NEWS

Truck stop to become Red Robin, Dick's Sporting Goods

Nora G. Hertel

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Officials approved a plan for a Red Robin and Dick’s Sporting Goods to take over property currently occupied by the Rib Mountain Travel Center.

RIB MOUNTAIN – A Red Robin restaurant will open by early 2016 in Rib Mountain. A Dick's Sporting Goods store will join it around June.

The Rib Mountain Town Board gave the final approval Tuesday night for those new developments on the 4600 block of Rib Mountain Drive.

In the next few weeks the developer, The Morgan Partners LLC, will complete its purchase of the property and secure the needed permits for demolition and construction, said Ed Bowen, a Morgan Partners broker. On-site activity should start within about a month.

The new development will take over lots currently occupied by the Rib Mountain Travel Center and a former AT&T building. The Town Board had already approved rezoning the property for the project.

Right now trucks line much of the lot, flanked by a gas station on the west end and an empty building on the other. The pavement is chipped throughout.

"It's pretty bad," Bowen said. "It's going to get a nice clean up."

Before the 4600 block gets its facelift, the town will begin reconstruction of the adjoining intersection. Construction there starts Aug. 8 and includes a new light and wider roads, Town Board member Fred Schaefer said. It will also be a crossing point for pedestrians and cyclists, he said.

An artist’s rendering of the proposed Red Robin restaurant on Rib Mountain Drive.

The town is planning a section of bike path along the south end of the Dick's and Red Robin development, up to that intersection. Town Board members unanimously approved the project Tuesday with the conditions that the developer cooperate on an adjacent bike path and that Red Robin's signs not exceed 250 square feet.

The 46,000-square-foot Dick's Sporting Goods store is slated for the west part of the property, next to I-39/U.S. 51, with the 4,500-square-foot Red Robin restaurant along Rib Mountain Drive.Officials believe the store and restaurant are a better use of the property than a truck stop.

The new development will be less industrial, decrease truck traffic and increase tax revenue, Schaefer said. "It's more compatible with what's there — which is retail."

Nora G. Hertel can be reached at nhertel@gannett.com or 715-845-0665. Find her on Twitter as @nghertel.