The La Crosse City Plan Commission was expected to vote Monday on vacating part of Palace Street to accommodate the project, but the meeting was canceled for lack of a quorum. Under a proposed amended development agreement with the city, Kwik Trip will construct a building costing at least $7 million and guarantee [image-nocss] about 100 employees will be added.
The La Crosse-based convenience store chain plans to build an 80,000-square-foot addition to its existing 80,000-square-foot bakery at Larson and Palace streets.
Kwik Trip's expansion will be incorporated into an existing tax increment finance district, created in 2006 for the chain's $14 million commissary and ice-making plant. City Planner Larry Kirch said once the street vacation is approved, the second step is for the council to expand the TIF boundaries to the north.
Steve Loehr, Kwik Trip vice president of support operations, said the company hopes to begin preliminary work such as land preparation as soon as July, to be operating in the addition by next spring and to complete the entire project by early to mid-summer 2010.
The project is subject to final approval by Kwik Trip's board next month.
"The reason we're doing the bakery project is because of tremendous growth in bakery sales in our stores," Loehr said.
The $22 million to $23 million project cost estimate includes the expansion, remodeling and new equipment, Loehr said.
In other company news, a former National Foods supermarket building in La Crosse will be replaced later this year by a new upscale Kwik Trip store and car wash, the newspaper reported. Kwik Trip owns the building, operates a c-store in part of it and in the past has leased the rest to three tenants.
A nearby Kwik Trip store will close sometime in August, just before demolition of the former supermarket building begins, Hans Zietlow, Kwik Trip director of real estate, told the paper. The new Kwik Trip store and car wash that take the building's place probably will open in mid-December, Zietlow said. It will be the nicest Kwik Trip in the area, he added.
"It's the best store we've designed yet," Zietlow said, and will have a brick exterior. "We're pretty excited about having it in La Crosse."
According to the retailer's website, new stores will be opening in 2009 in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa and some remodels and additions will be done to existing stores.
Kwik Trip stores will be coming to Belle Plaine, Chanhassen, North Mankato and Red Wing, Minn., and Elkhorn, Howard, Oshkosh, River Falls and Waukesha, Wis.; Kwik Star stores will be coming to Charles City, Dubuque and Manchester, Iowa.
The company currently has 353 c-stores and 37 Tobacco Outlet Plus stores in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa.
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