Village Board Inks Development Agreements With Kohl's

A day after Kohl’s Corp. announced it would stay Menomonee Falls and expand its headquarters, the Village Board acted quickly to ink development and purchase agreements allowing the massive project to move forward.

On Thursday, and build a 900,000-square-foot, multi-building expansion to its corporate offices in the Woodland Prime office park. The $90 million expansion project is expected to add some 3,000 additional jobs over the next decade.

However, Kohl’s isn’t moving forward with the project without some help. Kohl’s will receive $62.5 million in tax credits from the state over 12 years to support its growth. Menomonee Falls has also pledged up to $40 million in infrastructure improvements and incentives in Woodland Prime to accommodate the new facility.

As part of the agreements reached early Friday morning, the village will invest $13 million in road improvements to lengthen Flint Drive, construct a bridge over the Menomonee Falls River, and connect Flint Drive to Fond Du Lac Avenue.

To give a perspective of the expanse of the project, Kohl's plans to erect a skywalk over Flint Drive to connect buildings that are part of the project.

Graef USA, the engineering firm for road improvements, plans to begin preliminary design of the road improvements this fall. The target date to complete the road improvements is 2014. However, road construction will not begin until the village has received written documentation from Kohl’s that they intend to begin construction. Kohl’s has three years to accomplish that.

Kohl’s will also receive $12 million in grants from the village to finance the new offices. The village will make annual payments of $2 million over six years to fund the grant. The first $2 million payment will be made on October 1.

However, if Kohl’s for some reason fails to begin construction in the alloted time period, Kohl’s would return the land in Woodland Prime and pay back the first $2 million grant payment from the village.

The second phase of improvements total $9 million, and include intersection improvements to surrounding roadways and highway entrances. Those improvements will be made at a future time if they are needed.

Lastly, the village will acquire the 530,000-square-foot Kohl’s distribution on Woodale Court in exchange for 100-acres of land in Woodland Prime. The village purchased for a discounted rate.

In the long term, the village plans to gain a full return on its investment by 2031 by collecting additional tax revenues generated by the development. The village designated the Woodland Prime as a taxing district, and the village expects to bring in $62 million in incremental value.