Green Bay developer brings forward new plan for East Town Mall

GREEN BAY (WLUK) -- There are plans to bring new life into a struggling Green Bay mall that was put up for sale last year.

There's been other redevelopment plans over the years for East Town Mall, but none ever came to fruition. The difference this time? A local developer is leading the charge.

“As a native who grew up in that area and biked around the property for many years, I want to see East Town Mall remain a successful and vibrant commercial center,” said Garritt Bader of GB Real Estate Investments LLC. “There is a possibility for that and I think this plan can do it.”

Bader's plan will keep the commercial aspect of the building to its north side, with businesses having exterior entrances, replacing the traditional interior mall format. A majority of the building, however, will be for American Tent.

“I'm a west sider so East Town is a little unfamiliar to me,” said Tony Ehrbar, who also grew up in Green Bay.

Ehrbar is the owner of American Tent. The 6-year-old company used to primarily produce tents for parties, but now more so for social distancing events. Moving to East Town will approximately triple its production space.

“April hit and we just started getting calls from schools, from restaurants, so we ended up being up about two times what we thought we were going to be this year and we're still expecting to grow,” said Ehrbar.

Ehrbar says in the past year American Tent has hired an additional 30 employees and added a second shift. He believes the extra business will keep up even after the pandemic is under control.

“Most of our competition brings in tents from China,” said Ehrbar. We have some Chinese partners we work with, but most everything is done within our four walls so that value proposition stands up really well with customers.”

If the city approves production and processing zoning for East Town, Bader plans to close on the mall property mid-February.

“Certain tenants will need space next summer, probably most of the visual changes that people see will be sometime late summer or early fall,” said Bader.

Bader wouldn't name any other tenants that could be going into East Town. He says he's working with existing tenants on potentially new locations in the reformatted space.

The developer is not asking the city for any financial assistance for the project.