Strauss Brands sells land formerly slated for a new meatpacking plant in Franklin
Strauss Brands has sold the land the company planned to build a new meatpacking plant on after canceling the project earlier this year.
Cellco Partnership, an affiliate of Verizon Wireless, purchased the 30-acre parcel for $2.79 million, according to Wisconsin Department of Revenue records.
Strauss Brands intended to construct a 152,035 square-foot meatpacking plant on the southwest corner of West Loomis Road and Monarch Drive in Franklin. However, the project received backlash from a group of residents who eventually banded together as the nonprofit group Franklin Community Advocates and sued the city of Franklin for approving a special use permit for the project.
That lawsuit, filed in December 2020, is still ongoing.
The city of Franklin has continued renewing the special use permit each year since its initial approval in 2020. Strauss Brands released a statement in February 2022 that the company no longer intended to build the facility and instead would sell the land.
At a Dec. 6 council meeting, CEO Randy Strauss called the project ordeal a “terrible situation” and expressed how the last few years have been “devastating for our family and for our business.”
'Thanks for your time, thanks for nothing,' Strauss CEO says
Strauss Brands entered into a tax assessment agreement with the city of Franklin in 2019 guaranteeing a minimum $5 million assessment on the 30 acres of land for 2021 and a $10 million assessment for 2022-2041. This assessment was to help pay for infrastructure costs and, if the property taxes were not at these agreed upon levels, Strauss Brands would pay the remainder.
Strauss sent a letter to Franklin Dec. 1 requesting the common council “waive the minimum assessed property values and taxes levied against the land on Loomis Road for tax years 2021 and 2022” due to the “extraordinary circumstances.
“These were years in which our plans were on hold as our permits were debated in the court system thus preventing Strauss from reaping the financial benefits of our new facility that would have supported the minimum tax burden,” Strauss said in his letter.
Strauss stressed the sale of the land to the new owner, later identified as Cellco/Verizon, was contingent upon assignment of the tax agreement to the buyer of the property, “which will continue to guarantee the city its long-term tax base,” he told the council at the Dec. 6 meeting.
In his letter, Strauss said the business would remain in Franklin at the current plant on 60th Street.
“The short-term reprieve we are requesting seems only fair as it will allow Strauss additional financial flexibility as we work to shore up our business while the long-term tax base remains fully intact for our community with a new occupant,” he said in the letter.
However, after the council voted unanimously against his request to amend the contract, leaving the business with the tax bill, Strauss was visibly upset, telling the council, "thanks for your time, thanks for nothing.
“I don’t even know what to say at this point, it’s just really disappointing,” Strauss said. “It makes me not want to stay in Franklin, I can tell you that.”
Contact Erik S. Hanley at erik.hanley@jrn.com. Like/follow his Facebook page, The Redheadliner, and follow him on Twitter at @ES_Hanley.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Strauss sells land formerly planned for meatpacking plant in Franklin
