Early Pabst Farms Mall Developer In Bankruptcy

The now bankrupt-General Growth's 2007 pullout from the Pabst Farms project should again be a wake-up call to those still believing that there is mall potential at that Western Waukesha County development.

General Growth also operates Mayfair Mall, in Wauwatosa, and a host of malls in the Chicago area. Nationally, it is the nation's number-two mall operator.

Some big-boxes huddled together at Pabst Farms in a strip mall with mega-parking lots - - maybe (though those come and go, a la Circuit City - - but General Growth bailed out of the initial, and now-dead upscale "lifestyle center" at Pabst Farms for a reason.

It'd flop.

With housing and consumer spending in the tank, a shopping mall at Pabst Farms is dead, and the legislature should order the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to stop throwing more good money after bad, and to justify the $9 million WisDOT has already spent on Wisconsin's interstate interchange to nowhere.