, will manage the local apartments. Among the properties managed is Timberwolf Suites that serves Northcentral Technical College in Wausau.