March 23, 2022 1:35p
(WGTD)---Some local economic development officials responsible in part for bringing Foxconn to Mt. Pleasant are making no apologies, telling a special joint meeting of the Racine County Board and the Mt. Pleasant Village Board Tuesday night that they expect the move to eventually pay off. It’s just that the hundreds of acres of land that were cleared for Foxconn may become home to other industries.
The large site is now fully serviced by sewer and water lines and expanded roadways. Foxconn project manager Claude Lois admitted that officials overbuilt the site based on promises made by Foxconn, but that the land can be marketed to other companies. "We're sitting pretty good for a number of other projects that we can maybe talk about in the future," he said. "I think we did the right thing moving forward."
Even though Foxconn hasn’t fulfilled expectations, Lois said about 800 employees are working out of four buildings, making servers and server components. Initially, Foxconn said it would employ up to 13,000 workers in Mt. Pleasant.
Local officials said Tuesday night that Foxconn has met all of its financial obligations to date.
Mt. Pleasant narrowly missed out on landing an Intel computer chip factory that wound up in Ohio. Officials said they learned a lot from courting Intel, and expect that the experience will pay off in the future.
Foxconn representatives were invited to attend Tuesday night's meeting, but did not accept the invitation without providing a reason.
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