Multi-Million Dollar Greenhouse Development Planned

• By TERRY FLORES   tflores@kenoshanews.com
•  
  • 11-28-17

PLEASANT PRAIRIE - Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and strawberries could soon be grown in hydroponic greenhouses that operate year-round in the village.

The Pleasant Prairie Plan Commission voted 6-0 Monday night to approve plans from Prairie Produce Farm LLC to build two high-tech hydroponic greenhouses.

They will be built in multiple phases, on about 54.5 acres of a 65-acre site in the Green Hill Farm neighborhood at 122nd Street east of 88th Avenue. The property is to the northeast of the village’s recycling center.

The proposed $31 million development would be developed in an agricultural area that would not need rezoning. The commission acknowledged about 67 residential units originally part of the master plan for the area would be eliminated.

If approved by the Village Board next week, the Dutch-style hydroponic greenhouse operation would start with a 15.3-acre, 28-foot high building and would be the first state-of-the-art hydroponic operation of its kind in the state of Wisconsin, according to Jean Werbie-Harris, the village’s community development director.

Prairie Produce Farm is a sister company of DeL Fresco Produce and Sunrite Greenhouses, which have established greenhouse growing operations in Kingsville and Leamington, Ontario, Canada.

Second phase by 2020

A second 20-acre greenhouse for Phase II of the project is proposed to be built as early as 2020, according to the proposal.

Jim Hershenbac of Prairie Produce indicated the first phase would be completed early next year.

“This type of greenhouse —to give you an idea of the amount of technology — costs almost a million dollars per acre to build,” he said. The technology is found in more than 40,000 greenhouses in European countries, with more than half in Holland,” he said.

In Canada, where Del Fresco and Sunrite are located, there are 4,000 acres of the hydroponic greenhouse systems growing.

According to Hershenbach, plants are established from non-genetically modified cuttings and each can grow about the height of the building yielding 40 to 60 pounds of tomatoes, for example.

The facility would be operating on water and minimal nutrients in a “closed-loop system,” meaning there would be no runoff and natural gas would be used for night heating. Carbon dioxide exhaust would feed the plants and the operation would compost plant trimmings.

According to the plans, the facility would employ 30 to 40 full-time employees with a payroll of just over $1.3 million.

Retail buildings, hotel

The Plan Commission also approved plans for a commercial property development for a corporate campus, multi-tenant retail buildings, a hotel. future restaurants, a gasoline station, convenience store and car wash north of Highway 165 at 120th Avenue on two parcels totaling about 34 acres for The Gateway at LakeView Corporate Park.

In approving the plans, the commission voted in favor on the condition that issues over a future assessment and traffic be addressed.

According to Werbie-Harris, the commission approved amending the comprehensive plan to accommodate the cluster of proposed mixed retail and business area, master conceptual plan, and zoning.

She said possible tenants for the proposed development have not yet been identified.

Jerry Franke, the retiring president of WisPark LLC, which represented the development, said he had concerns about some of the conditions, including the assessment for a sewer lift station that will be built to support developing the site and a future roundabout planned for the area.

Franke said he was unaware of the assessment for the lift station. A meeting with the developer and staff has been planned for Thursday. The plans are expected to be brought before the Village Board on Dec. 18.