Thomas Street Corridor Master Plan

After a decade-long standstill created by perpetual difficulties, the City of Wausau contracted with GRAEF to find solutions for: street and right-of-way sizing and design, adding value to properties along the corridor and surrounding neighborhood, traffic concerns, urban design, and quality of life factors for residents and business owners.

Market Study: Development Scenarios
GRAEF created a corridor master plan by evaluating market scenarios for retail goods and services, and by discussing development options with property development professionals to assess the market for commercial and residential uses. GRAEF then prepared optional property development scenarios for key sites along the corridor. This included a variety of flexible options to use as discussion tools between the City and multiple owners and investors.

Economic Development Plan
GRAEF prepared an economic development plan that depicts phased development of the corridor and analyzes the potential build-out value of property taxes. GRAEF also devised an implementation process, tailored to the City’s interest in entertaining an advanced schedule, for achieving this desired development.

Urban Design and Transportation Plan
GRAEF created illustrations of the development potential with building footprints, street design concepts, parking, streetscape features, and public space needed to represent a distinctive short- and long-term vision for the corridor.

Public Input
GRAEF conducted interviews, design workshops and input sessions with brokers, investors, developers, City officials, the local business community and residents of the Thomas Street area, with the goal of building consensus around a distinct vision for the corridor. This input was used to formulate the development scenarios, economic development plan, and the urban design and right-of-way plan.