July 17, 2015 at 4:32 p.m.
Kwik Trip unveils plans for Minocqua store
Stengl: 'It'll be the best looking gas station in town'
Kwik Trip unveils plans for Minocqua store
Minocqua residents who have been wondering why there is no Kwik Trip in town will wonder no more. The town's plan commission on Tuesday unanimously approved a conditional use permit application from the company. It will go to the town board Tuesday. The company has contracts to purchase three pieces of property near the intersection of U.S. Highway 51 and State Highway 70 West - the parcel where Pizza Hut once stood, the site of the former Marathon station to the south and the site of The Nightfall Motel. Troy Mleziva, a real estate developer for Kwik Trip who's been with the company six years, made the presentation to the commission. "What we're looking to do is consolidate those properties into one lot and develop them as a Kwik Trip facility," he said in his opening remarks. As part of his presentation, Mleziva offered an overview of the company. This year marks the Kwik Trip's 50th year in business, he said. The family-owned company is based in La Crosse and is thriving. "It used to be three partners over the years and now one partner owns the company," he said. "Kids and grandkids are involved so it's going to stay in the family for a long time. One of the unique things about Kwik Trip is they pay out 40 percent of their profits at the end of the year to their employees in bonuses, so that's real money that stays in the communities where the stores are located. What that does is it gets people to stick around as employees when they're treated and paid well." Mleziva said Kwik Trip is an industry leader in the convenience store market. "We have fresh meat we're offering now," he said. "We started that last year and it's been very successful." Plan commission member Phil Albert asked if the fresh meat sector is a spinoff of Reinhart Foods. "Correct," Mleziva said. "Reinhart was one of the original partners, so there's a little grocery background with distribution in there." In his first few years with Kwik Trip, Mleziva said he has been involved in the construction of 12 to 15 stores per year. This year the company intends to build 40 stores, he said. A little over half of the company's 500 stores already built or to be built are located in Wisconsin. Iowa and Minnesota are right behind Wisconsin in terms of most Kwik Trip stores within their boundaries. Duluth and Superior are the northernmost locations for Kwik Trip stores. Plan commission chairman Susan Heil said she has heard the company's goal is to build 600 stores. "Not my personal goal," Mleziva said. He explained Kwik Trip has spent the last decade building an infrastructure in the La Crosse area that includes a bakery, a dairy and an ice plant. "Now, to take advantage of the investment they made, they're putting up more stores to sell their product," he said, adding that the plan is for the Minocqua store to employ 20 people year-round with approximately eight of the jobs being full-time. Seasonally, that overall number could grow to 30. Whatever the case, Mleziva said the profit sharing plan the company has for its employees includes those who work for the company part-time. Heil was impressed with that. "You get so many of these people who work at these gas stations that could care less if you walked in the door or not," she said. "You give them that incentive ... I think that's an awesome business plan and I like that." Site plan Using a drawing of an overhead view of the proposed store, Mleziva proceeded to go over details of the Minocqua project. He also distributed an artist's rendering of the store. Among the features of the 7,000-square foot building are 20 single parking spaces around the building itself, with a loading zone for the store's vendors designated on one side and not in the way of the store's customers. A large parking area in back of the store would be used for recreational vehicles or vehicles pulling camping trailers or trailers for things such as boats, ATVs, or snowmobiles. The store, set at an angle to assist drivers of vehicles pulling trailers come in from the highway, will feature a car wash that would be built onto the rear of the building. Plan commission members were satisfied with the landscaping plans for the most part. The plans include green space in front along U.S. Highway 51. Plan commission member Margo Oppenheim indicated she liked the plans but would like to see a more "Northwoodsyish" look. Conditions were added to the CUP related to the exterior panels on the car wash, verification of tree species in the landscape plan, and highway access. The plan commission also asked that the town's public works director, Mark Pertile, review the storm drainage runoff plans put together by REI Civil and Environmental Engineering, Surveying in Wausau. Highway access One of the items commission members spent a substantial amount of time discussing was access to and from Highway 51. There are currently four driveways in that area and a fifth one that's shared. Mleziva said the company has submitted driveway applications to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation with plans for two driveways. "I know that's the opposite of what we try to do," he said. One of the driveways would line up almost directly with McDonald's Highway 51 entrance. Mleziva said the application includes a request to trim a highway median that was installed last year as part of the Highway 51 reconstruction project. "We'll see where we get with that," he said, to laughter from the crowd. Town chairman and plan commission member Mark Hartzheim said the town worked hard last year to have the median shortened. "I can show you a stream of emails ... right to the governor," he said. Hartzheim said he assumed most of Kwik Trip's delivery vehicles would be coming from the south and would be able to turn onto the property with no problem. His concern was for vendors that would be coming from the north. "With that median there, and the fact that McDonald's is an extremely busy corridor and maybe one of the busiest accesses, the longer delivery vehicles turning left right after that median would very quickly cause a blockage into the main traffic lane," Hartzheim said. "Would it be fairly easy for you to direct those delivery vehicles to come in from the north? Are you going to have cross access to the property to the north to where they [delivery trucks] wouldn't disrupt that access?" Mleziva indicated that's the company's plan. "One thing we've done in the past is schedule those deliveries for 'off peak' times," he said. Later, when it was time to vote on the CUP, Hartzheim asked that a turning model for southbound semi-trailer trucks with deliveries attempting a left turn into the Kwik Trip be supplied for review. That became a condition the commission put in place with the CUP's approval. Mleziva was asked about a timeline for project completion. He said construction is not likely to begin until spring 2016, but noted the demolition of the former Marathon station and The Nightfall Motel could happen yet this year. "I think it's wonderful use of the property," Heil said. She told Mleziva that the completeness of his presentation was appreciated. "Obviously, you've done this a few times," Heil said. "I don't know that every community is as concerned about some of the things that we're concerned about." "Minocqua's a unique community and one of those places we get requests from all the time," Mleziva said, adding that people have asked why the company hasn't built a store in the town. After the vote to approve the CUP, Hartzheim told Mleziva there are many people eager to see the store come to town. Plan commission member Bill Stengl summed up the general feeling of the commission. "It'll be the best looking gas station in town," he said.
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