The opportunity to live near both water and downtown amenities has long been a draw of Wisconsin’s Fox Cities, and the recent rebirth of Kaukauna’s “Dreamville” development as the “Uptown” project is an example of never giving up on the possibilities of prime real estate.
Associate City Planner Adrienne Nelson says the city has reclaimed the 3.3-acre site at 222 Lawe St. and is currently meeting with developers about using it for multifamily housing. The city foreclosed on the previous development company, which had planned to build apartments and a hotel on the site, in 2024.
There’s no better time to rally around the development of Uptown, says the city’s marketing and communications manager Andrea Fencl, as Kaukauna has substantially completed its 100-foot seawall restoration project, which is expected to welcome hikers and tie-up boat traffic this summer.
“We are hoping that will draw in more people because it’s a pretty substantial locks system we’ve got going through the heart of the Valley,” Fencl says. “We have a beautiful uptown area.”
Neenah’s Arrowhead Park is another hot Fox Cities location — but where redevelopment is easier said than done, says Kelly Nieforth, the city’s community development director. Nieforth says the city recently purchased the nearby warehouse building at 135 Millview Drive with hopes of starting redevelopment in 2026. The Arrowhead site and shoreline have been the subject of intense discussion for several years, but Nieforth says it’s hard to communicate the unique challenges involved in bringing the site “to a place where it’s shovel-ready.”
The park was formerly a PCB landfill, explains deputy director Brad Schmidt.
“We have to look at the infrastructure,” he says. “How do you bring utilities to the site? The implementation, at least at this stage, has been difficult, just because it does require working with the DNR and dealing with the underlying conditions of the site.”
But with new housing and developments expanding Neenah’s downtown corridor and people exponentially flocking to the “Loop the Lake” trail on Little Lake Butte des Morts every year, Nieforth and Schmidt both say they are optimistic that the site will eventually be activated.
“It’s 30 acres in our downtown, on the water,” Nieforth says. “We have to use it.”
Future Neenah Inc. recently utilized the trail for horse-drawn carriage rides as it staged the Fox Valley’s first-ever European‑style holiday market, A Very Neenah Christmas Market, which drew nearly 30,000 to the city’s downtown in December. Building on Future Neenah’s success and eyeing partnership opportunities, Menasha Alderman Chris Rand says he is anxious to see a similar and long-overdue economic development organization spring up in Menasha, and he has been working to make it happen. Menasha Forward is currently seeking board volunteers as it looks to transition from a plan and a steering committee to a fully operational 501(c)3 this year.
Rand, who also recently spearheaded the creation of the Little Lake Butte des Morts Lake Association, is passionate about neighborhood and community development. In the past he has served as chief of staff to Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt and focused heavily on downtown revitalization projects in that community. He was elected to Menasha’s Common Council last spring, representing the city’s downtown.
“I’m pushing to get a proper Main Street program … [where] economic development will be a focus,” says Rand, a self-described “tech nerd” who created a headcount device so he could start gathering metrics about Menasha’s downtown utilization. “We need some big wins, some big visibility. In that first year, I’d really like to drive some traffic into downtown.”
With Gunderson Cleaners moving to Neenah and The Brin mixed-use complex now open at the corner of Tayco and Main streets, Rand says, business attraction is possible and the downtown is “primed for success.”
Meanwhile, says Menasha Community Development Director Andrew Dane, the city has approved a $150,000 incentive program to support repair and renovation to historic downtown properties. He adds that the city recently purchased the Dreams building at 325 Broad St. for potential redevelopment into senior or market rate housing and to spur broader redevelopment of what Dane refers to as the “City Hall District.”
Housing will continue to be a priority in the Fox Cities, officials say.
“There’s a need for housing in general, and I think that’s everywhere in the Valley,” Nelson says.
In Neenah, where a recently completed housing study identified the need for 1,000 new units to meet housing demand in the next decade, the community continues to break records for housing starts. There were a whopping 87 single-family homes and 54 townhouses created in 2025, Schmidt says. A large majority of that construction is happening on the southwest side of the community at Freedom Acres and the Homes at Freedom Meadows, which has been the fruit of a creative agreement with developer Tom McHugh that dates back to 2020 and has created a total of 243 lots.
Another housing development is set to spring up in the heart of Neenah on the site of the former Shattuck Middle School. Nieforth says 31 lots have been created along Reed and Elm streets. In addition, ThedaCare has embarked on a unique project to build 56 townhomes for physician residents on the former Roosevelt School site on Doty Island, and the city’s South Commercial Street corridor plan calls for 50 units to be constructed at 1311 S. Commercial St.
Dane says the City of Menasha has established a new TIF district along the Oneida Street corridor, where a developer is set to build 105 market-rate apartments. Occupancy is expected in 2027 on the $25 million project. Elsewhere in the corridor, single-family housing is being developed at Sand Hill Landing, which will be made up of 11 single-family attached duplexes on 22 lots, Dane says. And there are also 90 lots available in Woodland Lakes Cottages on Menasha’s east side, he adds.
“We’re getting some really good momentum with housing development in the past year,” Dane says.
