KCEDC outlines housing plan, business leads and a memorandum on next‑generation reactor at closed Kewaunee plant

Ben Nelson, a representative of the Kewaunee County Economic Development Corporation, told the Kewaunee County Board of Supervisors that KCEDC is advancing a county housing study called Project Homestead, pursuing several business‑attraction prospects and is in early conversations about redevelopment options for the Kewaunee power station site.

“KCEDC is a public private partnership, and, we take the lead on economic development efforts here in the county,” Nelson said, outlining work the organization has done since the board’s previous update.

Project Homestead: Nelson said KCEDC used a $50,000 consultant contract to begin an updated housing analysis for Algoma, Luxembourg and the City of Kewaunee. The consultant is collecting demographic and housing‑market data, conducting stakeholder interviews and compiling MLS data provided by local realtors. Nelson said the KCEDC model for one scenario envisions 50 single‑family, entry‑level homes and projected the following impacts if that development occurred: about $19,250,000 in new construction value, roughly 34 jobs and about $7.5 million in construction wages; after construction, the model estimated roughly $3,880,000 in additional household income and just over $143,000 in annual tax revenue to the county.

Business attraction and retention: Nelson described two active business attraction efforts. One is a nondisclosure‑protected prospect in the Village of Luxembourg. The other is a two‑part prospect in the City of Algoma that Nelson said could total $16,000,000 in capital investment (a roughly $10,000,000 component and a $5–6,000,000 component), produce about 104 jobs combined and generate annual property and income tax revenues in the low‑hundreds of thousands. Nelson said those projections used a 2% property tax rate and assumed a $50,000 average salary.

Kewaunee power station site: Nelson told the board that Energy Solutions has entered a memorandum of understanding with Terrestrial Energy to evaluate deployment of an integral molten salt reactor (IMSR) at sites Energy Solutions owns, and Kewaunee is among the sites under review. Nelson said his modeling ran a conservative scenario based on a single reactor and the company’s public descriptions: one IMSR could require roughly $500,000,000 in capital reinvestment, produce more than 300 construction jobs and more than 100 permanent, higher‑skilled positions. Nelson also described an illustrative data‑center scenario paired with a reactor, citing a large cloud‑provider example worth roughly $3,300,000,000 in capital investment and thousands of construction jobs in comparable projects; he emphasized the county is only at a preliminary evaluation stage and that no final decisions have been announced.

Nelson presented a combined, modeled‑impact view for projects KCEDC can currently quantify: more than $3,000,000,000 in potential capital investment across multiple prospects, two‑to‑three thousand jobs in a full‑realization scenario, and annual tax revenues and economic impact “well into the millions,” according to the materials he distributed. He said KCEDC’s role is to gather local data, facilitate connections among developers, property owners, state partners and potential corporate tenants, and support zoning and permitting conversations as needed.

Board questions and next steps: Supervisors asked clarifying questions about the housing product type, KCEDC’s role, and technical aspects of next‑generation reactors. Nelson said the housing model used a three‑bedroom single‑family prototype intended to represent entry‑level homes and that KCEDC serves as a local “boots on the ground” convener with state and regional partners. When asked for the name of the company in the MOU, Nelson said, “Terrestrial Energy.” He emphasized the project remains early-stage and that regulatory, environmental and spent‑fuel storage issues remain to be addressed.

KCEDC said it will continue consultant interviews (Nelson reported about four interviews complete and about a dozen expected), provide regular quarterly updates to the board and participate in upcoming legislative advocacy during Dora Kewaunee legislative days.