MANITOWOC, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — No one loves living next to a site that’s surrounded by fencing and filled with concrete and a jungle of weeds.
For years, that’s been the reality for residents and businesses on a portion of Washington Street in Manitowoc.
But changes are on the horizon. The former Mirro site will soon be ready for what’s next.
The Mirro Aluminum Company in Manitowoc was once the world’s largest manufacturer of aluminum cooking utensils, but it was bought out and moved in the late 1900s. After that, the building sat abandoned and vacant for nearly 13 years. The lot has been an empty, overgrown eyesore since it was torn down eight years ago in 2017.
“It was just a million square foot building on a city block. It was just an eyesore,” said Manitowoc Mayor Justin Nickels.
The Mirro site has been a thorn in the city’s side for years — long before Nickels first took office in 2009. The developer who bought the building for $1 never did any of the work promised at the site, so the city bought it back, also for $1.
Now, finally, a new future is just months away.
“I can announce the work will begin September 8. It’ll be about a month long process. You’ll see a bunch of trucks moving in over the site at that time,” Nickels said. “The Washington Street side [of the property] will be completely cleaned up and look a thousand times better than it does today.”
September 8 is when the site’s cleanup and transformation to a temporary greenspace will begin, thanks to a $2 million federal grant received by the city in January. Nickels says it won’t be much longer after cleanup that developers will start building 60 workforce housing units on the site.
“That was approved also. They got their federal tax credits and everything they needed to rely on to make this project a reality,” Nickels says about the developers.
They’re doing all the design and engineering right now, and once this work is done, we’ll more than likely see them getting on site to do prep work. More than likely, spring of 2026 is when you’ll see actual work starting on those.
Nickels says it’s the city’s obligation to improve dilapidated sites like Mirro and the Mid Cities Mall site, and prepare for the future of Manitowoc. It’s been a long time coming.
“It took a very, very long time. I mean, it’s great that finally we can put an end to this and we’ll have a nice development there. We’ll have people living in that area, which really should make the whole area nice,” Nickels says.
In 2029/2030, Washington Street is set to undergo a major reconstruction project, which Nickels says will further improve the corridor — a straight shot to Manitowoc’s downtown.
When asked about the site’s plans, several people who live and work near the site, but declined to go on camera, simply said, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Nickels says they’re still figuring out what to do with the small portion of the Mirro site off of Franklin Street that will not be redeveloped for the workforce housing units. It’s possible it could become a green space or a new mini-park.
