City Center Plaza (Appleton, Wisconsin)

City Center Plaza is a mixed-use complex in downtown Appleton, Wisconsin which opened as The Avenue Mall in 1987. Built as a shopping mall to connect the city's existing Prange's and Marshall Field's department stores, The Avenue was intended to compete with the newly-opened Fox River Mall in nearby Grand Chute. The mall failed to attract tenants in its early years, and it had lost both of its department store anchors by 1991. The complex was revived with the conversion of much of the building into office space, including the new home of Appleton City Hall, in the early 1990s, as well as the opening of a new Herberger's department store. Herberger's was converted into Younkers and ultimately closed in 2002. Later that year, the mall was converted into City Center Plaza, consisting mostly of public- and private-sector offices, with some retail stores remaining on the first floor.

Precursors
The origins of the complex date back to the opening of the Pettibone-Peabody Company's new department store building in October 1903, Appleton's first four-story structure, on the northeastern corner of College Avenue and Appleton Street. The store was an expansion of the C.J. Pettibone dry goods store which had existed in Appleton since 1862, when it was established as a branch of a Fond du Lac-based enterprise. Pettibone-Peabody was acquired by the H.C. Prange Company of Sheboygan, Wisconsin on January 24, 1946, and became the fourth Prange's store.

Nearby, a Gimbels department store opened on March 11, 1971, on the northwest corner of College Avenue and Morrison Street. Gimbels was subsequently acquired by in 1973, which incorporated the chain into the BATUS retail group. In May 1986, the company announced it would shut down its Gimbels division, with some of the Wisconsin stores under that name being converted into Marshall Field's locations and others closing. The Appleton Gimbels store was set to close, but an intense lobbying effort connected to the ongoing construction of the mall led BATUS to reopen the store as Marshall Field's on October 8, 1986.

Early proposals
The concept of a downtown shopping mall for Appleton was proposed as early as the 1950s, in response to the growth of suburban shopping. , the architect and planner who would go on to be widely recognized as the creator of the modern American shopping mall, proposed turning College Avenue into an open-air pedestrian mall in a 1954 plan that was never adopted. For decades, various incarnations of plans were suggested, which were controversial because they generally suggested closing off a portion of College Avenue to vehicle traffic to build a pedestrian space, indoors or outdoors, between existing storefronts. Despite these unsuccessful efforts, by 1977 the Appleton Redevelopment Authority agreed that some form of connecting indoor spaces between existing downtown department stores was a necessary and inevitable part of their efforts to revitalize downtown.

Multiple different designs were drawn up by the Development Control Corporation in 1977 for an enclosed mall downtown that would not block off any part of College Avenue, but this never materialized. A study conducted that year by Hammer, Siler, George Associates found that Appleton already had one of the strongest downtowns for retail in the country, and predicted that a suburban mall would not succeed without the backing of national retailers like Sears and J.C. Penney. In 1979, it was announced that General Growth Properties would build the Fox River Mall on the western outskirts of town, that Sears and Penney's would vacate their downtown stores to move to the mall when it opened, and that Prange's intended to open a store at the mall without closing its downtown location. With these announcements, plans to redevelop downtown Appleton and encourage major retailers to stay grew more urgent. General Growth had considered proposing a similar downtown mall project before deciding to pursue the suburban project.

In response to the Fox River Mall's construction, the concept of an enclosed mall downtown was quickly revived with a proposal from the National Redevelopment Company, aiming to build it quickly enough to discourage General Growth from following through on its mall, scheduled for completion in 1984. After an investigation by the Appleton Post-Crescent exposed National Redevelopment's financial and legal troubles, the development firm was dropped from the project in June 1980, and the Appleton Redevelopment Authority began looking for a new development partner. However, a study commissioned by the ARA and published at the end of 1980 found that building a large enclosed mall downtown, one capable of competing with the Fox River Mall, would oversaturate the city's retail market and harm both malls, and concluded that the project should be significantly scaled back if not canceled altogether.

Planning and construction
In November 1982, the Downtown Appleton Task Force was established, and began working with the ARA and other local organizations to revive interest once again in the downtown mall proposal. The group hired Jeremy Mayberg, an architect who had worked on National Redevelopment's proposal for the site, to consult with local businesses and begin drawing up a new set of plans for redevelopment. The result was Mayberg's "Three Square" proposal, which suggested closing a block of Oneida Street to create a smaller, two-level enclosed mall connecting Prange's to Gimbels, surrounded by two new proposed outdoor plazas which would augment the existing one at Soldiers Square. Local leaders praised the plan as more appealing and more realistic than past versions of the proposal. The Three Square proposal was almost unanimously endorsed by Appleton City Council in February 1983, although the alderman representing the downtown area was one of its few opponents.

