The Interstate 94 and Highway 165/Q interchange in Pleasant Prairie, already the home of the 400,000-square-foot Prime Outlets shopping center and the 120-room Radisson Hotel & Conference Center, is poised to boom with even more development in upcoming years.
Waukegan, Ill.-based Uline Inc. announced recently that it plans to move its corporate headquarters to a 200,000-square-foot office building that it will build southwest of the interchange. The company will also build a 1 million-square-foot distribution center on the site, and later plans to build an additional 500,000 to 600,000-square-foot distribution center there, according to Village Administrator Michael Pollocoff. Uline will bring about 1,000 jobs to Wisconsin by 2010. Construction on the new headquarters is expected to start this year.
Uline is purchasing the 200-acre property from Oak Brook, Ill.-based CenterPoint Properties, which was planning to build a business park on the site. The only property at the location that Uline is not buying from CenterPoint is a parcel where Kenosha-based Jockey International had planned several years ago to build a new corporate headquarters. Jockey still owns the property but has no plans to move there at this time, a spokesman for the company said.
The future Uline site is just south of the 482 acres that were purchased by Abbott Laboratories. Abbott Labs has not disclosed what it plans to do with the property or when it will develop the site.
However, village officials recently approved a development agreement for the Abbott site. According to the development agreement, the company plans to build a gated campus of office and research buildings. The campus could have 14 buildings housing up to 12,000 employees, said Pollocoff.
“It lays out like a college campus,” he said.
Although Abbott Labs has not said when it will develop the property, company officials have pushed to get the development agreement done and did a lot of work to come up with a detailed site plan, Pollocoff said. That makes him think the company is serious about developing the site fairly soon.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see something (to start the development) this year,” Pollocoff said.
The village is planning to do significant upgrades to roads around the interchange to accommodate the massive amount of traffic that the developments will bring, Pollocoff said.
In addition, the village owns about 80 acres of land near the interchange that it hopes to sell for commercial development, Pollocoff said. The village has already attracted some interest in those sites from commercial realtors, he said.
Two sites near the I-94 and Highway 165/Q interchange have been designated for hotel development. One site, about six acres, is owned by the village and located southwest of the interchange. Pollocoff said one commercial realtor, representing Beverly Hills, Ca.-based Hilton Hotels Corp. and Bethesda, Md.-based Marriott International Inc., expressed interest in the village’s hotel site for the possible development of a 400-room hotel.
The other site allocated for future hotel development is a 20-acre parcel northwest of I-94 and Highway 165/Q and is owned by the Kenosha Area Business Alliance (KABA). KABA is waiting for the Abbott development to move forward, which will drive up land values, Pollocoff said. The site is envisioned for a hotel and convention center development, he said.
Key Kenosha county projects:
• Waukegan, Ill.-based Uline Inc. plans to move its corporate headquarters to a 200,000-square-foot office building that it will build southwest of the I-94 and Highway 165/Q interchange. The company will also build a 1 million-square-foot distribution center on the site, and later plans to build an additional 500,000 to 600,000-square-foot distribution center there.
• Abbott Labs has purchased 482 acres northwest of I-94 and Highway 165/Q and eventually plans to build a research and office campus there.
• Quality Centers, a Florida-based developer, plans to build a 700,000-square-foot shopping center on 150 acres northwest of Highway 50 and I-94 in Kenosha.
• Indianapolis-based Gershman Brown Associates Inc. is building a 364,677-square-foot retail development, anchored by Target and J.C. Penney stores, southeast of Highway 50 and 104th Ave. in Pleasant Prairie.
• Chicago-based Bradford Real Estate Companies is building a 400,000-square-foot retail development on a 110-acre site northwest of Green Bay Road and 38th Street in the Town of Somers. The development will be anchored by a Wal-Mart Supercenter store and a Sam’s Club store.
• Chicago-based First Industrial Realty Trust Inc. plans to build a 600,000-square-foot distribution center on a vacant site northeast of 52nd Street and 88th Avenue in Kenosha, for Vernon Hills, Ill.-based Rust-Oleum Corp. The plans include room for a future 250,000-square-foot expansion of that building.
• Sacramento, Calif.-based Panattoni Development Co. is building 626,784-square-foot speculative industrial building on a 38-acre site at 10100 58th Place in the Business Park of Kenosha.
• Waukegan, Ill.-based Coleman Cable Inc. will lease a 502,000-square-foot industrial building that is being built, on speculation, in Pleasant Prairie by Oak Brook, Ill.-based CenterPoint Properties. The building is under construction and is located at 11290 80th Ave. in the LakeView Corporate Park.
• Centerpoint Properties plans to build a 452,769-square-foot, industrial building, a 500,000-square-foot industrial building and a 404,800-square-foot industrial building at 88th Street and 116th Street in Pleasant Prairie.
• Kenosha-based Bear Realty and Mills Enterprises are building a 90-room Candlewood Suites hotel at the Cornerstone Commons development on the northeast corner of Highway 50 and 104th Avenue in Kenosha, with the hotel located on 74th Street east of 104th.
• UW-Parkside plans to build a $17.7 million, 100-bed dormitory and the university is renovating and expanding its student union with a $24.5 million project that will add 53,000 square feet of space.
• Richfield, Minn.-based Best Buy Co. Inc. is building a 30,000-square-foot store near I-94 and Highway 50.
• Developer David Church plans to build a 180,000-square-foot retail development just north of the Woodman’s store at Interstate 94 and Highway 50 in Kenosha. The development will include a 52,000-square-foot StoneFire Pizza Co. dining and entertainment center.
