The U.S. Department of Economic Development Administration is awarding the funds as part of a CARES Act Recovery Assistance grant to the City of Kenosha for road and sewer infrastructure improvements at the 107-acre Kenosha Innovation Neighborhood project.

The grant, to be matched with $7.4 million, which the city has committed to funding, is expected to create 1,000 jobs and generate $500 million in private investment.

“President Biden is committed to helping communities not only recover from this pandemic but build back stronger,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo. “This EDA investment in Kenosha will attract manufacturing and innovation sector businesses and jobs to the region while simultaneously increasing workforce development programs.”

Solidifying timeline

City Administrator John Morrissey said the grant money is “huge in solidifying that this project is moving forward.”

He said that the city is continuing to meet weekly with the SmithGroup engineering firm on the master plan for the project. “I’m hoping to have the final master plan by the end of the year at the latest,” he said.

With the master plan in place, Morrissey said the city hopes to contract for work on the roads and infrastructure for the Innovation Neighborhood next year. The $4.9 million grant will go directly for those road and sewer improvements.

“This (funding) helps solidify our timeline,” Morrissey said, adding that with the funding in place he is “extremely confident” that with the funding in place that they will be.

“I’m extremely confident now” that work on the infrastructure can begin next year, Morrissey said.

“This is a major investment that moves the vision of the Kenosha Innovation Network forward by creating the infrastructure on which we are building our future workforce, entrepreneurship, and innovation center. We are grateful for the support of the Governor and our congressional delegation in helping to build and improve our future,” said Mayor John Antaramian.

Read more at the Kenosha News.