The proposal was reworked by The Center Companies, which announced its plans to build what would now be called "The Avenue" on February 1, 1984. The "squares" element of the plan had been dropped, but Mayberg's design for the mall concourse had remained essentially intact.

The construction of the mall would require the demolition of 17 existing buildings between Prange's and Gimbels. Only the Atkins Building, at 100 East College Avenue, would be spared due to its history as the oldest surviving commercial building in the city, having been constructed in 1857. The Conway Home for the Elderly, a six-story former hotel building at 128 North Oneida Street, was also left standing.

Before construction began, the mall's intended opening in the spring of 1986 was pushed back to fall, as developers had run into difficulty recruiting tenants to locate in the building. The developers had intended for demolition to begin on the site in February 1985, but this was hampered by delays in the project's financing plan, which was not put in place until June of that year, allowing work on the project to begin.

Demolition started on July 11, 1985, by which time roughly 50% of the space in the mall was already under lease. The mall's design was described as "historical eclectic", aiming to emulate the heritage of the buildings being demolished and other downtown structures. With demolition complete, a groundbreaking ceremony was held on November 15, with construction work beginning November 18. By this time, the mall's developers no longer saw it as a rival to the Fox River Mall, which had opened the previous year, but as a complementary project. As one investor put it, "if you want to buy a pair of jeans, you go out there. If you want to buy a unique present for your wife, you go downtown."

In the midst of construction, BATUS announced in May 1986 that its Gimbels division would shut down, with Milwaukee-area stores converted into Marshall Field's while the Appleton location was expected to close. Hoping to avoid leaving the mall and downtown Appleton as a whole with a major anchor vacancy, local leaders successfully lobbied BATUS to convert the Appleton store into a Marshall Field's as well, opening on October 8, 1986. This placed the conversion close to the mall's planned opening date of early October 1986, but that date was pushed back again in August, as developers stated the building would not be enclosed until November, and announced a planned opening in March 1987.

The Avenue Mall
The Avenue Mall officially opened on March 12, 1987. 16 of the mall's 65 spaces were occupied on opening day, with an additional four businesses then preparing to open in the following months. The mall opened with an advertising campaign marked by the tagline "Bringing back the magic", a reference to Appleton being the birthplace of.

As part of the mall's construction, Prange's and Marshall Field's both agreed to a contract which required the companies to keep their downtown stores open so long as the mall's retail space was at least 70% occupied by tenants. On November 1, 1987, when this agreement went into effect, the mall was only 43% occupied, allowing either anchor to leave the mall as long as it gave six months' notice. The mall failed to attract a significant number of new tenants in the year after it opened. The situation was made worse by the complex's primary lender, Lyons Savings and Loan of Countryside, Illinois, going bankrupt in December 1988, leaving the mall unable to get loan funding to convert vacant spaces for potential tenants.

On May 6, 1989, Prange's notified The Center Companies that it planned to close its downtown store. Prange's ultimately closed on November 6, 1989, exactly six months after the company gave notice. Marshall Field's was acquired by the Dayton Hudson Corporation in 1990, and the downtown Appleton location was closed on May 17, 1991, as the company prepared to open a Dayton's store at Fox River Mall. This move left downtown Appleton with no department stores, having had four before the opening of the Fox River Mall less than seven years prior. With both anchor store spaces empty, the mall was left only 18% occupied in the summer of 1991.

City Hall and office redevelopment
City alderman Marsha Brewer suggested that the city should acquire The Avenue as early as June 1990. Shortly after the announcement in March 1991 that Marshall Field's would close its store, the mall's owner The Avenue Company defaulted on its mortgage, and the mall property was put up for auction. Brewer again suggested that the city should purchase the property and move Appleton City Hall into the former Prange's space, but the city did not act on this proposal and the mall was acquired by its mortgage lender, Superior Bank FSB. In the meantime, the second floor of the Prange's building was converted into the Fox Cities Children's Museum, which opened on November 2, 1992.

As the city continued to consider options for City Hall, which was running out of space in its existing location one block north of the mall, moving into the upper floors of the Prange's space became one of the most appealing choices by the end of 1992. While the move was originally considered potentially cost-saving, compared to the expense of constructing an entirely new City Hall building, further analysis by a city committee concluded that the cost of converting the Prange's space would not be significantly less. While controversial, the Prange's move was ultimately approved by the Common Council on July 21, 1993.

