Green Bay’s 2023 in review: Best Place to Live will host NFL draft

by Kristin Bouchard · January 4, 2024

GREEN BAY — Among the 52 weeks in 2023, perhaps none highlighted the Green Bay area’s potential more than May 16-22.

The Tuesday-to-Monday stretch began with word U.S. News & World Report named the metro area the Best Place to Live in the United States and ended with word the NFL selected the league’s smallest market to host its biggest off-season event, the 2025 NFL draft.

“Green Bay is experiencing its best days,” said Eric Vanden Heuvel, vice president of talent and education at the Greater Green Bay Chamber. “If someone asked me when Green Bay reached its peak, I’d say ‘now.’ There’s a lot of synergy around efforts, we’re well-positioned from a quality-of-life standpoint and we continue to build on momentum that’s continually growing on a day-by-day basis.”

In sum, the Green Bay area had itself a wild 2023.

The region has more to celebrate than just rankings and more to look ahead to than the draft. Unemployment remains very low, at least 28 local businesses — most manufacturers — expanded in 2023, and median wages continue to rise. Employers continue to expand and the area’s startups started to make some waves. The area also earned kudos from housing website Rent as the top city for hybrid workers.

It also endured some not-so-good highs, though, like a $300,000 median home prices and the rising cost of child care. And Green Bay said goodbye to a provider of jobs and community pride after 122 years.

Beyond the draft, let’s look at seven key events, trends, announcements and challenges that shaped the Green Bay area in 2023.

Green Bay median home price tops $300,000, buyers face the worst conditions

Sorry.

This year was downright cruel to would-be home buyers, many of whom struggled through all-around tough market conditions this year. Buyers found fewer homes for sale on the market, a median home price that topped $300,000 in Brown County, and interest rates that peaked at 7.8% this fall, a 20-year high.

The result: Brown County existing home sales through November dropped 15.9% from 3,027 in 2022 to 2,545 in 2023. Median sales prices rose 13.3% from $270,000 in 2022 to $306,000 in 2023. And a hope that more favorable conditions will return in 2024.

Child care costs roil Green Bay area families, economy

The high cost and lack of available child care already costs the state economy more than $1 billion per year as working parents say child care challenges force them to take time off work, or leave the workplace. That’s not to mention an average cost of $13,572 per year for infant care, which is more than college tuition. Child care centers meanwhile struggle to cover operating costs and pay well-trained, quality teachers the wages they deserve.

Gov. Tony Evers in October announced $170 million in emergency funding to extend Child Care Counts through June 2025. The Republican-controlled state legislature put forth its own package of bills legislators say will help child care providers.

But Evers, a Democrat, and the legislature remain at an impasse over a long-term, sustainable solution to the industry’s woes.

“Housing and child care will continue to be large components of our talent attraction effort,” Vanden Heuvel said.

De Pere, Ashwaubenon and Howard corporate campuses take center-stage

Redevelopment historically has focused on industrial park development and central city revitalization of aging buildings and polluted sites. This year, a new front in the redevelopment effort emerged: Large, corporate headquarters of the 1980s and ’90s.

To kick off the year, Madison-based developer T. Wall Enterprises paid $4.5 million for the 43.2-acre former American Medical Security/UnitedHealth Group headquarters in Howard. By August, T. Wall had a new name and concept plan for the sprawling site that included 1,300 housing units, retail space, office buildings and a variety of amenities.

In De Pere, Preserve Development LLC started to build the first of 90 owner-occupied homes on the 129-acre former Humana campus. The home represent the first of an estimated 500 housing units Preserve Development plans to build on the Humana campus in the coming years.

And in Ashwaubenon, Michigan-based ProVisions sought to spark interest and identify joint-venture partners by putting the 33-acre former Shopko headquarters, renamed The Arboretum, up for auction in December. No bidder met the reserve auction price to trigger a sale, but ProVisions hopes the bidders partner to build out the site.

