The new Menards store on N. Milton Ave. appears to be on track to be open for business sometime this spring.
JANESVILLE — While headway is being made on the opening of a new Menards in Janesville, city officials are working to make sure the store’s existing location on Pontiac Place won’t be vacant for long.
Jeff Abbott, a spokesman for the Eau Claire-based Menards, said the new store at the intersection of Highway 26 and Interstate 90 will open in late spring.
The new 240,000-square-foot Menards is under construction at the former site of the Ramada Inn and Janesville Oasis. It will include a full-service lumberyard and enclosed outdoor garden center.
Menards, a family-owned company that started in 1960, has 235 home improvement stores in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
The Janesville store at 2700 Pontiac Place opened in 1984 in 52,000 square feet. At the time, it was Menards’ 24th store and cost an estimated $3 million to build.
Gale Price, manager of Janesville’s Building and Development Services, said the city is working with a Chicago company that is interested in redeveloping the former Menards’ site.
Price would not identify the potential developer or project.
“The ball’s really in their court,” Price said of the developer, who does have a prospect for the site.