Sheboygan approves land sale for ‘Prime’ industrial partner

Rachel Kroeger

Staff

February 23, 2026

SHEBOYGAN – After nearly 10 years of groundwork, several long-vacant lots at SouthPointe Enterprise Campus – located off S. Taylor Drive and Interstate 43 in the City of Sheboygan – are finally poised for development.

Taylor Zeinert – director of planning and development for the City of Sheboygan – said a deal with Amazon will bring one of the largest additions the industrial park has ever seen.

Though city officials received Amazon’s letter of intent in July 2025 and approved the land sale within six months, Jason Vangalis – head of central U.S. expansion and economic development policy – said Amazon has been eyeing the market since “last spring.”

“We’ve been doing due diligence on this market and site for some time,” he said. 

Vangalis said though the timeline may seem fast to the public, the project has been in the works for nearly a year.

“There has been a lot of time, energy, attention and intention put into this site,” he said.

Zeinert said the City of Sheboygan “has a rich history of manufacturing” and ensures new industrial partners align with and strengthen that base.

So, when Amazon approached the city regarding properties located at the intersection of Stahl Drive and Taylor Drive, she said officials saw the partnership as a “strong complement” to both SouthPointe and Sheboygan.

“The city has been intentional when it comes to our industrial partners,” she said.

Vangalis said Amazon selected Sheboygan for its next Northeast Wisconsin logistics facility as part of its “customer-obsessed” approach and commitment to on-time delivery.

“That Prime two-day promise and making sure we can continue to deliver [on] that is so important to us, especially to customers in eastern Wisconsin,” he said.

Vangalis said the closest facility serving a similar logistics function is in Greenville, just outside Appleton, making a lakeshore location a clear opportunity to better serve communities east of Lake Winnebago.

“Forty-five minutes to an hour drive time is sort of the standard for our delivery stations,” he said. “[In Sheboygan], you get a really good overlap with Fond du Lac, Manitowoc County, Ozaukee County and south…, so it’s a really centrally located community, and that’s great for us.”

Vangalis said the city’s major investment in the site set the stage for the project, with groundbreaking expected in summer 2026 and the 200,000-square-foot Class A facility scheduled to open by summer 2027.

“We’re able to move quickly on the back end of that due diligence, because they’ve invested and they have a ready site for us,” he said. “That’s really great for a community to be able to see their ROI come through on that, and they’ve been incredible partners for us.”

Community concerns

Zeinert said Amazon’s forthcoming logistics facility in Sheboygan will serve as its “last-mile” delivery center for the surrounding area.

“This is its final stop before the packages that come in hit your doorstep,” she said.

Zeinert and Vangalis said the logistics facility has received both positive and negative feedback from the Sheboygan community.

“We always welcome public discourse – acknowledging that that is a beauty of democracy,” Zeinert said.

Though many city residents are excited because the project is “by far” one of the largest additions to SouthPointe, Zeinert said some have expressed concerns over how it will impact local businesses.

“We’ve had productive conversations with Amazon, and we actually had them come in to do a presentation talking about some of those concerns,” she said. “They let us know that businesses, specifically, small businesses in Sheboygan County sell on the platform.”

Currently, Vangalis said there are 40 local businesses already selling on Amazon’s market platform.

“Whether they have a brick-and-mortar store or not, those folks will be able to get their products to their customers faster and more reliably because of this facility,” he said.

Beyond supporting small businesses that sell on Amazon, Vangalis said he expects people will keep visiting their favorite brick-and-mortar shops for the unique products they offer, noting that Amazon can also help expand access to those small businesses.

“For example, we’ve got a really great seller in the Wausau area who sells ginseng and ginger, and if you’re interested in that, you don’t have to make the trip to Wausau…, we’ll take care of that for you,” he said. “So, they’ll get access to a larger array of Wisconsin small businesses [whose products] will be on their front door without having to make the trek themselves.”

Another primary concern Vangalis said Amazon has addressed with residents is the idea that the logistics facility, once complete, will be changed over to a data center.

“Unequivocally, this will not be a data center,” he said.

The Sheboygan logistics facility, Vangalis said, is being built using “cross-laminated timber” – a material Amazon is beginning to use in several of its buildings across the country.

“But what’s unique to this building here in Wisconsin is that we’ll use circular economy principles,” he said. “So, it’ll take salvageable wood from across the state, mark the chain of custody of how we got that wood into our network, process it and then we’ll use that wood that [would] otherwise go into refuse or landfills. We will recycle it and put it into this building.”

Vangalis said this process takes a significant amount of time, energy and effort.

“So, those are just things we can’t simply refashion… to do a data center – that just doesn’t happen,” he said. “When you look at the timeline and when we need to have this building operational…, we can’t do that at the same time as also trying to build a data center. It’s just not going to happen.”

Finally, Zienert said some community members questioned whether the property was sold at fair market value, but the city’s appraisal confirmed that Amazon’s purchase price aligned with comparable parcels.

“Acknowledging that all feelings are valid, we definitely want this to be a community asset and make sure that the community feels comfortable with it,” she said.

Exciting expectations

Zeinert said New North, Inc. provided the City of Sheboygan with statistics on the economic impact of Amazon’s existing Greenville facility to determine what benefits the county and surrounding area could anticipate.

Although the logistics facility itself is only expected to create between 150-200 jobs, its resounding impact on the job market and regional economy is predicted to be much greater.

“They were able to give us an estimated growth, [and] they feel like it’s going to [create] more than 1,200 jobs, which is fantastic,” she said. “Additionally, the economic impact of that is [expected to be] about $73 million.”

Amazon’s direct investment into the project, Vangalis said, is “somewhere in the neighborhood of $30 million to $50 million.”

“That doesn’t include any of the personal properties of the investment we’ll make in equipment, in training the up-to-200 employees we’ll hire for this facility, the benefits that will be created from those and then the indirect jobs at a facility like this,” he said. 

Vangalis said the facility’s “delivery service partner – which is a small business” Amazon contracts with – will also operate out of the delivery center.

“They’ll create another 450 full-time jobs,” he said. “So, when you start stacking the investment, the construction jobs and all this other stuff, you can probably get really close to that $73 million [estimate].”

Since 2010, Vangalis said Amazon has invested “almost $14 billion” in Wisconsin through more than 12,000 full- and part-time employees across the Badger State.

“This is just another facility that we’re adding into the mix, [so] we’ll be able to bring products faster to Wisconsinites,” he said, “and we’re certainly excited about that.”

Zienert said Amazon’s “ambitious” timeline – with the anticipated summer groundbreaking and a grand opening the following year – is evidence of the company’s excitement to continue investing in not only Northeast Wisconsin, but the dairy state as a whole.

“The city is thrilled that Amazon wanted to be part of our community,” she said. “We think this is huge – making sure the business park is full, that jobs are created [and that] the economy continues to grow.”

Vangalis said Amazon is likewise looking forward to joining the Sheboygan community.

“Amazon’s intentions are always to be a great neighbor and a good corporate partner,” he said. “We are invested in making sure we launch this facility in the summer of 2027, or thereabouts, and we’re excited to bring a delivery station to Sheboygan County.”