Wangard Partners, Inc., (Wangard) and Hunzinger Construction Company (Hunzinger) are breaking ground on a 200,000 SF, one-story industrial/distribution center building in the Village of Pleasant Prairie.
Wangard and Hunzinger have worked on many construction projects together. Wangard acquired land next to a parcel that Hunzinger already owned, to construct the new development. Lee & Associates brokered the land deal.
“We like the strength of the market from the Illinois border up to Milwaukee,” stated Stu Wangard, CEO and Chairman at Wangard Partners, Inc. “We identified Kenosha and Racine County as a growth market before Foxconn went public and we’re seeing users coming from outside of the market. Now that the Foxconn deal is finalized we expect to be able to meet the needs of many suppliers quickly. There’s a tremendous need for housing and distribution in this area and we’ve had a strong interest in both thus far.”
This new 200,000 SF, one-story facility will feature a precast and steel superstructure with 32-foot-high panels to allow maximum flexibility for manufacturing or long-term storage and distribution needs. It will be one the few buildings in the area to be LEED certified. The building is expected to be completed before the end of the year. “We recently completed construction of a major distribution center in the area and having built in the Lakeview Corporate Park before, I know that this new building will be filling a need in the quickly developing Wisconnvalley”, stated John Hunzinger, President and CEO of Hunzinger Construction Company. “Our joint venture teams one of the area’s most innovative developers with Hunzinger’s 111 years of building experience. Together, we are offering a much-needed premium building.”
Hunzinger served as the Construction Manager for the new 900,000 square foot Uline I6 Branch Distribution Facility located at 12355 Uline Way in Kenosha and constructed the Liberty Property Trust 240,000 square foot distribution warehouse facility in the Lakeview Industrial Park.
Hunzinger is serving as the Construction Manager for the 800,000-square foot Uline W5 Distribution Center in Kenosha which is currently in preconstruction.
THE AREA IS SEEING EXPLOSIVE GROWTH
In the last several years, the southeastern area along Interstate 94 has attracted over $1 billion of new development, another $10 billion of new development starts this week.
Such household names as Amazon have developed major facilities along the route.
U-Line, a major distributor of shipping materials, has constructed two major office buildings and numerous distribution facilities all in close proximity to the new development by Wangard and Hunzinger.
Haribo, the German company known for Gummy Bears, is building a $250 million food plant to expand its beachhead in the United States. Over 1,300 people will be employed in the new facility.
This week, Foxconn is breaking ground on a 22 million-square-foot flat-panel plant. The plant represents a major investment for the Taiwanese based company. Over 13,000 direct jobs are expected at the new $10 billion plant. The State of Wisconsin is investing $3 billion towards the plant and area infrastructure. Once completed, I-94 will be an eight-lane road between the Illinois-Wisconsin border and General Mitchell International Airport (MKE). Many of the improvements will be leading-edge and are designed to embrace technology only recently introduced to transportation.
Aurora Health Care and Advocate Healthcare recently completed a merger of two of the leading health systems in Illinois and Wisconsin. Immediately after the merger, they announced the planned construction of two additional facilities in the immediate area, a combined investment of over $500 million.
Both Wangard and Hunzinger have numerous initiatives ongoing in the area. Wangard, along with other partners, will be investing over $200 million into the corridor.
View original article on Wangard.com