$300 million development agreement approved for former UnitedHealth site

HOWARD – On Monday, Aug. 24, the Howard Village Board approved a major development at the former site of UnitedHealth, located at 3100 AMS Blvd. in Howard.

UnitedHealth relocated to a smaller facility in De Pere in 2021, leaving the almost 400,000 square foot lot in Howard vacant.

The lot was sold to real estate development firm T. Wall Enterprises, who intended to build apartments on the lot, and they decided completely demolishing the old building and reconstructing made the most sense due to remodeling cost estimates.

“It was just easier for them to knock it down and build what we’ve approved through their planned development request, which is massive,” said Village Administrator Paul Evert. “They’ve had some very large upfront expenses probably — to the tune of six to seven million dollars — to get where they are now.”

T. Wall Enterprise’s planned development includes over 1,100 apartment units, 17 single family homes or townhouses, community areas, commercial developments and shops.

They also received approval from the village to create the Grid Iron District, a mixed-use tax incremental district (TID) that will include residential and business developments.

Taxes from the Grid Iron District will also create a new tax incremental financing (TIF) fund.

The Village of Howard does have a legal obligation to financially assist T. Wall with public improvements to the property at a cost of $1,141,000. However, this cost is expected to be recouped by new tax revenue created by the Grid Iron District TIF.

“The village does have some obligations in terms of public improvements. If you recall, [United Health] was one big building, so there was no need to put water and sewer all around Security Boulevard — they just brought it to the building in one location,” Evert said. “So, we are adding some water and sewer at some points — especially to serve the multi-family units.”

While the village will receive 100% of the taxes created by single-family homes in the Grid Iron TID, 87% of the district’s newly generated taxes will be returned to T. Wall due to the significant investments they’ve made in the development.

“The bottom line is it’s very difficult to get the normal return on investment that a multi-family developer would expect without a substantial ability for the developer to recoup the TIF,” Evert said. “That’s where we got to the 87%, to make the numbers kind of work.”

Currently, the lot at 3100 AMS Blvd. is assessed at $1,529,100. When the project is completed, the new assessed value is expected to be $300 million.

Further, the development is expected to add $320 million in value to the village of Howard and generate $61.5 million in incremental tax revenue over the 27-year term of the district.

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