The village of Harrison, spanning Calumet and Outagamie counties, is one of the fastest-growing communities in the Fox Valley.
The village’s population of more than 15,000 residents has grown approximately 22% since 2020.
This spring, the village adopted a five-year economic development strategic plan focused on diversifying its tax base from primarily residential to a better mix of commercial, industrial, retail and office land uses.
Assistant Village Manager Chad Pelishek says several new commercial developments are underway to support residents and ensure the village doesn’t become “a future bedroom community” of the Appleton metro area.
“One of the big things that was identified in the strategic plan was looking at developing some type of business park, and we actually are underway with that,” Pelishek says.
Betting on business
Last month, the village purchased approximately 25 acres of land from Crossroads Development, Inc. for the development of its first business park. Crossroads Business Park will include 13 lots ranging in size from three-fourths of an acre to 5.5 acres.
Pelishek says the village accepted three letters of intent for new commercial development before it even closed on the property, so interest in the commercial development is high.
The commercial subdivision is located east of Friendship Drive and south of County Highway KK and northwest of State Highway 55. With an average daily traffic count of 7,200 cars per day, the location offers prospective tenants strong visibility, says Pelishek, who anticipates infrastructure such as utility and roadway construction on the park to start this year.
In addition to the development of Crossroads Business Park, Pelishek says the village is strongly focusing on developing a central business district along County Highway N between Manitowoc and Schmidt roads. The strategic plan revealed gaps in demand for department stores, lawn and garden equipment and supply stores, and automobile dealers, among others.
“We don’t really have a downtown or a concentrated area for commercial development,” Pelishek says. “We’re looking at building out this area in a semi-urban central commercial strip for these smaller types of professional services that our residents are looking for, instead of going into a commercial business park that typically would house larger structures and buildings.”
Larger-scale developments are also gaining momentum in Harrison. These projects cater to industries with more significant infrastructure needs, bringing a mix of opportunities to the area.
Last December, ark data centers (formerly Involta) acquired a 24.5-acre site in Harrison that housed an existing data center. This summer, the national provider of data center and cloud infrastructure opened its new 20-megawatt campus to meet the growing demands for colocation, cloud and connectivity services.
“It’s exciting to have a data center like this in Calumet County. The goal is to have other businesses in Northeast Wisconsin colocate their data center at this facility,” says Jason Pausma, Calumet County economic development director. “It’s going to be a really popular thing in the future, especially as companies grow with AI and other technology needs.”
Despite the village’s focus on commercial and light industrial development, Pelishek says it isn’t slowing down on housing development. For example, a 34-lot single family subdivision, Meadow Breeze, on the corner of Lake Park and Midway roads, has had a preliminary plat approved and phase two of the Harrison Heights subdivision, off the corner of Highway N and Woodland Road, will add an additional 40-some lots, Pelishek says.
“We continue to see a very aggressive front on the number of new homes that are going up. To date [in 2024], the village has issued 70-some new home permits and is processing between six to 10 a week and there’s four or five pending new subdivisions in some stage of development,” he says. “It’s very aggressive. There’s definitely a lot of growth happening on the residential front.”
Other projects of note in Calumet County include:
- Grande Cheese broke ground in July on renovations and an expansion of its newly acquired Chilton facility. Construction will include approximately 20,000 square feet of renovations and 60,000 square feet of new construction. The facility will be the third largest in Grande’s network and primarily produce mozzarella cheese. Work is expected to be complete in mid-2026, with a combination of new hires and Grande transfers staffing the 75-person facility.
- Bellin Health opened a new clinic late last year at the Brillion Works District on the city’s east side. Located at 235 East Ryan St., the 15,990-square-foot clinic has 13 exam rooms and offers primary care, sports medicine and orthopedics, mental health, cardiology, and women’s and children’s services.
- S.C. Swiderski developed a new multifamily project, SCS Chilton, which features 102 market-rate apartments located off Irish Road south of U.S. Highway 151.
- A new trade and contractor office for custom home builder Hartwood Homes and fiberglass swimming pool installer Cannonball Pools is being constructed along County Highway KK in the village of Harrison. The project consists of a 2,164-square-foot office and retail/showroom and a 4,000-square-foot trade and contractor shop. Construction will be completed sometime in 2024.
