For years, a knee jerk Milwaukee talk radio refrain has been that Wisconsin, rife with high taxes and restrictive regulations, is a terrible place to do business.
The reality in Kenosha County, however, paints a very different picture.
In recent years, several companies from Illinois have moved into the county, with many building new facilities and some even moving their corporate headquarters there.
Wispark LLC’s LakeView Corporate Park has been particularly successful, attracting several manufacturing, distribution and warehouse operations, including well-known companies such as Jelly Belly, Yamaha, Rust-Oleum and Volkswagen
However, the most significant business addition to the county is Uline Inc., one of the largest distributors of industrial moving and packaging products in the country, which is completing its move from Waukegan, Ill., to a new corporate headquarters and large warehouse along Interstate 94 in Pleasant Prairie this weekend.
The $125 million Uline corporate headquarters project in Pleasant Prairie includes a 200,000-square-foot office building and a 1 million-square-foot warehouse on a parcel of more than 200 acres.
By the end of the year, Uline will have about 800 employees working at its new Pleasant Prairie headquarters. The company also has growth plans for the headquarters property, with enough room to double its operations there.
Uline was started in Dick and Elizabeth Uihlein’s basement in 1980, and the company has grown rapidly for three decades.
Its former corporate offices in Waukegan were spread between four different buildings, and the company wanted to consolidate into a single facility, said Dick Uihlein, chairman of the firm.
Starting three or four years ago, the company began looking for a location to build a new corporate campus, but could not find a suitable site in Illinois.
In Pleasant Prairie, the company found what it was looking for – a parcel with sufficient room for expansion located near I-94, but also with views of natural areas.
“When we first stepped out of the car, (with the Realtor) and we saw this property – it was like when you’re looking at houses for a long time and a woman sees a house she wants, and she says, ‘This is what I want,'” said Elizabeth Uihlein, Uline’s president. “I felt like you could just reach and touch these trees (to the south of the property). It’s so beautiful here, it’s just spectacular, and yet we have access to the tollway.”
State and local officials in Kenosha County worked to attract Uline to Pleasant Prairie. The state provided up to $1.7 million in annual payroll tax credits, $1.5 million in available training funds and a $1 million transportation economic assistance grant, while the Kenosha Area Business Alliance (KABA) provided a $2 million forgivable loan to help with construction costs.
The economic incentives played a very small role in the company’s decision making, the Uihleins said. Instead, they said the positive attitude and friendly people they met were what sealed the deal.
“(Wisconsin officials) were more flexible,” said Steve Uihlein, vice president and brother of Dick Uihlein. “When we talked with northern Illinois (officials), I believe that Lake County thought we weren’t going to move.”
Elizabeth Uihlein put it more bluntly.
“Illinois is in a shambles,” she said. “They did nothing. We’ve got the third or fourth governor in a row that’s going to jail. And Wisconsin’s a can-do state. We would give Wisconsin an A (grade) on working with us. They have good people. I don’t know where Illinois is going.”
Dick Uihein agreed.
“The key to this is the people here were so helpful to us and had this can-do attitude,” he said. “The KABA people and Todd Battle (KABA president), they made it easy for us.”
Battle said KABA, local and state officials developed a fast and unified plan to entice Uline to move to Pleasant Prairie.
“The parcel was assembled and ready for development, the village was ready and the state helped considerably with grants and incentives,” Battle said. “A lot of those factors played in our favor. Uline was looking for a home, and there was a nice marriage with a community that was ready to serve their needs.”
Big win for Kenosha County
If Uline extends its campus to a full build-out, it will be Kenosha County’s largest taxpayer, said Michael Pollocoff, Pleasant Prairie’s village administrator.
“(The development) is a real positive thing for the area,” he said.
Uline is a distributor of industrial and packing materials such as cardboard boxes, bubble wrap, packing peanuts and tape. Its catalog now carries more than 20,000 products. The company has a workforce of almost 2,400 through the United States, Canada and Mexico.
“Our niche is to get everything out by ground transportation and get it out in time and use expedited carriers so we can cover as much as possible in the next day,” Steve Uihlein said. “The name of the game is next day. We’ve got to ship by ground because our product isn’t valuable enough (for air shipping). It’s peanuts, bubble wrap, things like that and if you put them in a plane it’s going to cost more to ship than the product itself.”
It might not be too long before Uline needs to expand the headquarters in Pleasant Prairie. The company averaged 30-percent annual growth from 2003 to 2007 and had 20 percent growth in 2008.
