Kenosha City officials are carefully planning the development as a technology incubator for startups and firms that want to relocate to Kenosha.
Preliminary plans for the redevelopment of the 102-acre site call for a high-tech business complex, featuring a health and fitness center and an array of other types of offices.
The site, roughly bordered by 52nd Street, 23rd Avenue, 60th Street and 30th Avenue, will also feature the extension of 56th Street and the creation of 27th Court running north and south.
The Plan Commission last week gave the first approval to the plan, which is expected to come before the City Council.
Zohrab Khaligian, the city’s community development specialist, said the plan does not call for retail or manufacturing in the park.
“We didn’t want retail there because it then would compete with what we’re doing with downtown,” he said. “Also, projections show that heavy industry wants to be out near the interstate.”
To create the development, the city has to designate that area as a tax increment financing zone. It plans to allocate revenue from the Amazon TIF to cover construction, infrastructure and services costs.
The city will issue general obligation bonds to cover the difference between the $25.5 million project cost and the $32.5 million redevelopment costs.
Khaligian said completion of the project will take several years, with the financing expected to be paid off in 2029.
TIF is a development tool available to municipalities looking to make an area more attractive for development. Money borrowed under the funding structure is repaid with captured tax revenue from new development on the site.
