LA CROSSE, Wis. U-Haul wants “to blend in with the city, not be against it,” a company official told participants in a virtual meeting Monday night who quizzed his plans for the vacant former Kmart building on the city’s South Side.
Up to 50 residents and city officials tuned in to the Bluffside Neighborhood Association meeting, raising concerns about the appearance, landscaping, lighting, potential traffic, and other issues if U-Haul buys the building at Losey Boulevard and State Road.
The building has been vacant since Kmart closed in 2017, and city officials, neighbors and new owners George Parke and Festival had hoped to find a buyer who would develop it into mixed-use of retail and residential with no takers.