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Plaza 8 (now known simply as Downtown Sheboygan) was a pedestrian mall located in Downtown Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The mall stretched three and half city blocks in length from Ontario Avenue south past New York Avenue on North 8th Street. The area is now the Harbor Centre Downtown. == History == The Sheboygan Redevelopment Authority was created in 1966 by the city's Common Council and was responsible for the redevelopment of the downtown. A master plan developed that year for rebuilding the downtown proposed a pedestrian plaza. The federal government approved the project in 1972 and construction was completed in 1976, with official dedication and opening of the project coming during United States Bicentennial activities in July 1976. Plaza 8 was funded by the Federal Urban Renewal Agency and by the City of Sheboygan. The project was considered a failure by most standards, isolating the downtown area from the rest of the city, with large parking lots to accommodate expected visitors leaving Seventh and Ninth Streets (the main ways around Plaza 8) without buildings along them, and leaving the four-block area mostly quiet. The Sheboygan Transit transfer point at the south end of the project effectively blocked off trade in the block that it covered during transfer times and owners in the block found no purpose in maintaining their buildings discolored by heavy vehicle fumes and soot, leaving them in a derelict condition. Retail sales in the area did not improve and by 1989, a third of the area was vacant, with buildings condemned and torn down (with a couple used for the Jaycees' longtime haunted house fund-raising effort during that time). Plaza 8 was one of the last large projects financed by the Federal Urban Renewal Agency. Besides Prange's, the main strip of the mall was home to 16 retail shops and the entire side of one block was a vacant lot. The mall was removed in 1990 and traffic reintroduced to the Eighth Street corridor through the next three years, with the area renamed "Harbor Centre Downtown" in line with the city's new marketing effort for the downtown and north riverfront areas. The transfer point was shuffled around during those years until it found a permanent home a half-block east of the former on-street site a few years later. Since then, the City of Sheboygan has created the Harbor Centre Business Improvement District to manage the downtown, riverfront and recently developed South Pier District.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.ci.sheboygan.wi.us/business/business-improvement-district/ )〕 The plaza was home to Prange's, Walgreens and numerous local stores and restaurants.. The original Prange's building would stand until a flood and ensuing fire rendered it obsolete. Prange's rebuilt a new store on the same site. In 1992, the store name was changed after Younkers purchased the H.C. Prange Company. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Plaza 8」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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