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Resch Expo gets name, project on schedule, under budget

By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer


ASHWAUBENON – County officials Feb. 13 released details for naming rights potentially worth $10 million for what will be known as the Resch Expo and joined on the east to the Resch Center.

Former KI CEO Dick Resch, left, appears at a news conference Thursday, Feb. 13, with his wife, Sharon, to announce the new expo center under construction next to the Resch Center will be named Resch Expo under a naming rights arrangement for at least 20 and possibly up to 40 years.

“I think people will appreciate the fact that they can go from the Resch Center to the expo center – inside,” said former KI CEO Dick Resch, for whom the new facility will also be named after. “They don’t have to go outside.”

Once the new facility is completed, Resch said he believes both buildings will be known as one complex.

“We’re just trying to differentiate the expo center from the Resch Center,” he said. “The expo center will have different types of shows, different venues, and then we’ll also plan a very nice outdoor plaza right near the Veterans Memorial.”

Work on the new expo center remains on schedule and under budget for completion by next January, Miron project manager Ben Samolinski said during a media tour of the project site.

Construction has been underway since last summer on the project, which is being built where the Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena, Shopko Hall and former Packers Hall of Fame were demolished at the southeast corner of Lombardi Avenue and Oneida Street.

It’s designed with more than 120,000 square feet of usable space and will connect to the Resch Center.

County Executive Troy Streckenbach said Miron is doing a “fantastic job” with the project.

“We’re extremely impressed that they’re on budget and on time,” Streckenbach said. “And so, as of right now, we believe that we’ll be open and ready to go (by January).”

The expo center has a total budget of $93 million.

Funds to pay for it include money from the Lambeau Field stadium tax refund, naming rights, the new half-percent Brown County sales tax and the bulk of the funds coming from room tax dollars.

After being at KI for 55 years, Resch said his contribution for the naming rights is “my way of giving back to the people who have helped me build this company.”

“I think Lambeau Field has a good name, and that’s been for many, many years, so I think the Resch name will continue for many years, too,” he said.

Under the naming rights arrangement, the project will receive $5 million in cash and another $1 million in furniture, fixtures and equipment to name the facility Resch Expo for the initial 20 years.

The naming rights may be extended for an additional 20 years with two 10-year options worth $2 million each.

Multiple cranes work on the Resch Expo construction site Thursday, Feb. 13, across Oneida Street from Lambeau Field. The facility is scheduled to open next January.

A memorandum of understanding put together for the expo center calls for $15 million from the county’s half-percent sales tax to fund the project.

Though the legality of that tax now being collected is being challenged by the Brown County Taxpayers Association (BCTA), Streckenbach said a determination will be made on how to fund the expo center after the case is decided in court.

“For right now, the (funding) plan that was proposed to the public is working,” he said. “This last (county) budget we reduced the overall levy, so we have tax relief… This building, keep in mind, is being built with over 80 percent of room tax.”

The BCTA is disputing whether the half-percent county sales tax was enacted properly by the county board as allowed under state law, namely for the sole purpose of directly reducing the property tax levy.

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