Day Street Mill left ‘indelible mark on the culture, history and economic wellbeing of Green Bay’

It would be difficult to overstate what the Day Street Mill meant to Green Bay.

The mill at the confluence of the Fox and East rivers provided good wages and benefits to generation after generation of hardworking Green Bay area residents from its start in 1901 until Sept. 8, 2023, when Georgia-Pacific shut the mill down.

For decades, the Day Street Mill churned out Quilted Northern toilet paper, Vanity Fair napkins, Brawny paper towels and other products. At the same time, Day Street Mill workers and their families stitched together tight-knit community bonds that still connect Green Bay families even after the mill went silent.

Green Bay, Schneider, WPS shine spotlight on sustainability

Green Bay area governments, businesses and utilities all made significant strides toward the reduction of carbon emissions, improving sustainability and reducing energy costs.

Schneider National won a statewide sustainability award, its battery-electric truck fleet celebrated 1 million zero-emission miles and the company is ahead of schedule on its goal to cut carbon dioxide emissions per-mil by 7.5% by 2025.
In November, Wisconsin Public Service’s parent company, WEC Energy Group, announced it would stop using coal to generate electricity by 2032, three years earlier than originally expected.
And in December, the Green Bay City Council adopted a Clean Energy Planthat focuses on using grants and incentives that would put the community on track toward carbon neutrality by 2050.

Train fever hits Green Bay, Appleton after region selected for Amtrak expansion study

More than 50 years after the last passenger train left Green Bay, the region will find out what it will take to revive passenger rail service from Milwaukee to Fond du Lac, Oshkosh, Appleton and Green Bay.

The region and state won a $500,000 Corridor ID grant from the Federal Railroad Administration to find out how much it would cost to extend Amtrak’s current Chicago-to-Milwaukee Hiawatha service north to Green Bay, the cost to operate it, schedules, usage and other key details.

Rail advocates, several of the region’s mayors, and the business community backed the study while others remained skeptical about the costs and benefits of Amtrak service. The study should provide many of the answers and details necessary for residents, community leaders, government officials and legislators to make an informed decision.

Rail service could offer Green Bay, Appleton, Oshkosh and Fond du Lac another boost in its efforts to attract talent to northeastern Wisconsin, said Kelly Armstrong, vice president of economic development at the Greater Green Bay Chamber.

“This could be a huge boom for us,” Armstrong said. “Talent always wants to be able to get home easy, if this isn’t your home. It could open up a whole pipeline of attraction for all sorts of jobs.”

From tracking Chinese balloon to growing greens in schools, Packers, Microsoft venture capital firm had a year

TitletownTech, the venture capital firm the Packers and Microsoft launched five years ago, went and had itself quite a year in 2023. To wit:

TitletownTech in July announced its second funding round raised another $70 million to invest in startups, bringing the total raised to $95 million.
Midwest Games, a video game publisher launched by UW-Green Bay alum and former Netflix executive Ben Kvalo, raised $3 million to help develop, market and launch video games produced by Midwest-based game designers.
Wisconsin-based Synthetaic’s artificial intelligence system helped media organizations track the path of the Chinese balloon in February and March of this year.
Fork Farms continued to expand and announced a partnership with Rockwell Automation to develop a 7,300-square-foot indoor hydroponic farm in Rockwell’s Milwaukee area headquarters.

The venture capital studio’s successes reflect a broader investment of time and resources into fostering support for startups and entrepreneurs, Armstrong said.

“One of (the Chamber’s) strategic plan goals for the community was really building out the entrepreneurial ecosystem,” Armstrong said. “TitletownTech puts that effort on a national stage.”

Contact Jeff Bollier at (920) 431-8387 orjbollier@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JeffBollier.

Source: Green Bay’s 2023 in review: Best Place to Live will host NFL draft

Green Bay’s 2023 in review: Best Place to Live will host NFL draft

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