A City Reconnected

In its 2019 budget, Green Bay described the Shipyard as a brownfield-redevelopment project with a public purpose: clean up a difficult waterfront site, reuse vacant structures, expand public access, and create room for recreation, markets, public space, and local retail.

That year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency selected the Green Bay Redevelopment Authority for a $500,000 Brownfields Cleanup Grant. EPA described the grant as part of a $1.2 million effort to cap soils with low levels of contamination and make the Shipyard property safe for reuse.

The City’s materials described the next phase as a mix of waterfront access, sports and recreation, public gathering space, and economic activity. That was the point of the work: to turn a former industrial site into a place with a practical public use as well as room for investment.

The Shipyard was not a finished redevelopment story in 2019. It was a documented decision to prepare the site for reuse and keep public access at the center of the plan.

In 2014, a 154,000-square-foot Walmart was proposed for a vacant cannery site on Broadway near the Fox River.

Broadway was not an empty stretch of land. Wisconsin Public Radio reported that the City had spent years working to revitalize the corridor with small businesses and condominiums, alongside more than $150 million in recent community investment downtown.

Jim Schmitt opposed the proposal. The question was not whether Green Bay should welcome jobs or investment. It was whether this particular project fit the direction the community had been building on Broadway.

That distinction still matters. Good economic development is not simply about saying yes to the largest proposal. It is about choosing investments that strengthen the places people already value.

Downtown has to work every day. It should give people a reason to live near the center of the city, do business there, spend time by the river, and take part in community life.

During Jim Schmitt’s tenure, Green Bay put a long-range downtown plan in place to guide public improvements and redevelopment. The plan came out of a public process and treated the city center as a connected place, where streets, riverfront access, homes, workplaces, historic character, and public space all matter together.

That approach showed up in visible projects. CityDeck created a public boardwalk and gathering space along the Fox River. The Metreau added 107 downtown apartments, first-floor retail, and amenities connected to the riverfront boardwalk. These were different projects, but they reinforced the same idea: a stronger downtown is built by making the center of the city more useful to the people who live, work, and spend time there.

That is the standard worth carrying forward: steady investment in a downtown that is active, connected, and built for everyday Green Bay.