On Tuesday, July 24, The Village of Pleasant Prairie held a groundbreaking ceremony inside Prairie Highland Corporate Park for the future development of HARIBO of America and Aurora Health Care Center to be located along West Frontage Road and STH 165. Infrastructure improvements and grading for the development is already underway. There are potentially six remaining lots totaling 124 acres of land for future development. The Village is encouraged to see the significant interest of potential developers and industry for these remaining sites.
Village Administrator, Nathan Thiel, welcomed guests and introduced speakers. The speakers included representatives from HARIBO of America, Aurora Health Care, KABA, Milwaukee 7 and the Village Board.
“HARIBO is going to be celebrating 100 years very soon and this is going to be a very special development. It’s our first manufacturing and presence in North America, so this is our home now,” said HARIBO representative, Wes Saber, “We’re coming here to make a home for us, it’s not a building, it’s not a factory, and we’re going to be an active partner with the community.”
“It’s so exciting to be a part of this opportunity. In standing along the Village leaders, and HARIBO and all the other leaders to come together and make this a reality. Our ambulatory surgery center and office building that will be built on this site will provide much needed services for orthopedics as well as general surgery. A brand new children’s health site will be here as well. We are excited to be adding 140 new jobs to the community adding to the economic growth that has taken place,” stated Lisa Just, President of Advocate Aurora of Kenosha and Racine.
Todd Battle, President of KABA, added “This has been an awesome project to work on. We are really excited about HARIBO and the investment that they are going to make on this site. They are a world class company with a world class leadership. They invest heavily in the communities that they are in. We feel very fortunate to have worked with them on this project.”
“The Village of Pleasant Prairie and the CDA Board had the foresight along with Village staff to move forward and make this a welcoming place for our neighbors to come and locate from other areas. Businesses would see Pleasant Prairie as the gateway to Wisconsin and a great place to locate,” Village President, John Steinbrink, followed up with, “This used to be a little sleepy town and look at us today.”