Village Board OKs Contract for Corporate Park

By John Krerowicz
Kenosha News

Work is to begin today to create the PrairieWood Corporate Park, which is to house the new Jockey International world headquarters.

The Village Board at its Monday night meeting approved a $689,673 contract with A.W. Oakes & Sons, Racine, to do the grading and stormwater pond work at the site, west of Interstate 94 and south of Highway 165. Village officials said that approval would prompt site activity today.

The Oakes bid was the lowest submitted. The highest bid was $1.1 million.

PrairieWood is the 270-acre, westward extension of WisPark's LakeView Corporate Park.

WisPark officials said almost a year ago they would wait be fore pushing development at PrairieWood until Abbott Laboratories was more public about its intentions for the 500 acres it owned to the north. Abbott and the village are working out a development agreement for a possible medical-pharmaceutical complex on the 500 acres.

Jockey said in 2001 that it planned to move its headquarters to the new corporate park. It is still operating out of 2300 60th St. in Kenosha.

Pleasant Prairie established a tax incremental financing district for the PrairieWood expansion in 2001. Money from the TIF is to be used to build sewers, roads and other improvements. Water and sewer lines have been brought to the property line.

Plans for PrairieWood began at least nine years ago.

The board also approved having Crispell-Snyder, Lake Geneva, do construction-related services, staking and inspections of the grading and pond efforts for $16,900.