Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Lawrence approves $200M megawareho­use

Tenant still a mystery, but suspicions and clues point to Amazon

- Jeff Bollier Green Bay Press-Gazette USA TODAY NETWORK – WISCONSIN

TOWN OF LAWRENCE - Town officials this week approved plans to build a five-story, 2.9 million-square-foot warehouse off Freedom Road amid tense debate among residents.

Trammell Crow Co., a national real estate developer based in Dallas, requested approval to build the 90-foottall distributi­on center on 110 acres of a 150-acre site in the Town of Lawrence, a Brown County community south of Green Bay.

The Lawrence Town Board voted 4-1 to approve the project following more than two hours of presentati­ons, public comments and debate among supervisor­s.

The issue has been a major topic of debate among town residents, especially those who live near the site, for several months.

The developmen­t, nicknamed Project Badger, would cost an estimated $200 million to build. It would employ 1,500 people full time and operate around the clock.

Trammell Crow officials have not named the tenant for whom the distributi­on center is being developed, saying it will share more informatio­n “once we get further along in the developmen­t process.”

Some residents opposed to the developmen­t have said in public hearings they suspect it will be an Amazon warehouse.

Planning documents, project details and constructi­on plans submitted to the town don’t identify the tenant, but they do provide a few clues that support residents’ suspicion.

The building plans include examples of colors and materials to be used on the warehouse. Several documents note a blue strip across the building matches colors used in planning documents from other Amazon warehouses, a color referred to on some websites as Amazon Prime Blue. The building plans also closely resemble a 2.9 million-squarefoot warehouse being built for Amazon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

An Amazon spokespers­on on Tuesday told the Green Bay Press-Gazette the company does not provide informatio­n on future developmen­t plans, while adding Amazon is “constantly exploring new locations and weighing a variety of factors when deciding where to develop sites to best serve customers.”

This is not the first time northeaste­rn Wisconsin communitie­s have watched a warehouse project move forward without knowing much about the end user. The walls of a 110,000-square-foot warehouse in Greenville, in Outagamie

County, started to rise in early 2020 and it was not until summer that it was confirmed as an Amazon warehouse.

Amazon Delivery began operations in Greenville by the end of July. That operation provides the “last mile” delivery service Trammell Crow said the Lawrence warehouse would not.

Opponents of the Lawrence warehouse proposal said traffic, truck noise, the building’s size and its location would not fit in a part of the town, southwest of Green Bay, where families have lived for 20 years and more housing developmen­t is coming. They have pushed the town to pursue things like shops, clinics, parks and restaurant­s for the site, which is currently farmland that surrounds a Kwik Trip convenienc­e store on Freedom Road.

Trammell Crow representa­tives said they listened to residents’ concerns and tried to address them by modifying site plan details such as keeping truck traffic off Williams Grant Drive and raising a landscape berm’s height. Trammell Crow also said it plans to continue discussion­s with town officials about donating land for a public park.

Supporters of the Lawrence warehouse tout the need for tax base and believe it will spur the kind of hotels, restaurant­s and other developmen­ts residents want to see in the town. They noted the residents live north and west of the site, which will direct most operations toward the south and east.

Contact Jeff Bollier at (920) 431-8387 or jbollier@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @GBstreetwi­se.

 ?? COURTESY OF THE TOWN OF LAWRENCE ?? A rendering of a distributi­on center proposed for a 150-acre site at Freedom Road and Interstate 41 in the town of Lawrence.
COURTESY OF THE TOWN OF LAWRENCE A rendering of a distributi­on center proposed for a 150-acre site at Freedom Road and Interstate 41 in the town of Lawrence.

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