A panel at the 2026 Wisconsin Economic Summit featured Kenosha as one of three communities working to recover after losing a major employer.
Aaron Towns, a commercial bank executive who serves on the board of the Kenosha Innovation Neighborhood, described the period after the Chrysler plant closed about 15 years ago and the years of planning and partnership that followed.
The neighborhood project is redeveloping 107 acres of vacant land in the center of Kenosha. Plans and completed work include innovation-focused office space along with medical, education, commercial and housing uses, plus a new Kenosha Children's Library.
Towns noted that a 64,000-square-foot innovation center opened last October across from Lakeview High School. Partnerships with education institutions have also added technical training programs tied to the site.
The panel also heard from Jefferson County, where leaders responded to the Tyson Foods plant closure in Jefferson with a housing strategy and a development fund that has grown to $13 million, and from Wisconsin Rapids, where officials are mapping the future of the former Consolidated Papers mill site six years after it closed.
Across the three stories, panelists pointed to early community involvement, honoring long-term plans and partnerships between local government, business and education as common factors in the recovery work.
