Business View Magazine | February 2018

248 249 of retail, providing more opportunities for employ- ment, shopping, and dining.“So our growth has been really, really impressive,”he adds.“We’ve done quite a bit.Our population is about 33,000 now, growing by, roughly, a thousand people a year.” To back up those assertions, Stechschulte offers a long list of current infrastructure projects, as well as the many public and private investments that are continuing to transform Sun Prairie’s economy, char- acter, and styles of living.“In terms of infrastructure, we’re wrapping up a citywide ‘fiber-to-the-premises’ project,”he begins.“It’s a partnership with Sun Prai- rie Utilities and TDS Communications,which will run high speed internet to almost every building– business and residence–in Sun Prairie.We’ll be one of the first communities in the Dane County/Greater Madison area to have a complete network in place and so,we’re excited about that.” “We’ve got two elementary schools under con- struction, right now,”Stechschulte continues,“one in the western part of our community and one in the northern part.Those are two significant invest- ments from our taxpayers that encapsulate what our population growth has been.And we’re looking SUN PRAIRIE, WISCONSIN at either expanding our high school or building a second high school within the next three to five years to accom- modate all the growth that we’ve been seeing.We’ve got some road recon- struction coming up, and some regional stormwater facilities we’re trying to get in place to encourage and accelerate development.Most developers smile when they hear us say that we’re getting that infrastructure in place to take care of future projects.And we have other advantages, like our municipal-owned electric utility that allows us to provide electric rates that are anywhere from five to twenty percent more affordable than investor-owned utilities.And,we approve projects faster here in Sun Prai- rie versus other communities.” Sun Prairie has two thriving business parks–one public and one private. The city-owned, Sun Prairie Business Park covers 430 acres; it has over 40 businesses that employ 1,600 workers. Portions of the Park are located within a TIF (tax increment finance) district and are eligible for tax increment financ- ing.“Royal Printing is a major regional employer, here in Sun Prairie,” says Stechschulte,“and they just added a 90,000-square-foot warehouse in our Sun Prairie Business Park.” Stechschulte adds that the city re- cently acquired an additional 64 acres just north of the Park.“Riddell Corpora- tion–the guys who make the football helmets–is a brand new tenant in our newest expansion area in our Business