Menasha city leaders and businesses are awaiting the completion of a new office tower that will be completed this spring. That building will bring about 300 new people to the downtown area when it wraps up. Today NBC26 has the latest with what's expected when it is finally done downtown Menasha.
The city of Menasha only has about 17-thousand residents but as the downtown continues to experience a facelift of sorts, locals are anticipating that to change in the near future.
A new eight story building is supposed to be occupied by mid April in downtown Menasha. When the project is completed it will bring about 300 people to the area Monday through Friday. But that's just one piece of Menasha's ever growing downtown.
"So it's all these pieces that are coming together as part of this long range vision and plan to really make our downtown the center point of our community," says Menasha Mayor Don Merkes.
For business owners downtown, the new neighbors are welcomed.
"Businesses have come and gone over the years and we've stayed because we're hopeful. And now we have even more reason to be hopeful with everything going on," says the owner of Wild Apple downtown Mary Jo Weidert.
Just 8 short years ago about 75 percent of the stores downtown weren't’t occupied according to the Mayor. A factoid that businesses like Weidert’s remember all to well.
Today there's just a few stores, waiting to be occupied as the interest grows.
"I'm going to have new businesses on each side of me and that's going to feel pretty good," adds Weidert.
And looking out towards the next five years of growth, businesses and city leaders are only anticipating more changes and more people coming downtown.
In Menasha's 2016-2017 budget they plan on expanding downtown even further west. To help accommodate for what they can only hope the future holds.
