Germantown Willow Creek Business Park gets project
Germantown’s delayed Willow Creek Business Park is landing its first building: a light industrial facility that is scheduled to open about a year from now.
Minneapolis-based Ryan Cos. this week bought a 22-acre site at Willow Creek and plans to begin developing a 186,000square-foot building next spring, said Ryan Marks, managing director in the firm’s Milwaukee office.
The firm, which is marketing the building through MLG Commercial, hasn’t yet landed any tenants, Marks said Thursday. But there’s been a lot of interest, he said.
Willow Creek is on 192 acres bordered by Highway 45, Appleton Ave., Maple Road and Lannon Road.
The location is good because it’s close to Highway 45, restaurants and other amenities on Appleton Ave. and an available workforce, Marks said.
“It checks all the boxes,” he said.
The $10.2 million development will take about six months to complete, Marks said. Construction is to start by May.
MLG Development has been working on Willow Creek since 2014.
TJ Hale Co., which makes merchandise displays, fitting rooms and other fixtures for retailers, that year announced plans to develop a 218,000square-foot facility at Willow Creek.
But TJ Hale later canceled those plans and instead expanded its Menomonee Falls headquarters — a less-expensive option to handle the company’s growth.
Despite that loss, the Village Board in 2016 approved spending $3.55 million on roads, sewers and water mains at Willow Creek.
Those funds will be repaid through new property taxes from Ryan Cos.’ development and other future buildings at the business park.
Willow Creek’s projected property tax revenue vs. its estimated expenses amount to a “very thin” margin, said Maureen Schiel of Ehlers & Associates Inc., the village’s consultant on the tax financing district. She made those comments to the Village Board in 2014.
The business park’s delayed development was tied to the fact other development sites were available farther south near Highway 45, Marks said. With some of those sites now developed, Marks said, there’s more interest in Willow Creek.
Those recently developed sites include Ryan Cos.’ building at Westbrook Corporate Center in Menomonee Falls.