Street talk: Top drawer, almost By Tom Murphy News-Chronicle There's little not to like about the evolution of Lambeau Field. Especially when today's playoff game comes, courtesy of the Arizona Cardinals, with the second coming of Mike Holmgren in three months. The venue named after the Packers co-founder, E.L. "Curly" Lambeau, grown from a horseshoe of bleachers, has blossomed from a town cornfield to a fully enclosed bowl with lots of fancy boxes. It is a monument to the staying power of the Green Bay Packers and community commitment. (The latter notwithstanding a vocal minority that can find nothing good to say about the will of the majority.) Although time has not yet tested the ability of the atrium/stadium to become a year-around draw, there is promise - most of which depends heavily on the continued success of the football team. If a snowmobile derby counts, so be it. Couple the availability of public rentals (weddings, conventions, corporate meetings, etc.) with the Packer Hall of Fame, Pro Shop, Curly's Pub and smaller attractions and there is promise, promise, promise. Right, E.D. Hartzen-cupid? Add a couple of new hotels to existing hostelries, the nearby sports saloons and the Resch Center/Veterans Memorial Arena complex and the area becomes a destination. Which brings up a small negative, but a negative nonetheless. Its the awfully ugly chain link fence that provides private parking for players and whoever in the administration decides to let use the compound. With a $295 million renovation and expansion, how about another couple of hundred bucks to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. It's quite possible that this small bit of visual upgrade would be less than four figures. How? Simply leave the existing fence and reface the exterior side with cedar. Maybe add some six-foot brick pillars at the corners (and perhaps in between to break the sight line). Given what's gone into the renovation/expansion, we almost - but not quite - hate to raise such a relatively small issue. But it hits us in much the same way when we see a Pennzoil sticker on a Jaguar bumper. JUST IN CASE In case you missed it (we almost did): Green Bay Packaging, the home-grown success story in the U.S. carton and box business, last June bought Younkers former warehouse on North Jackson Street. The purchase (technically from Saks Distribution Centers Inc.) price was $520,000. Given land prices alone that's too good a deal for Packaging to pass by. Given the location near its mill, corporate headquarters and the Green Bay Shipping Container Division, acquisition was almost a "must." In the 1960s, when the Tower Drive/Leo Frigo Bridge was in discussion stages (part of the "three-bridge package) with the Allouez-Ashwaubenon and Mason Street/Don Tillmann spans, it gave the old Prange chain an idea. Jerry Atkinson, head of the local Prange's operations and an officer of the corporation headquartered in Sheboygan, envisioned cars wheeling in from Upper Michigan and Northern Wisconsin and pouring off the east end of Tower Drive into his huge lot a couple blocks south. The site eventually became the prototype for Prange Way, the discount operations for the chain. That division grew, despite the fact that Atkinson's dream turned out to be a short-lived nightmark. Prange's, unfortunately, was a couple years ahead of its time. Company officials, including Atkinson, correctly saw the coming of heavy discounting in retailing. Unfortunately, so did Sam Walton. Prange Way grew considerably but only in the market of its parent. Wal-Mart grew and grew and continues to revise the retail landscape. Enough, already. It perhaps didn't help that, on a regional basis, ShopKo was becoming a force. Prange's and Atkinson, whose personal contributions to the community just about offset his heady impression of his own talents, were a bit ahead of their time. And, apparently, not deep enough in dollars or talent or commitment to withstand onslaughts of Walton's Arkansas Argonaut. Murphy, a longtime local business writer, writes a weekly column for This Week. Contact him by calling 920-432-2941, sending mailto P.O. Box 2467, Green Bay, WI 54306-2467 or by sending e-mail to [email protected].