September 24, 2022 – West Bend, WI – “The weeds are about 8 weeks up,” a neighbor said as some heavy equipment came to a standstill at the site of a new one panera bread and chipotlea popular Mexican grill style restaurant.
Construction on the southeast corner of Parkway Drive and Paradise Drive in West Bend, WI began in April 2022 when the old Shell South gas station and car wash was demolished.
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A CSM-22-004 certified survey map has been submitted to the Plan Commission to develop two properties on the southeast corner of Parkway Drive and W. Paradise Drive by Ram Subedi, PMM Development, LLC.
The plans showed a 2,500 square foot building near Parkway Drive for the proposed Chipotle and a 3,800 square foot building to the east for a proposed Panera.
Foundations were poured and then…. Nothing.
Neighbors began speculating about reasons for a slowdown, including “supply chain issues” or “worker shortages” or even “permitting issues.”
Multiple calls have been made to the city and this week city engineer Max Marechal said the slowdown was due to a change in the location of the waterfront.
“They only had one plan for the water coming out of the northeast corner of the property, but they couldn’t connect to the water line there, so they changed the plan to get into Parkway Drive from the south of the property,” he said . “They had to change their plans and then make the connection and I know that delayed them.”
Marechal said he’s not sure where the contractors stand in terms of putting in an underground pipe and then starting construction on the building.
Marechal didn’t believe updated plans would need to go back to the Planning Commission, but he did confirm that the water mains change has implications for the permitting process.
“We haven’t signed that stormwater permit yet because because of the waterside change, they had to change the CSM (Certified Survey Map) to provide relief for those watersides,” he said. “We are awaiting their return of the CSM with the location of the easement and once this is recorded we can approve this approval and I have been advised that the CSM document is currently under review.”
Whether additional permits are pending as well, Marechal said he was “not aware”.
District 1 Councilman John Butschlick also followed a request for the project delay. “I spoke to planning and development and they said everything is up to date with the city and the owners are waiting for the paperwork with the state,” he said.
It is said that Panera wants to open in spring 2023.
Stay tuned.
This is a working story and more details will be posted as information becomes available.
