Denmark-based
Oterra, LLC plans to move into an industrial building in Mount Pleasant that previously had been occupied by Foxconn on a temporary basis, prior to the construction of its campus in the village.
Samuel Schultz, the village’s community development director, said the village had been in formal negotiations with Oterra, a manufacturer of natural food colorings, over the past several months, but the Racine County Economic Development Corp. fielded the original inquiry last summer.
He said Oterra is expected to bring approximately 115 jobs to the village.
Oterra has offices in 27 countries and has a location in West Allis. The company is planning to shut down its West Allis operations and relocate those team members to the new Mt. Pleasant location.
“Our North America salesforce, R&D and customer application teams will move in later this year in 2022,” said Sarah O’Neil, Oterra vice president of sales for North America.
Erik Hansen, Oterra chief executive officer, said the company plans to start production installation "imminently" and first production is expected in early 2024.
A tax incremental financing district development agreement approved this week shows that Oterra has entered a long-term lease for the facility located at 13315 Globe Drive. The nearly 156,000-square-foot facility was built in 2016 by Minnesota-based The Opus Group.
Foxconn at one point
had been using the Globe Drive facility, leasing the space to assemble televisions and to experiment with advanced manufacturing techniques.
The facility is located within Mt. Pleasant’s Tax Incremental District No. 4. As part of the developer’s agreement, the village will pay Oterra 76% of any property taxes generated from the property in excess of $12,925,000 until the sunset of the TID, scheduled for 2035. As of Jan. 1, 2022 the equalized value of the property is listed at $12,925,000.
According to the agreement, the assessed value of the property is estimated to increase to approximately $22,800,000 or more.
