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OSHKOSH – There is never any shortage of business news in Oshkosh, but new chains coming to the area and even the potential of flying electric vehicles seemed to pique readers’ interest in 2022.
The most-read stories this year also, sadly, included the closing of popular businesses — though at least a dart bar has plans in the works to return under a new name and renovations in early 2023. Notably, efforts by two local nonprofits to find housing solutions for the city’s homeless population also made the list.
Here is a roundup of the local business stories that got the most views in 2022, along with updates on those projects.
There must be a lot of pizza fans in Oshkosh, because the most-read business story of the year was the June closing of Three One Four Pizza, a quaint California-style pizza restaurant at 803 Otter Ave.
Shortly after it closed, the French-Italian fusion restaurant Parm moved in.
That was short-lived, though, as owner Andy Saray has since found a new home for Parm in the former Pizza @ Hwy 21 space at 1652 Oshkosh Ave. He’s planning to open in that space in January with a new menu and woodfire pizza oven.
Saray said in December he would keep the Otter Avenue space, which he has a year lease on, for production and as a catering kitchen for summer events.
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Readers also were interested in keeping updated on plans for a freestanding Panda Express on the former site of Golden Corral at 580 S. Koeller St.
The city council approved a site plan for the project in August, after approving a conceptual plan in January, but there has not been a ton of movement since.
Plans call for a 2,500-square-foot drive-thru restaurant on the northern half of the site that would house Panda Express. A future phase also called for a second, unnamed drive-thru restaurant on the south half of the site.
Henry Klover of Klover Architects, who applied for the project, did not return repeated requests for comment on an update.
Mark Lyon’s, the city’s planning services manager, said Dec. 14 that the city is still “actively working” with the applicant toward finalizing plans for things like storm water management and utility connections.
The locally owned downtown Schultz Pharmacy, 220 N. Main St., closed seemingly overnight on April 27, directing its customers instead to the nearest Walgreens at 315 W. Murdock Ave.
It’s still unclear what led to the closure, and the pharmacy’s owner has not returned requests for comment.
However, work is being done on the space. Becki Wesenberg of First Weber Real Estate said her team is trying to rent out the property and working on gutting the interior.
“Our intention is to make it a white box for someone to use as desired,” she said in an email.
The kitchen from the pharmacy’s bistro will remain, she said, in case someone is interested in opening a coffee or sandwich shop.
Popular downtown dart bar Screwballs closes, reopens, closes again
The owners of Screwballs Sportspub, 216 N. Main St., made the decision to sell this summer and planned to close in June.
Shortly after, the property’s new owners, Nick Malesevich and Tony Mirek, realized the disservice they were doing to loyal customers and decided to reopen Screwballs “exactly as it was” for the summer before it closed to undergo renovations this winter.
Malesevich said Screwballs last day was Nov. 23 and renovations have begun for its rebranding to Water City Pub. He is hopeful the new bar and restaurant will open in the first couple months of 2023.
Oshkosh’s temporary warming shelter staff had been trying for nearly seven years to find a permanent home. After getting off to a tumultuous start in late 2021, Day By Day Warming Shelter got the approval and funding it needed in January to begin construction on a permanent homeless shelter.
The shelter broke ground in August on its new space at the northwest corner of Broad Street and Ceape Avenue.
Molly Yatso Butz, the shelter’s executive director, said her team is about $800,000 shy of its $5.5 million capital campaign, which is intended to fund furniture and fixtures in the new building, equipment, operations and future sustainability. A $3.59 million grant the campaign received through a statewide Neighborhood Investment Fund from Winnebago County in March greatly helped toward its goal.
Day By Day, which currently operates from mid-October to mid-April, will finally be able to operate full time this spring, Yatso Butz said. She is planning on the staff and guests making the transition to the new shelter this April.
“It’s crazy how fast (construction) is going,” she said. “It’s moving along just as we hoped.”
Another project to help the homeless — and that also received about $570,000 from the Neighborhood Investment Fund — will provide housing to homeless families starting as early as January.
The Oshkosh Kids Foundation, with help from Oshkosh native and entrepreneur T.J. Rodgers, is constructing a Tiny House Village on the 200 block of W. Packer Ave. that will eventually house up to 32 families and provide programming and services to help families get back on their feet.
Julie Dumke, the foundation’s executive director, said she is hoping to have “a few” families moved in by Jan. 1, with the first 16 houses full and the community center operational by mid-January.
A second phase will include the remaining 16 houses and landscaping, which she said will be completed by June 1.
There must be a lot of happy campers in the Oshkosh area, because news of a Camping World planting stakes on South Washburn Street caught a lot of eyes this year.
Construction began on the site at 3855 S. Washburn St. this spring, and its moved quickly along.
The project located off Interstate 41 looks nearly complete, but repeated requests for comment from Camping World and the architects named on the project have not been returned. A sign in front of the building says it is opening soon.
Neenah-Based Volatus Infrastructure and Wittman Regional Airport announced in April plans to construct an electric vertical takeoff and landing vertiport at the airport.
Volatus cofounder Grant Fisk said it would be one of the first permanent eVTOL vertiports in the country, but Wittman Regional Airport Director Jim Schell said it could still be a while before that’s a reality, while they await Federal Aviation Administration regulations.
“The last we heard from the FAA is that final advisory wouldn’t be coming until 2024,” Schell said in December.
He said his staff is in regular contact with the Volatus team and is monitoring FAA guidelines for the eVTOL industry, but the technology is so new that those guidelines are in flux.
“We’re doing everything we can, but not only is this a nationwide initiative, it’s a global initiative,” Schell said. “There are other countries that are further than the U.S., but the FAA’s big thing is safety.”
For now, we may just have to settle with a good, old-fashioned electric car.
Contact Katy Macek at kmacek@thenorthwestern.com or 920-426-6658. Follow her on Twitter @KatherineMacek.
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