What's Going In Along Schofield's Lake Wausau Shoreline, and What's Still Undecided

Drive Grand Avenue past the Schofield Dam this month and two lakefront sites sit close together, and they're at opposite ends of the process. One is a finished mid-rise building, with a property manager handing out door prizes at an open house this Thursday. The other is a cleared, empty lot the city owns. A committee has written down what it should become, but nobody has voted on that plan.

The new building gets most of the attention. The empty lot is the bigger open question. At 7.4 to 7.5 acres, 281 Grand Avenue is the largest piece of Schofield's shoreline whose future the city still controls directly. As of mid-October 2026, there's no developer, no issued request for proposals, and no City Council decision.

The former City Hall site is done, apart from the condos and the overlook

Schofield City Hall now sits at 351 Alderson Street, where the city held a grand-opening open house on June 8, 2024. That freed up the old City Hall property on Park Drive. In June 2025, WSAW reported that S.C. Swiderski planned a $25 million project there, with 91 apartments, six condominiums, and a public sidewalk leading to an overlook on Lake Wausau. Completion was expected in summer 2026.

The apartments have arrived. The building is called SCS Schofield, at 1406 Park Drive. Its management company describes it as a brand-new mid-rise with open layouts, private patios, underground parking and pet-friendly units. They're hosting an open house with guided tours on Thursday, October 15, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Two parts of the 2025 plan haven't been confirmed yet. S.C. Swiderski's project page still lists the six condos, branded Fairway Condominiums, as "Coming Soon," with completion estimated in 2026. The page shows images of a viewing platform but doesn't say whether the public sidewalk and overlook are open. No 2026 news report or city notice has announced an opening date either. The developer committed to public access in 2025. As of this writing, no source shows that access open to the public.

281 Grand Avenue has a wish list but no buyer

A short way up the road, the city owns a parcel that used to be a condemned trailer park. In its June 30, 2026 report, Wausau Pilot & Review said the trailers had been razed more than a year earlier, leaving the site cleared and vacant. The city created an ad hoc committee just to decide what should happen there. The city's meeting calendar shows that group meeting from late April through June.

The committee finalized its recommendation on June 25 in six points, according to the official minutes:

1. Subdivide the parcel into multiple development areas.
2. Consider both parcel sales and long-term land leases.
3. Make a boutique hotel and upscale restaurant the highest priority.
4. Have the selected developer work with the city to include a trail section and decide where facilities go on the site.
5. Include a liquor license in the hotel and restaurant package.
6. Leave the remaining sub-parcels "To Be Determined" through future proposals.

The committee then voted to send the recommendation to the Economic Redevelopment Committee and to dissolve itself. The minutes also say a committee member would turn the six points into a draft request for proposals, kept as a working document the city could keep refining.

Since then the record has been quiet. The Finance/Economic Redevelopment Committee took up the findings on June 25 and recorded "No Action." On July 13, a former ad hoc member described the hotel and restaurant recommendation for the 7.4 acres. The minutes say the rest of the property would be sold off, but that "no official conclusion has been finalized yet." The same meeting discussed whether to add 281 Grand Avenue to TIF 4, with Vierbicher Associates, the city attorney and Ehlers Inc. involved. That item also ended with no action.

The item hasn't been on the agendas posted since. The amended City Council agenda for September 8 doesn't list it. The Finance/Economic Redevelopment Committee agenda for today, October 12, covers budget and finance business.

Here are the two sites side by side:

The two sources don't quite agree on size. Wausau Pilot & Review calls the parcel 7.5 acres, while the July committee minutes say 7.4.

The trail clause matters because the shoreline is already in use

Item four on the committee's list is the one that could touch everyday life most. The recommendation asks the selected developer to work a city trail section into the site. Along with the planned public sidewalk at Park Drive, that would mean two new public routes to the water on this one stretch.

Both would join a shoreline people already use. Radtke Park, at the end of Radtke Street, has stairs down to Lake Wausau for fishing, plus a picnic shelter, grills, bathrooms, picnic tables and a pickleball court. The Schofield Dam landing, just off Grand Avenue, has boat access above and below the dam, fishing areas, benches, a kayak launch and bathrooms. The city's Spring/Summer 2024 newsletter lists docks on both sides of the dam at Drott Street, at Radtke Park, and at 1020 Grand behind Intercity Bank.

The kayak launch is the Drott Street Rotary Kayak Landing at 220 Drott Street. WSAW covered its construction in 2023. The Wausau Rotary Club built it as an accessible launch to make getting into a kayak or canoe safer, with a way to portage around the dam. The Wisconsin Middle Rivers Conservation and Paddling Foundation puts that portage at about 200 feet and lists a dock, restroom, parking and picnic space there.

The fishing off those docks and stairs is better than many people might guess. In the 2026 Wisconsin fishing report, the DNR says its 2025 survey of Lake Wausau caught 1,338 northern pike. That puts the lake's relative abundance well above the 90th percentile for similar Wisconsin lakes, with an estimated 6,930 pike, about 3.6 per acre across 1,918 acres. Two fish measured over 40 inches. The season is open all year, with no minimum length and a daily bag limit of five. The same report says Lake Wausau is one of only two waterbodies in the state where the black redhorse lives. That fish is listed as endangered in Wisconsin, so the DNR asks anglers to protect all redhorse species in the lake.

None of the sources reviewed shows a continuous trail connecting 281 Grand, Park Drive, Radtke Park and the dam. The trail section in the committee's recommendation is a placeholder that depends on whichever developer the city eventually picks.

Getting to the water this fall means working around two closures

The DNR lists the Schofield Dam and the Kort Street boat launch among Lake Wausau's boat access points, and Radtke Park for shore access. Kort Street has been closed to through traffic since Monday, July 27. Ross Avenue has been closed between Metro Drive and Schofield Avenue since Monday, July 20. The city's road notice gives November 15 as the expected end date for both, and calls it expected rather than confirmed.

For breakfast before an early cast, Tri City Restaurant at 525 Grand Avenue lists daily hours of 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on its website. Marathon County inspected it in March 2025, at the same address. If the committee's plan goes forward, an upscale restaurant at 281 Grand would join it on the same corridor.

Where the next decision will show up

Any movement on 281 Grand Avenue will go through the Finance/Economic Redevelopment Committee and then the City Council. Both post agendas and minutes on the city's meeting portal. The things to watch for are a TIF 4 decision, a formal request for proposals, and a council vote on the hotel and restaurant plan. None of the three has happened as of October 12, 2026. At Park Drive, the next milestones are the Fairway Condominiums and the public overlook. Neither has a confirmed date.

When changes like these move along a shoreline, they shape how the homes around them are valued and marketed. If you own on or near Grand Avenue or Park Drive and want to know how the new building and the open questions at 281 Grand might factor into your home's value, Joleta Sells Homes can walk you through it. Guiding You Home: get your free home valuation.