October 31, 2020 – West Bend, WI – On Tuesday, November 4 the West Bend Plan Commission will review designs for the new Dairy Queen, 1043 S. Main Street.
Kevin Scheunemann confirmed the purchase of the former Mutual Mall, on August 5, 2020.
“Yes. The property became available after we talked on July 9,” said Scheunemann.
On  July 9, 2020, WashingtonCountyInsider.com confirmed Scheunemann, owner of the Dairy Queens in Kewaskum and Jackson, was actively looking to open a DQ in West Bend.
The new look for DQ will follow franchise standards.
A couple notes from the final 27-page engineering plan:
– The building will be one-story block building that measures 3,312 square feet
– An outdoor patio seating area on the northwest side of the building
– Drive-thru around the back of the building, entering on the south and exiting on the north
– Double sided illuminated sign with an electronic message board
“We are excited, as a locally-owned family business, and as the local franchisee of the DQ brand, to be working with the City of West Bend to re-vitalize this property next to City Hall. I am especially excited we were able to take this very important first step toward bringing, and restoring, the DQ brand back to West Bend. West Bend has had a long tradition of DQ in the community, and we will be bringing that iconic tradition back with a new, exciting, prototype G&C “3.0 style” building.”
Scheunemann said, “I signed the paperwork in July to authorize the American Dairy Queen engineer to evaluate the property and begin putting together the concept plan layout for approval by the City of West Bend.
“I will have a timelime update once we receive concept plan approval from the City.”
“The existing building on the site is going to be entirely demolished once City has approved the new concept plan.”
The West Bend Common Council went into closed session Monday, August 3, 2020, to discuss the Mutual Mall purchase agreement. After 23 minutes the council returned to open session and voted 7 – 0 to approve the agreement. District 1 alderman John Butschlick was absent.
In February 2019 the City listed the purchase price of the parcel at $500,000. There was no assessed value because it was owned by the City and therefore tax exempt.
The WB-15 Commercial Offer to Purchase was signed July 30, 2020; the buyer UniMatrix Zero, LLC purchased the property for $425,000 with earnest money of $50,000.
There were a couple of contingencies in the deal:
The property is being sold in “as-is” condition. Buyer is solely responsible for removing the buildings currently located on the property. Buyer shall be solely responsible for removing and closing driveway connection with City Hall prior to commencing any business operations on the Property. Buyer shall submit a full site plan by October 1, 2020 for consideration at the November West Bend Plan Commission meeting.
The Plan Commission meets Wednesday, November 4 at 6 p.m.
Click HERE for the full agenda.
It was February 2014 when both Dairy Queen locations closed in West Bend. Do you remember their locations? ((For extra credit – there were three DQ locations in West Bend. Can you remember the third site?))
The first DQ was at 1123 N. Main St across from Brasing Pan Restaurant. It opened in 1953.