Charter Communications closes Sheboygan office, opens Kohler store
While the office closed to the public, the company still owns the building in the Van Der Vaart Neighborhood
SHEBOYGAN — The Charter Communications office on Sheboygan’s southwest side closed and opened a Spectrum store in Kohler.
The office on Sheboygan’s south side closed last year and the company opened a Charter Spectrum store in the Village of Kohler in March.
The new location, located in the Deer Trace Shopping Center, is considered a high retail traffic location according to Kimberly Noetzel, a spokesperson with Charter. “The new store features interactive displays and offers the latest devices and accessories compatible with Spectrum Mobile, which is designed to provide customers the highest quality experience at a great value, including access to next-generation 5G service where available,” said Noetzel.
The company still owns the building at 1623 Broadway Avenue in the Van Der Vaart Neighborhood. The facility is currently being utilized by field technicians and recently received a fresh coat of paint. Noetzel did not elaborate on how the building is being used now that the office is closed to the public. Satellite dish antennas located on the property were also removed while a number of wooden poles remain for use by technicians in training.
Once a Piggly Wiggly store
In 1981, Lakeside Cablevision acquired the property on Broadway Avenue, which was formerly a Piggly Wiggly store. The cable company spent a quarter of a million dollars to remodel the building and erect three satellite dish antennas. By 1993, the company provided cable television service to more than 17,000 customers in the Sheboygan area. In 1994, Star Cablevision was sold to Marcus Cable Partners and Goldman Sachas.
About a year after Marcus Cable took over cable television service in City of Sheboygan, complaints about the company started to come in. “If I operated my business the way they do, I wouldn’t have any apartments,” said Susan Senbeil. She added her 100 apartment units generate 100 complaints about television service.
When Cablevision opened their Broadway Avenue office, the company paid the City of Sheboygan a franchise fee of $15,247. The franchise fee was created by the city which allowed Marcus Cable access to cable customers. One year later, in 1983, the fee paid jumped to $77,500. In 1984, Cablevision paid the city $86,265. Ten years later, in 1994, Marcus Cable would pay just over $202,000 to the City of Sheboygan.
In 1999, Charter Communications would enter Sheboygan and take over Marcus Cable’s service in the City of Sheboygan, Village of Kohler and the City of Sheboygan Falls. In 2004, Charter began to offer two meg internet service for $39 per month, which was apparently five times faster than conventional dial-up modem service. Charter also largely supported the city’s local-access channel, TV8/WSCS, through the franchise fee.
In November 2013, the company announced the re-branding of its residential and business services to Charter Spectrum which included an upgrade to an all-digital network for its video, voice and broadband services.