The City of Fennimore will be receiving over $3 million in federal aid in order to expand the Fennimore Business Park.
The grant announcement was made July 6, by United States Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick during a tour of Trane in La Crosse.
City of Fennimore Mayor Rob Krantz and Congressman Derrick Van Orden (R-WI-03) were also present during the announcement and tour.
Additionally, $23 million in private investment will be going toward a 72-acre expansion project to the city-owned industrial park on the east side of Fennimore on U.S. Highway 18 between Bronson Boulevard and Switzer Road.
“We’ll do anything to bring jobs and more businesses to the city,” Krantz stated. “I thank the current administration for investing in our rural communities and bringing jobs back to the community.”
Additionally, Krantz stated that there has been some progress made into finding a new occupant for the former Energizer battery plant, which has been empty since Energizer officially closed their doors to the Fennimore plant in September 2024.
Krantz said that he has met with potential owners at the former plant in the last week, and they are interested in “following up.”
Both Krantz and Troy Megan, Executive Director with Southwestern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, whose office presented the “business case” to the government on Fennimore’s behalf, stated the origins of grant process started with former City of Fennimore Mayor Ryan Boebel and he should be applauded as well regarding the grant being awarded to Fennimore.
According to Megan, the 250-page grant written by the Southwest Regional Planning presented the case to the federal government on “why they should invest in Fennimore.”
Megan and his office recently have also assisted the cities of Darlington, Dickeyville, Muscoda, and now Fennimore give $15 million toward over 150 acres of industrial/business use.
Regarding Monday’s announcement, Ron Brisbois, Executive Director of the Grant County Economic Development Corp., stated, “This announcement will allow the City to develop an area that would make it one of the largest business parks in the region, and help put the City on the map for new prospective businesses, particularly those that need larger tracts of land for future growth.”
During a press conference Monday at Trane, Lutnick stated projects like that are crucial to the president’s economic vision.
“So private investment committed $23 million. And the federal government was sort of the incentive base: if you guys commit, we’ll go build the infrastructure for you. So this is a classic Donald Trump move, right. Use the federal government to incentivize private to come in so now you have almost a $27 million project in Fennimore,” he said.
Lutnick went on to say President Donald Trump’s tariffs are also accomplishing the goal of fighting for the American worker.
“We want to protect the factories that are where? Right here,” Lutnick said.
Lutnick went on to defend President Trump’s tariff actions, stating, “We’ve all seen that the tariffs in America protect American manufacturers and don’t get paid by the American consumer. You put a 10 percent tariff on something. You have the importers. They if they could raise their price they would. So they don’t eat it. The distributor here eats it. And the consumer—they don’t pay it.”
WKBT-TV News 8 - La Crosse contributed to this story.