In advance of the move, the former Prange's building was officially renamed Appleton City Center. As part of the proposal, the Appleton Redevelopment Authority agreed to sell the City Center property to a condominium co-owned by the city of Appleton and the Aid Association of Lutherans, with the proceeds being used to acquire and tear down the nearby Washington Building. City offices were scheduled to begin moving from the former City Hall into the building on August 19, 1994, but the Appleton Common Council voted for a last-minute renegotiation of that deal on August 17. This sudden decision threatened the city's ability to move into the complex as planned, but the Common Council agreed on August 19 to allow the move to go forward, and the new facility opened to the public on August 23.

Herberger's, Younkers, and retail resurgence
Herberger's opened a department store in the former Marshall Field's space in July 1993. The openings of Herberger's, the Fox Cities Children's Museum, City Hall, and other offices revitalized interest in the mall, which attracted new retail tenants. In the fall of 1994, the mall achieved 94% occupancy, and held a "grand reopening" ceremony in November to celebrate its resurgence.

In 1996, Herberger's was acquired by Proffitt's. Since Proffitt's had also recently acquired Younkers, which itself had bought out Prange's shortly after it left The Avenue in 1992, it decided to convert the Appleton Herberger's into a Younkers in July 1997. Although another Younkers store already existed at Fox River Mall, Proffitt's promised that it would keep the downtown store open. However, the store ultimately closed on February 2, 2002, with the expiration of its first lease option. As the store shut down, it was announced that the mall would seek to replace it with office space, making it the last downtown department store Appleton would see for the foreseeable future.

City Center Plaza
The Avenue Mall was officially renamed City Center Plaza on August 8, 2002, reflecting the fact that the complex was now primarily office space. This change coincided with the announcement that the former Younkers anchor space would be converted into an office building named City Center East. Since 2002, the mixed-use complex has continued to operate with a limited amount of retail on the first floor, most of which faces College Avenue, and office space in other parts of the building.

Tenants
Current tenants are listed in bold.

West anchor

 * Prange's, converted from Pettibone-Peabody Co. January 24, 1946, closed November 6, 1989
 * Fox Cities Children's Museum and Building for Kids, opened November 2, 1992
 * Appleton City Hall, opened August 23, 1994

East anchor

 * Marshall Field's, converted from Gimbels October 8, 1986, closed May 17, 1991
 * Herberger's, opened July 1993, converted July 1997
 * Younkers, opened July 1997, closed February 2, 2002
 * City Center East office complex
 * M&I Bank, opened 2002
 * ThedaCare, opened 2003
 * TDS MetroCom, opened 2003
 * Insurance Services, Inc. (subsidiary of Hilb Rogal & Hobbs, acquired by Willis Towers Watson in 2008), opened 2005
 * Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, opened January 3, 2006
 * Hoffman Corporation, opened 2007
 * Outagamie County Board

Atkins Building

 * Burger King, opened 1980, closed June 29, 2000
 * El Patron, opened 2012, closed October 28, 2017
 * Bowl Ninety-One, opened December 2017

First floor

 * Bee Frank, opened March 8, 1987, closed June 1996
 * Fanny Farmer, opened March 8, 1987, closed June 1991
 * Original Cookie Company, opened March 8, 1987, closed June 1991
 * Master Cuts, opened March 8, 1987, closed 1990 (moved to Fox River Mall)
 * Osterman Jewelers, opened March 8, 1987, closed July 1990
 * Diane's Hallmark Shop, opened March 8, 1987, closed 1992
 * Valley Bank, opened March 8, 1987
 * Earth Resources, opened July 1987, closed October 1996
 * Grand American Cafe, opened February 2, 1988, closed May 5, 1990
 * Avenue Art, opened February 1989, closed 2013
 * Classic Home Interiors, opened September 14, 1990, closed by March 1991
 * Bowlby's Candy, opened 1991, closed April 15, 2006
 * Joseph's Shoes, opened early 1992
 * The Treasure Box, opened 1992 (moved from 230 East College Avenue), closed June 1995
 * J. Hawkinson Clothiers, moved from second floor late 1994 opened October 1992
 * Murray Photo and Video, opened October 1992
 * Aronson's Bookshop, opened December 30, 1992, closed August 1996
 * Michel's Bakery and Cafe, opened February 1994, closed April 2001
 * All Wisconsin and Gifts, opened October 1994
 * Amini Oriental Rugs, opened late 1994
 * PMW Tailoring, opened late 1994
 * Sassy's, moved from second floor late 1994
 * Shirt Stop, opened late 1994
 * BC Computers & Consulting, opened April 1995
 * Ovejo Leathers, opened August 1995
 * The Rug Company, opened March 1996
 * Faces Eyewear, opened May 22, 1996
 * Complete Nails, opened August 1996
 * Un-Tied, opened 1997
 * Blues Image Custom Clothier, moved from second floor 1997, closed 1998
 * Voecks Diamonds & Collectibles, opened September 8, 1997, closed December 2001
 * Downtown Deli, opened October 2001
 * Bill Paul Manufacturer's Outlet, opened 2004, closed December 2006
 * StairGoddess, opened October 20, 2004
 * Studio Kitchens of Appleton, opened October 20, 2004
 * Tropical Smoothie Cafe, opened October 2006
 * Wisconsin Museum of International Wildlife, opened March 1, 2011, moved to second floor 2013
 * Anderson Pens, opened November 16, 2013
 * Items of Interest, opened November 2013, closed December 23, 2020
 * CSI-Appleton Cookies, Soups, Ice Cream, opened 2005, closed August 28, 2015
 * City Cafe, closed October 28, 2018
 * Aunty's Cafe, opened December 2018

