The Kenosha Area Business Alliance is seeking municipalities to share the cost of a feasibility study to plan for industrial park development in western Kenosha County.
The study will be conducted by Brookfield-based Ehlers & Assoc. Inc. and Pewaukee-based Ruekert & Mielke Inc. KABA will pay for half of the $25,000 cost of the study, and the other half will be paid for by municipalities that want to participate in the initiative, said Heather Wessling Grosz, vice president of economic development for KABA.
The study will determine sites for industrial park development and the costs of installing infrastructure to establish industrial parks in those locations.
The goal is to help attract industrial development to Kenosha County communities west of I-94. The county has been a hot spot for industrial development in recent years, but almost all of it has occurred east of I-94 in the City of Kenosha and Pleasant Prairie.
“This would help prepare land sites that would be suitable for economic development so it can occur more evenly in Kenosha County and so other communities can have the opportunity to participate in the hot development climate we have right now,” Wessling Grosz said.
KABA hopes to get four to five communities in western Kenosha County to join the initiative. So far Bristol has signed on. Wessling Grosz recently made a presentation to Twin Lakes officials and also plans to meet with Paddock Lake and Salem officials.
“So far (the reaction to the initiative) has been pretty receptive,” she said.
