The Prestwick Group’s plans for a new corporate headquarters and light manufacturing campus just south of Interstate 94 in Delafield will be up for review by the city plan commission this week after residents voiced concerns about the project this summer.
The plans call for a nearly $27.2 million campus to be built over two phases along Indian Spring Road at the southeast corner of Genesee Street and the interstate. The first phase would include a 34,000-square-foot office building, 62,500-square-foot manufacturing facility and a barn that could also be used for community gatherings. Another three buildings totaling 64,000 square feet would make up the second phase.
Sussex-based Prestwick, which makes products for markets that include golf, hospitality, corporate and education settings, first proposed the new headquarters this summer and sought feedback from the city. Several residents spoke out at a meeting in June to express concerns about the presence of light manufacturing and potential use of tax incremental financing.
Former Delafield Mayor Ed McAleer wrote to the city this month to express his concerns about the project. He said the city promised neighbors of the property in 1993 that future development would meet office park zoning and the zoning was left unchanged when plans were updated in 2010.
“An attempt now to change the use of this parcel by the backdoor maneuver of using a conditional use process is wrong and goes against the history of commitments that the city has given the neighbors in this area,” McAleer wrote.
But the project also has the backing of Beloit-based Hendricks Commercial Properties, one of the largest property owners in the city. Rob Gerbitz, Hendricks Commercial president and chief executive officer, called the designs “nothing short of spectacular.”
“I cannot envision a higher quality more dynamic project than what Prestwick is proposing,” Gerbitz wrote in a letter to the city. “This entire project will have the quality and feel of a historic country club built 100 years ago. What better fit for this land and the city of Delafield could there be?”
Prestwick proposed incorporating elements of downtown Delafield’s architecture in its campus, including Williamsburg-style buildings for both the office and manufacturing facilities. The plans also call for a walking path, extensive landscaping and the ability for the community to use the barn for events.
The primary issue for the project will be its compatibility with the surrounding neighborhood, city planner Roger Dupler wrote in a memo to the plan commission. He noted the site could be developed with 576,000 square feet of office space, which would require 2,300 parking spaces. The Prestwick proposal calls for 525 spaces.
“As the perceived gateway to the city this proposal warrants due consideration,” Dupler wrote. “To be recognized as the home for a locally based international corporation, engaged in environmentally sensitive recycling and presented in an under-developed campus center seems befittingly appropriate to the Delafield culture.”
The commission is scheduled to hold a public hearing and potentially vote on a general development plan for the project on Wednesday. Dupler noted that would be “the first of many steps to garner approval before this project may be realized.”
