Plans for a new bank in downtown Minocqua advanced Tuesday with the blessing of the Minocqua plan commission.
Mike Theiss, representing the developers/owners, told commissioners that next month they plan to demolish the former Associated Bank building, which is adjacent to the motel and across from Torpy Park. It will be taken down to the foundation, he explained. They will then build a one-story bank building on the footprint of the former structure.
Ghidorzi Construction Company of Wausau, current owner of the property, will turn the completed building over to Nicolet National Bank, which plans to relocate their bank there this summer. Nicolet currently has a branch on U.S. Highway 51, near Highway 70 West, in Minocqua.
In the plans submitted to the commission, the Wausau company notes the “exterior of the building will match the other Nicolet Bank buildings throughout central and east central Wisconsin.”
“It will be nice to have a bank downtown again,” said town chairman Mark Hartzheim. Associated put the building up for sale when in 2015 they built a new bank building adjacent to McDonald’s on U.S. Highway 51. Commissioners unanimously approved forwarding the permit directly to the county for approval.
In other actions, the plan commission approved an administrative review permit for Kay Hatch to open a retail store in the former Polecat & Lace Restaurant, corner of Oneida Street and West Milwaukee Street. Polecat & Lace was one of the oldest operating restaurants in the area. It opened in 1978; closing in 2021.
Hatch said she will be moving her business, Imaginuity, from her present business a block away over to the new one sometime in the latter part of this year. Imaginuity is a specialty toy store with products for various age groups. She opened the business in 2010 and a similar business in Rhinelander two years later.
