Horizon Retail Construction Inc., a Mt. Pleasant-based commercial general contractor, is building a new 74,000-square-foot headquarters complex in Sturtevant.
The new $8 million facility will be completed by December and will be able to house up to 250 employees, said Patrick Christensen, president and owner of Horizon. The company has been located in a 15,000-square-foot building at 1458 Horizon Blvd. for the past eight years.
Horizon’s new building is about one mile away, between 16th Street and Highway 20. Its new street address will be 1500 Horizon Drive, and the company will be located between Johnson Diversey Inc. and Racine Federated Inc.
The new building lies within a tax incremental financing district (TIF) in Sturtevant. Christensen said the project will receive some TIF funding, but did not specify how much it will receive.
Horizon builds and remodels retail stores for companies such as Joseph A. Bank, Victoria’s Secret, Old Navy, Bath & Body Works, and H&R Block. It does projects inside shopping and strip malls, as well as stand-alone stores.
Horizon has 90 local employees, with another 173 employees around the nation, Christensen said. The company’s office staff works in its Mt. Pleasant headquarters, including project managers and coordinators, marketing, accounting, human resources, IT and other functions.
Horizon’s employees that work around the country travel between job sites, Christensen said. Most of Horizon’s projects start from a “white box” stage. When it is finished, clients are ready to open retail operations.
Horizon will hire additional workers for both its headquarters and around the country this year, he said.
Christensen would not give sales figures for Horizon, but said the company had double-digit revenue growth in 2007.
Horizon’s new four-story building has been designed in accordance with United States Green Building Council guidelines, with many energy and water saving technologies. The building will use extensive natural lighting and Energy Star rated light fixtures, as well as waterless urinals, high efficiency toilets, and low flow shower heads and faucets.
It will also feature a variable refrigerant flow zoning HVAC system and other electricity-saving features.
The building’s interior will feature a fitness center, locker rooms with showers, coffee bars on each floor and walking paths on its site.
One design element absent from the design is an exterior sprinkler system. The building’s grounds will be planted with native grasses that do not require mowing, wildflowers and other native plants.
The building’s design, as well as its location in Mt. Pleasant, near its current facility, is intended to help the company continue to attract the best workers, Christensen said.
“We have exceptional employees and we want to keep every single one of them,” he said. “We want to build the best facility to house the exceptional employees that work at Horizon.”
Key Racine county projects:
• Racine-based S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. plans to build a $20 million, 432,000-square-foot distribution center along the southern edge of Renaissance Business Park, on Highway 20 near Highway H, in Sturtevant.
• Chicago-based HSA Commercial Inc. plans to build a 125,000-square-foot and a 300,000-square-foot speculative industrial building on a 90 acre site southwest of Highway 20 and County Highway V in Mt. Pleasant. The company eventually plans to build 10 commercial buildings on the property.
• Mt. Pleasant-based Horizon Retail Construction Inc. is building a new 74,000-square-foot headquarters in Stutevant.
• RexCon LLC plans to move from Milwaukee to a new 100,000-square-foot plant that will be built in the City of Burlington’s Manufacturing & Office Park.
