Wisconsin Sees $7.9 Billion in Projects Under Construction

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Wisconsin is home to a high variety of industrial projects under construction throughout the state. Data centers, solar farms and metals plants all feature in the state's current industrial landscape, accounting for nearly $7.9 billion in active spending.

One of Wisconsin's largest projects comes in the aftermath of the cancellation of much larger, much-hyped project. Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn (Taipei) had plans to build a $10 billion manufacturing hub on a 2,500-acre tract of land in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. Touted in 2018 by U.S. President Donald Trump during his first term in office as being the "Eighth Wonder of the World," Foxconn's project fell through, leaving the village of Mount Pleasant with thousands of acres of unused land that had uprooted residents through the use eminent domain as well as more than $1.2 billion in local public funds spent, Foxconn pulled out of the project with only some token construction work done.

In 2023, Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, Washington) provided a glimmer of hope for the local population when it purchased a 315-acre portion of the land in order to build a large data center capable of handling heavy artificial intelligence (AI) processing, pledging to invest $3.3 billion the overall project. The data center is now under construction, although Microsoft has more than once slowed the scheduled development of the multi-building facility. Work began in late 2023. Phase I includes construction of two 370,000-square-foot data center buildings that are expected to be operational in 2026. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Industrial Manufacturing Project Database can learn more by viewing the project report.

Data centers, particularly those capable of handling heavy AI loads, can use a great deal of power, and upon the announcement of its data center investment in Wisconsin, Microsoft also announced that it was partnering with National Grid Renewables (Bloomington, Minnesota), now renamed Geronimo Power, to construct a 250-megawatt (MW) solar plant. The Portage solar project is now under construction in Plover, about 175 miles from the Microsoft site. The solar farm will use more than 693,000 solar panels to generate the 250 MW, which is expected to begin happening in 2026, in time for the start of Microsoft's operations in Mount Pleasant. Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Power Project Database can click here for more details on the project.

Popular soy sauce manufacturer Kikkoman Foods Incorporated (Noda, Japan) is adding about $800 million in spending to the state by building a grassroot production plant, which will be its third in the U.S., and the expansion of its flagship plant, which began operating in Walworth, Wisconsin, in 1973. The majority of spending is occurring at the grassroot construction site in Jefferson, where Kikkoman is building a 240,000-square-foot manufacturing plant that will produce soy sauce and other soy sauce products, such as teriyaki sauce. The project is expected to be completed in the summer of 2026. About 40 miles south in Walworth, general contractor Bane-Nelson Incorporated (Kenosha, Wisconsin) is heading up construction of a building addition and addition of machinery and systems that will increase this original U.S. Kikkoman plant's 34 million-gallon-per-year capacity. This smaller project is expected to be completed by the end of this year. Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Food & Beverage Project Database can learn more by viewing the reports on the Jefferson plant and Walworth expansion projects.

The presence of the Pulp & Paper Industry also is being felt in the state through multiple projects, including two grassroot corrugated box manufacturing plants. The larger project is occurring in Pleasant Prairie, where Smurfit Westrock plc (Dublin, Ireland) is constructing an approximately 604,000-square-foot building that will produce high-quality corrugate boxes when it is completed later this year. Only a few months after the completion of that project, another box plant is set to begin operations in Germantown. Owner Green Bay Packaging (Green Bay, Wisconsin) is consolidating four existing buildings and constructing a new 270,000-square-foot - manufacturing building. The project is expected to be wrapped up in the third quarter of this year. Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Pulp & Paper Project Database can learn more by viewing the reports on the Smurfit Westrock and Green Bay Packaging projects.

The small communities of Dickeyville and Kieler, in the southwest corner of the state, are the destination for a $400 million set of projects that will see a new brass foundry and accompanying warehouse expansion. In Dickeyville, A.Y. McDonald Manufacturing Company (Dubuque, Iowa) broke ground in late 2023 for the brass foundry in the Southwest Wisconsin Industrial Park. When the 360,000-square-foot foundry is complete, the company's Dubuque foundry, located just on the other side of the Mississippi River border between Iowa and Wisconsin, will be decommissioned and repurposed, although the company will maintain its headquarters in the city. To accommodate the increased production from the new Dickeyville location, A.Y. McDonald is expanding an existing warehouse to house its brass products in Kieler, about four miles to the south. The company's long-term vision for the Kieler site is to convert it into a manufacturing facility as well, although this could be several years in the making. The new foundry is expected to begin operating in 2026. Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Metals & Minerals Project Database can learn more by viewing the reports on the foundry and warehouse expansion.

Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Database can click here to view reports for all of the projects discussed in this article and click here for the related plant profiles.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).