Second floor

 * Regis Hairstylists, opened March 8, 1987, closed by 1992
 * The Mole Hole, opened March 8, 1987, closed May 2001
 * The Learning Shop, opened March 8, 1987, closed June 1991
 * The Limited, opened March 8, 1987, closed by March 1991
 * Just Petites, opened March 8, 1987, closed November 12, 1989, reopened by court order December 1989, permanently closed by March 1991
 * Casual Corner, opened March 8, 1987, closed January 1997
 * Traditions, opened April 17, 1987, closed February 1989
 * Gantos, opened June 12, 1987, closed July 1991
 * Benetton, opened August 1, 1987, closed by April 1991
 * The Daily Grind, opened September 1987, renamed Shirley's Perk & Pasta in September 1994, closed by 1995
 * County Seat, opened November 9, 1987, closed by April 1991
 * Higbee's, opened March 1989, closed July 1991
 * Weidert Advertising, opened 1991, closed 1994 (moved to 215 South Memorial Drive)
 * J. Hawkinson Clothiers, opened October 1992
 * Sassy's, opened November 9, 1993, moved to first floor late 1994
 * Kids Avenue, opened late 1994
 * The GroundsKeeper, opened August 1995
 * The Perfect Gift, opened May 1996, closed June 1998
 * Abracadabra Magic Shop, opened October 12, 1996, closed September 1999
 * Fox Valley Photography
 * Creamery Gift & Craft, opened November 1, 1996, closed 1998
 * The Cigar Vault, opened December 1996, closed December 1998
 * Pickles & Ice Cream Maternity, opened January 16, 1997, closed 1998
 * Blues Image Custom Clothier, opened 1997, moved to first floor 1997
 * Kid's Alley, opened January 8, 2001
 * Career Connections, opened July 2001
 * Wisconsin Museum of International Wildlife, moved from first floor 2013
 * Appleton Area School District

Third floor/food court

 * Sbarro, opened March 8, 1987, closed June 1991
 * Mike's Subs, opened March 8, 1987, closed September 20, 1990
 * Blommer's Ice Cream, opened March 8, 1987 closed September 20, 1990
 * Fast Wok, opened April 10, 1987, closed June 1991
 * Hot Doggit, opened June 1987, closed September 21, 1990
 * Thor's Lunchbox, opened 1992, closed 1995
 * Wok and Roll, closed March 1993
 * Looy's Pizza, closed October 1997
 * Hungri's Avenue Deli, closed October 1997
 * Frisbee's, opened March 1993
 * Papa Gian's, opened March 1993
 * The Chili Pepper, opened June 1, 1994, closed 1997 (moved to 621 Northland Avenue)
 * Kris n' Nikki's Frozen Kustard & Food, opened 1996, closed October 24, 1997

Unknown

 * The Earring Tree, opened 1987, closed 1990
 * Montinaro, opened 1988, closed by March 1991
 * Sunglass Hut, opened 1988, closed by November 1991
 * Wilson's Suede and Leather, closed by March 1991
 * Avon, opened 1991
 * Squire Hairstylists, opened 1992
 * D'Moraux Salon, opened September 1992
 * Accessory Magic, opened July 19, 1993, closed 1995
 * Fashion-Aire Salon & Tanning, moved from 115 West Washington Street, opened November 9, 1993
 * Wilbourne's Travel Service, opened November 9, 1993
 * Avenue Luggage, Cards & Gifts, opened late 1994, closed February 2001
 * A Different Drummer, opened November 1995
 * Parties Etc. Group, opened March 1996
 * Cathy's Frozen Custard and Food, opened May 1996
 * Act 2, Ltd., opened June 1996
 * M.E. Lou, opened 1996
 * Emilie's Gifts, opened September 12, 2001, closed May 2006
 * Carlson Wagonlit Travel
 * Jim Laabs Music
 * Avenue Playhouse