An affiliate of Wauwatosa-based commercial real estate development firm Wangard Partners purchased a 6.3 acre site in the LakeView Corporate Park in Pleasant Prairie for $925,000, according to state records.
The firm plans to build a 200,000-square-foot speculative industrial building on the site, Wangard chairman and chief executive officer Stewart Wangard said. The firm has been talking to a couple of potential tenants, he said.
“It’s fully designed and ready to go,” Wangard said.
Construction is expected to begin in the third week of May and be complete by the end of the year, he said.
The vacant property, located on 86th Avenue, was sold to the Wangard affiliate by Centerpoint Wispark Land Company LLC, an affiliate of Oak Brook, Illinois-based CenterPoint Properties and Milwaukee-based Wispark LLC, which is the real estate development division of WEC Energy Group. Wispark was the original developer of LakeView Corporate Park. Wispark no longer develops land or buildings on its own and relies on strategic partnerships with CenterPoint and Milwaukee-based Zilber Property Group for development expertise when it is needed.
Wangard has done residential, retail, office and industrial developments.
Kenosha County continues to attract a significant amount of industrial and distribution center developments. Plans for two major projects surfaced earlier this month.
Ridge Kenosha 120th GP, LLC, an affiliate of Chicago-based Logistics Property Company, recently submitted plans for two industrial buildings totaling 1 million square feet on a 66-acre site near the Uline and Amazon facilities in Kenosha.
Riverview Group LLC, an affiliate of Rosemont, Ill.-based Venture One Real Estate, submitted plans to Pleasant Prairie to develop nearly 300 acres along the east side of I-94 into a corporate park that includes 1.87 million square feet of new development.
“If you look at the Chicago area, it’s big and robust, and yet it has a very oppressive tax climate and the Chicago area is saddled with Illinois’ debt issues,” Wangard said. “The state of Wisconsin has a much more stable environment, we are operating with a surplus, a business friendly environment and the infrastructure from the border to Milwaukee has been upgraded, and is getting more upgrades. It’s (an area that is) ready for development. It’s also close enough to Chicago to draw from the population base there.”
Wangard said his firm started working on the project when the possibility that Foxconn would be coming to the area was just becoming known publicly. He said the firm decided that the Pleasant Prairie site had great potential whether Foxconn came or not.
“Foxconn is the cherry on top of the custard,” Wangard said. “This site could easily handle the needs of some of the Foxconn suppliers.”
