Green Bay may spend $1.2 million to buy land and expand east-side industrial park

GREEN BAY - Green Bay would add nearly 36 acres to a new, already-developing east side industrial park under a land purchase request that got initial approval this week.

The city's Finance Committee on Tuesday approved a request to purchase 35.8 acres of farmland currently owned by the Pierquet Family Limited Partnership, according to Brown County property records. The purchase price is $1.2 million, about $33,500 per acre.

The city started the recently created Grandview Industrial Park with about 49 acres of land located along the border between Green Bay and the town of Humboldt. One company has already developed about 28 acres of that space and an unidentified company has a planning option on another 18 acres of city-owned land in the industrial park.

The property the city wants to buy is east of Erie Road, south of East Mason Street. It includes more than 30 acres of farmland and about 5 acres of wetlands. It's located across Erie Road from the Nature's Way campus built in 2021.

The city created the Grandview Industrial Park in 2022 along with a tax increment financing district, or TIF, to finance its development. The TIF district project plan identified about 208 acres of property for the industrial park, but by late 2023 city staff reports had increased the industrial park's potential boundaries to 375 acres.

The project plan includes expenditures like land acquisition, extending streets and utilities in the industrial park, and developer incentives. In this case, the TIF district would issue bonds to finance the $1.2 million land purchase. New development in the industrial park will generate new property tax revenue that the TIF district uses to pay off those initial investments and incentives.

The industrial park is already home to Carnivore Meat Co.'s new $55 million campus that includes raw, flash-frozen pet food production space, a distribution center and offices.

Matt Buchanan, the city's deputy development director, on Tuesday told the Finance Committee the new land would be used to attract additional industrial development, but that there is not a specific project proposed for this site. He also noted the region continues to see a high demand for land available for industrial development.

The Green Bay City Council still has to approve the land purchase.

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

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Green Bay could buy 36 acres to expand east-side industrial park