‘A lot is happening in the Village of Hobart’

Rich Palzewic

Staff

July 15, 2024

HOBART – More development is underway off Centennial Boulevard in the Village of Hobart.

The owners/tenants of Folkman Plaza officially broke ground on the project late last month – a 10,600-square-foot facility that will be home to four tenants, including a car wash and a coffee shop.

Hobart’s Bayland Buildings is serving as the general contractor for the development at 4930 Founders Terrace – with an expected completion date by year’s end.

“This is a team effort with everyone involved,” Alan Folkman, owner of Folkman Inc., a metal fabrication and manufacturing shop, said. “Hopefully, this is the beginning of our relationship with the Village of Hobart and Bayland. We have a good feeling about this area and what it has to offer. We hope to be washing cars and serving coffee by the second week in November.”

Brian Peters, project executive with Bayland, said Alan came to him several months ago with a vision for the project.

“Hopefully, we can help with the Folkman’s vision and dreams,” he said. “I’m excited about the development and how it will help serve Hobart residents.”

Hobart Village Administrator Aaron Kramer said, “it takes votes from Hobart trustees” to make things like the Folkman Plaza a reality.

“Every morning I get up at about 5:45 (a.m.) and walk – I’ve walked past this site daily for a long time,” he said. “I’m excited about the things happening in Hobart with the recent ribbon-cutting ceremonies and what’s to come. Believe it or not, not too long ago, the property (where Folkman Plaza sits) used to be a cornfield – it’s filling quickly. I tell people, ‘if you blink now, the site will look different when you open your eyes.’”

Kramer said the Folkman Plaza development will be a great anchor for the area.

“This is a quality-of-life improvement for the 11,000 Hobart residents,” he said. “A lot is happening in the Village of Hobart.”

Two tenants – so far

The Wash Shack – a locally owned and operated company – is one of two confirmed tenants in the new development.

It will include a car wash tunnel offering both touch and touch-free options.

The name of the coffee shop, Alan said, “is still under wraps.”

“That information will be released soon,” he said. “We don’t have the coffee shop’s name up yet, so we’re still working on the details. With the two residents in the plaza, we listened to the residents of Hobart in bringing in the car wash and coffee shop.”

The coffee shop will have a drive-thru and outdoor seating.

Kramer said the first two residents of Folkman Plaza will help fill a niche for Hobart residents.

As for the plaza’s two open spots, he said, “that will be up to the Folkmans to decide.”

“We’ve gotten a few inquiries about the two vacant spots in the plaza,” Alan said. “We haven’t had an opportunity to search yet because we’re only about three weeks into having the drawings finalized. We can’t sell a tenant space if we don’t know what the layout is.”

Now that the building layout is finalized, Alan said, “we can start looking for (additional) tenants.”

“Bayland has been a huge supporter of getting tenants into the plaza because they are in charge of building out this site,” he said.

Pitching in

Folkman Inc., Alan said, has been located across Highway 29 in Howard’s Industrial Park for approximately 20 years.

The company’s expertise, he said, will be utilized with Folkman Plaza.

“The metal fabrication shop at Folkman Inc. will assist in the process of the build,” he said. “We’ll bring whatever steel we can to the table – there is quite a bit of steel in this project.”

Though his company is paying Bayland to build the plaza, Alan said part of what Folkman Inc. will do is “put sweat equity into the project, because we’re metal manufacturers.”

“Anything involved with steel in the building, instead of buying it down the road, we’ll fabricate it,” he said. “That will keep the guys in the shop with work and keep us busy – it makes sense.”

Alan said he feels fortunate to have a small company in Northeast Wisconsin that sends its products worldwide.

“This is one more step in what we want to do and give back to the community,” he said. “We are staying close to home with the building of Folkman Plaza.”

The fabrication part of the business, Alan said, is getting harder because of the skilled labor needed to keep involved in the process – “it’s unique.”

“We don’t keep all of our eggs in one basket to keep a skilled workforce and grow it – we need to diversify,” he said. “That’s why the project with the plaza is great for us.”

Much of the work Folkman Inc. typically does, Alan said, ends up supporting the U.S. government.

“We do a lot of work for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,” he said. “We ship our products worldwide. We’ve had several projects in Hawaii, in Serbia putting up training facilities for NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), Guam and Djibouti, Africa.”

Alan said Folkman Inc. even worked on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

“The ramp and bridge going to the memorial – those are things we helped design, fabricate and ship,” he said. “Then we went there to see how the installation went. My son Justin does much of the traveling now – I’ve done my duty with that. He has projects currently going in Savannah, Georgia, and Wilmington, North Carolina.”