Business View Magazine | February 2018

246 247 SUN PRAIRIE, WISCONSIN THE BEST OF BOTHWORLDS G eographically, the city of Sun Prairie,Wis- consin–latitude: 43°11 0.97N, longitude: 89°13 56.41W.; elevation 984 ft.; total area, 12.25 square miles–is located in Dane County, some 15.8 miles northwest of Mad- ison, the state capital, in the southern part of The Badger State. But according to Neil Stechschulte, Sun Prairie’s Director of Economic Development, you can also find it by sight, alone.“If you’re in the Great- er Madison or Dane County area, and you want to knowwhere Sun Prairie is, just look for the cloud of dust on the horizon,”he says.“The amount of work going on this year is unprecedented.” For many years, Sun Prairie was a spread-out, bedroom community of Madison with a population one tenth its size.“People were very used to just driving into Madison for everything they needed,” Stechschulte explains.“It’s a ten minute drive down the road.All the shopping, all the employment,was just a jump on the highway to get to Madison.”But over the last several years, the city has attempted to carve out its own economic identity, having added over 750,000 square feet of industrial/warehouse space, and approximately 2.5 million square feet