Brown County signs lease with C. Reiss to relocate coal piles

GREEN BAY – Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach and C. Reiss Company signed a 60-year lease this week for the northern portion of the former Pulliam Power Plant site, setting in motion a series of moves which will see the coal piles move north, out of the Mason Street site where they have been for more than 100 years.

“C. Reiss Company has been a part of the Green Bay community for more than a century,” said Christian Zuidmulder of C. Reiss Company. “We’ve served the Great Lakes Region since our founding in 1888 and we’ve been on our Mason Street site since 1900. This means that, for the last 126 years, C. Reiss has employed generation after generation of hard-working men and women here in Green Bay, handling millions and millions of tons of bulk commodities, including coal, limestone, carbon products and salt which help to power the economy and the industry of the city and region… We appreciate and understand that for many years, relocating the coal piles from the downtown riverfront has been a key community goal. We’re gratified after an extended set of negotiations with many starts and stops, we’ve come to an agreement that achieves multiple goals — expanding the capacity of the Port of Green Bay, relocating the coal piles from Mason Street and, most importantly, the beginning of the process of reimagining and redeveloping the site along Green Bay’s downtown riverfront. It’s an exciting time and we look forward to the next chapter for Mason Street.”

C. Reiss Company will move salt piles from its Fox River Terminal site at the mouth of the Fox River to the new port at the Pulliam Power Plant site, which will allow the company to move the coal piles to the Fox River Terminal site, leaving the Mason Street site open for future development.

“These coal piles have been part of this community since long before any of us were here, but over the years, a vision for what this property could be has changed,” said Governor Tony Evers. “Moving the coal piles to make way for future development is obviously no small feat and it’s been a long process to get this project underway. Since the beginning, my administration has been committed to seeing this through to the finish line and I’m thrilled that we could be a part of making it happen.”

The project will cost $55 million, with $41 million in funding coming from the state.

“C. Reiss will make the determination when they feel the site is prepared and ready for them,” said Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach.

“We’ll be bringing more into Mason Street for the next couple years and when we can we’ll start to deplete those piles and bring them over to FRT,” said Keith Hasselhoff, C. Reiss CEO.