Dan Vrakas: Get The Money in Hand Before Paving!

Maybe Waukesha County can save a couple million bucks.

Developers of Pabst Farms are shopping for another company to build a large upscale mall at I-94 and Highway 67 because General Growth Properties Inc. looks like it is bowing out of the high-profile project.

Let's go to the important part:

Two local retail sources who did not want to be named said rumors of General Growth's decision to pull out have been circulating for weeks. They suggested the site has not been attracting as much interest from retailers as expected because of the lack of population in the Oconomowoc area.

Hmmmmm. You mean that dairy cows don't shop at Nordson's?

Meanwhile, the Waukesha County Board is expected later this month to vote on a plan to build a new freeway interchange at I-94 and County Highway P designed primarily to serve the mall.
The county would contribute $1.75 million toward the cost of the $25 million freeway project, with Pabst Farms contributing another $1.75 million and the city $400,000 from revenues generated through the tax incremental financing program created for part of the 1,500-acre Pabst Farms development. The state Department of Transportation would fund the remainder of the project.

Seems to me that the County Board would be well-advised to put Pabst Farms in a hammerlock of some sort for the public funds to be expended here. You know, like take their homes as collateral or something...