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Kenosha Area Business Alliance touts Lilly investment, urges housing and workforce action
Summary
Nicole Riff, president of the Kenosha Area Business Alliance, told the Kenosha County Board that recent corporate relocations and expansions — including Eli Lilly’s multibillion-dollar investment — present a generational opportunity but also raise urgent housing and workforce challenges.
Nicole Riff, president of the Kenosha Area Business Alliance, told the Kenosha County Board of Supervisors that the county is seeing significant corporate attraction and expansion, and that those gains are intensifying pressure on housing and local workforce development.
"Eli Lilly is planning to have at least 750 employees, and they're investing almost $4,000,000,000 in Kenosha County," Riff said, citing the company as a potential anchor for a new pharmaceutical cluster. She listed other recent wins and expansions — Smurfit/WestRock, Concept Labs and Balkan Plastics — and said the alliance used the county's high-impact fund to recruit or retain four companies in the last two years.
Riff said corporate relocations and expansions have fueled demand for talent and housing. "We're hearing that our businesses are bringing a lot of people in from out of the market," she said, adding that some incoming workers have found housing costs higher than in the places they are leaving. She thanked county staff and elected officials for their partnership and said the alliance is pursuing state funding and working with higher-education partners on upskilling programs.
To connect industry demand with local training, Riff said the alliance convened representatives from UW'Madison, MSOE, UW'Milwaukee, Gateway and Carthage for a full-day event with Lilly. "They're each putting together proposals of how they're going to be supporting Lilly, and we're facilitating all of that," she said.
On housing, Riff credited a year-long housing task force that includes Savannah Meyer at UW Extension and Andy Bueller of the county planning department. She said the alliance and county staff are developing a financial incentive program to encourage housing development and reduce costs passed to buyers or renters. Riff also asked to brief the county finance committee on the task force.
Supervisors pressed Riff on land use and growth planning. When asked whether the county had anticipated recent development pressure, she cited prior regional planning and a growth agreement that identified hubs and sewer service areas that channel larger projects toward the I-94 corridor. "You're probably not going to see a massive data center project in the western part of the county because the infrastructure is not there," she said.
Riff framed Lilly as a long-term opportunity: "We have a generational opportunity with Eli Lilly to build a new industry cluster here in Kenosha County in the pharmaceutical industry." She closed by inviting follow-up and offering the alliance's help in workforce and housing efforts.
Nicole Riff is president of the Kenosha Area Business Alliance. Questions during and after the presentation came from Supervisor Brookhouse, Supervisor Gama and Supervisor Kirby.
