Saukville OKs economic district to support Gateway businesses

By KRISTYN HALBIG ZIEHM

Ozaukee Press staff

The Village of Saukville is paving the way for additional development in the Northern Gateway Community Collective Development.

The Village Board on April 5 approved the creation of a premier economic development district as part of the project on the community’s far east side.

The designation means that the village can issue two liquor licenses to businesses in the northern portion of the development, where a hotel and other facilities that serve alcoholic beverages are expected to be located.

“We’re definitely in favor of that,” Village President Barb Dickmann said, noting the development will be a boon for the community.

Without the premier economic district, the village would be unable to accommodate these types of businesses because it has already issued the maximum number of liquor licenses allotted to it by the state.

The Northern Gateway Community Collective Development, which is being created by Ansay Development and Three Leaf Partners on 99 acres north of Highway 33 and east of I-43, is the largest development in the village.

Ian McCain, Ansay’s design construction manager, told the Village Board that the goal is to use one of the two liquor licenses for a hotel with a bar and restaurant, Dickmann said.

Use of the other license would be determined as the development proceeds, she said.

Premier economic districts are a relatively new thing in the state, and one of the most notable is in Green Bay, where it was used to create the Titletown District near Lambeau Field.

The Northern Gateway Community Collective Development will provide places for people to work and live with as many as 620 housing units ranging from apartments to single-family houses — a quarter of which will be for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities ­— an office and commercial area, 30-acre business park that includes a 130,000-square-foot building for a high-tech employer, a 110-room hotel, day care facility, indoor sports facility, green space and walking trails.

There would also be a public plaza with a splash pad and other amenities to be operated by the village and Mel’s Charities, which will move its offices to the subdivision.

The development is projected to increase the village’s tax base by $157 million, according to the proposed development agreement.

The southern portion of the Gateway District is expected to add more than $20 million in valuation. Preliminary plans call for that area to include 165 apartments, a 46,000-square-foot sports facility, a multitenant retail space with a restaurant, brewery with a tasting room and other facilities, as well as a banquet facility, a hotel with more than 110 rooms and a restaurant, a day care center and a community plaza.

Work on the Gateway project began last fall and is expected to be completed by 2033.