Movin’ on up – Kenosha’s lakefront development luring Illinois residents, too

Kenosha’s lakefront development luring Illinois residents, too
By Charles Rathmann, SBT Reporter
Given recent business and residential development activity, it may appear that Kenosha County is attracting both industries and residents from Illinois like iron filings to a magnet.
Chris Rintz, vice president of New England Builders, the developer of condominiums on Kenosha’s redeveloped harbor, said a significant percentage of sales are being made to Illinoisans.
“It is an interesting trend,” Rintz said. “In retrospect, a lot of our early buyers were from southeastern Wisconsin. These are people who were aware of the project for a longer period of time; we hadn’t advertised it yet. As we started our marketing efforts, we started to pull more strongly from south of the border. We are probably looking at 60% to 65% Illinois buyers and 35% southeastern Wisconsin buyers.”
The condos offer a unique opportunity to own a lakefront home for as little as $90,000. More extravagant units are priced as high as $550,000.
“There is still a lot of product in the $140,000- to $225,000-range,” Rintz said, adding that three of six blocks are still under construction.
One year into the project, 130 of the 245 units are already sold.
Kenosha Area Business Alliance President John Bechler also points to numerous industries pulling up their Illinois roots in favor of Wisconsin soil.
Xten Industries, a manufacturer of plastic-packaging components, is leasing manufacturing space in the Business Park of Kenosha until its 75,000-square-foot facility is completed next summer.
Construction on the 10-acre parcel will be financed through a city-approved Industrial Revenue Bond.
The company is a new manifestation, combining two existing companies — Hauser Plastech of Chicago and Priority Tool and Manufacturing of Kenosha.
Accent Fixtures Industries has completed a new structure in the Kenosha Business Park that will become its new headquarters. The firm, currently headquartered in Palatine, Ill., manufactures retail fixtures including bakery cases, checkout stands, produce counters and display racks.
Bechler is not sure how much of the trend is happenstance and how much is the result of the area’s marketing efforts.
“It started out as a concentrated effort to market Kenosha to small business in the Chicago area,” Bechler said. “And now they represent a significant percentage of the Business Park of Kenosha.”
Bechler said the area’s workforce has been a significant draw. While according to Bechler, KABA has been studying an economic drain caused by people living in Kenosha County and working in Illinois, that situation could be boomeranging back in Kenosha’s favor.
“Businesses in Illinois occasionally need to relocate. As they examine their options, they are surprised with the number of Kenoshans they have working for them already,” Bechler said.
November 9, 2001 Small Business Times, Milwaukee