Construction on the $23.5 million Kenosha Innovation Center is underway as the city transforms its shuttered Chrysler factory into a hub for technology jobs and businesses.
The center is slated to be the focal point of the broader Kenosha Innovation Neighborhood (KIN), a redevelopment of 107 vacant acres that formerly housed the Chrysler plant.
At 64,000 square feet, the innovation center will be a hub for startups, entrepreneurs and job training, KIN board president Tim Mahone said in a Tuesday statement as the city celebrated the facility's groundbreaking. It's expected to be completed in the summer of 2025.
The innovation center will have 40,000 square feet of leasable space, as well as an atrium, common areas and collaboration space available for events, meetings and community use, Kenosha community development director Tim Casey told the Milwaukee Business Journal.
Some of the initial tenants will include Kenosha Innovation Neighborhood Inc., which is leading the overall area's redevelopment, and the gBETA startup accelerator program run by the Wisconsin-based national startup investor gener8tor, Casey said.
Milwaukee's Eppstein Uhen Architects (EUA) designed the innovation center and Neenah-based Miron Construction is the builder.
The $23.5 million facility is supported by a $14 million state Neighborhood Investment Grant, as well as funding through a city tax incremental financing district.
The innovation center is the second building to break ground within the KIN — in October 2023, work began on a new building for LakeView Technology Academy.