Because of the recession, the company’s growth rate turned negative for the first time last year, but Steve Uihlein believes the firm has turned the corner. The company has a growth rate of about 20 percent growth this year and is preparing to open new distribution centers in Seattle, Wash., and Monterrey, Mexico.
“I would say, right now, knock on wood, we seem to have come out of the recession and are starting on our growth path again,” Steve Uihlein said.
Part of the reason that Uline bought such a large piece of property was how quickly the company has grown in the past – something it believes is achievable again.
“We were tired of moving and we wanted to get enough property so we wouldn’t have to move,” Elizabeth Uihlein said.
Uline has more than 520 employees in its corporate headquarters office building, 189 in its 1 million-square-foot warehouse and more than 40 working in a nearby 600,000-square-foot box warehouse. It anticipates hiring another 40 to 50 workers in Pleasant Prairie by the end of the year.
About one-third of its employees in Pleasant Prairie live in Wisconsin. The company has retained most workers because it only moved about 20 miles north of the Waukegan site.
“I live in Chicago, but surprisingly, my commute is maybe 10 minutes more than what it was before,” Steve Uihlein said.
Catalyst for additional development
Uline’s development of its corporate headquarters and large warehouse in Pleasant Prairie is validation of the hard work that the village and Kenosha County have put in to clean up and improve its I-94 corridor. Much of the area was formerly a military salvage yard, pig farm and adult book store, Pollocoff said.
“The value of (the new development) is $125 million. That’s a significant addition to the village,” he said. “The village is now valued at $3 billion. It has really set the standard for how development in that area is now going to occur, from an architectural standpoint.”
Battle agreed.
“When I came to southeastern Wisconsin about six years ago, the entry into Wisconsin and Kenosha County from I-94 was not overly attractive,” he said. “There was a 15- to 20-year plan to do that, getting land, getting easements and planting the seeds for development. We needed some corporate investment to justify it, and here comes Uline and plants their flag. When you kind of step back, it validates the strategy the village had to make the area more attractive.”
Another major Illinois company that Pleasant Prairie officials are hoping to attract provided assistance for Uline’s headquarters project. Abbott Laboratories purchased 500 acres in 2006, just north of the Uline site. Abbott said it purchased the property for future expansion, but has yet to move forward with those plans.
Marilyn Kasko, vice president of corporate real estate at Abbott, helped Uline develop plans for its new corporate campus, Elizabeth Uihlein said.
“In the beginning (of our search) we read an article about Abbott and this wonderful lady (Kasko) that’s in charge of their real estate,” Elizabeth Uihlein said. “We were wondering about this place (the land in Pleasant Prairie), and we called her up. She’s been enormously helpful to us. We had only done buildings before, we had never done campuses.”
Pleasant Prairie officials are optimistic that Abbott will eventually develop its property in the village.
“A lot of people don’t realize the level of detail they went into in designing their site,” Pollocoff said. “They laid it out, engineered it – it’s designed. They recorded that design as a restriction on their deed. At some point, the business decision is going to be made that they’re going to build their next building. When they’re ready to build their next building, that’s when they’ll start.”
Elizabeth and Dick Uihlein agreed.
“Marilyn (Kasko) would like nothing more in life than to put Abbott up here. She’s put her heart and soul into (the property) and said that Miles White (chairman and CEO of Abbott Laboratories) absolutely loves the property,” Elizabeth Uihlein said.
“If you get some growth in the economy, at some point they’re going to need this property,” Dick Uihlein said.
Wisconsin roots
The Uihleins have deep connections to Wisconsin. Dick and Steve Uihlein’s great-grandfather was Edward Uihlein, who eventually became vice president of Schlitz Brewing and helped the company expand into Chicago.
“Our great-grandfather went down to Chicago to buy and control all of (the company’s) real estate,” Steve Uihlein said. “At that time, they owned all of their distribution points, they were buying lots of street corners and things like that. You’ll still see it at Shubas (a Chicago bar) and places like that that have the big Schlitz globe on them.”
The Uihlein family also owns vacation property in northern Wisconsin.
“We’ve always been very loving of Wisconsin,” Elizabeth Uihlein said.
The Uihleins say they are likely to spend more time recreating in metro Milwaukee in the near future.
“I think Milwaukee is a great city with all of the theaters they have, and we can get there so quickly,” Elizabeth said. “We’re looking forward to doing more cultural things and hearing speakers.”
