Pizza Man will open a location in the Drexel Town Square development in Oak Creek, the restaurant announced this morning. It will be the third Milwaukee area location for Pizza Man.
Pizza Man has signed a lease for 5,000 square feet of space on the south side of the town square facing the development’s new library and Oak Creek City Hall.
The restaurant could open as early as this fall.
“I think people are going to like it,” said Oak Creek Mayor Steve Scaffidi. “We’ve had some really great partners come in. We’re trying to find the right mix.”
Pizza Man joins the Water Street Brewery, BelAir Cantina, Chick-fil-A and the Chocolate Factory on the list of restaurants that have already opened or plan to open locations at Drexel Town Square.
Scaffidi and Wispark President Jerry Franke said the city and developers are also close to securing a coffee shop.
“We’re elated that Pizza Man is going to be joining the Drexel Town Square community,” Franke said. “We’re really pleased to get these really outstanding restaurants.”
The new Pizza Man is being designed by Rinka Chung Architecture Inc. and will seat 200 people. The restaurant will also have an outdoor patio that can seat an additional 120.
“The location is desirable because it is highly accessible with direct access to Howell Avenue which runs directly through the heart of Oak Creek into Racine County, Drexel Avenue which runs directly west into Milwaukee’s southwest communities, and is literally just east of the interstate system with on and off ramps at Drexel,”said Scott Lurie, managing member for Pizza Man restaurants. “We are excited about being a member of the Oak Creek community and near a number of favorable neighboring businesses, apartments and families. The location is a blank canvas that allows us to recreate the same Pizza Man atmosphere that patrons have come to enjoy.”
Drexel Town Square is an 85-acre, mixed-use project by a team of developers, led by Wispark LLC, at the former Delphi plant site southwest of Drexel and Howell avenues. The vision for the redevelopment project is to create a downtown city center for Oak Creek.
A 192,000-square-foot Meijer store opened in 2015 as part of the project. On December 16, the city and Wispark LLC sold 6.9 acres at the site for $1.58 million to Chicago-based HSA PrimeCare to build a medical office building for Froedtert & The Medical College of Wisconsin. Two days later, 2.3 acres more were sold for $800,000 to a New Mexico company that plans to build a 108-room Four Points by Sheraton Hotel.
“(Drexel Town Square has) definitely increased the buzz about the city and I think as we build it out, it’s going to be something that people look at as the centerpiece of Oak Creek,” Scaffidi said.
