GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Work is underway for a new paper mill in Wisconsin.
It’s been 30 years since a new paper mill was built in Wisconsin. Wednesday, Green Bay Packaging started the work to change that.
President and CEO Will Kress says it is the largest business development ever in Brown County, and it will be worth the wait.
“You finally get to the point when you are going to do a project like this and your wish you can open tomorrow. No such luck, but we will get it done.”
The more than 500 million dollar investment will result in a state of the art mill and a growing workforce in Green Bay.
Kress said when facing the decision of what the future for Green Bay Packaging would hold, the decision to move forward had all the support from the Board of Directors.
“I told them if we ever wanted to exit the business, this would be the time and we could all get out of here, or we could spend a huge amount of money and build a new paper mill.”
Executive Vice President Bryan Hollenbach says it makes history in another way.
“It happens to be the single biggest project in the history of Brown County ever.”
Governor Scott Walker was in Green Bay for the Groundbreaking.
“Just one more compelling reason to keep our graduates here and attract more people to the state of Wisconsin to be part of our workforce.”
Others in attendance included Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt and Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach.
The existing mill is 71-years-old.
Neenah based Miron Construction has been selected as the general contractor. The design and construction of the mill will create 1,000 additional jobs and require about 1.5 million labor hours.
The new facility is scheduled to be fully operational in the spring of 2021.
The current facility will continue to operate during construction.
