2 Hearings Planned For Amazon Building Sign Variance Request

OAK CREEK, WI — City officials in Oak Creek are hosting two public hearings over the next couple of weeks as Amazon seeks a sign variance to post a larger-than-allowed sign on the front of their 2.6 million square foot building currently under construction in the Ryan Business Park.

Current sign ordinances in Oak Creek state that wall signs cannot be more than 200 square feet for building more than 300 feet from the street.

According to city documents, Amazon is seeking the following signs:

• A 10-foot by 33-foot wall sign on the northwest corner. (330 square feet)
• An 88.75-inch by 21.5-inch wall sign located approximately midway between the northwest corner and main entrance area.(13.25 square feet)
• A 36-foot by 8-foot-3-inch wall sign. (297 square feet)
• A 104.5 inch by 21.25 inch wall sign on the center entrance area (15.42 square feet)
• A 36-inch by 120-inch address sign (30.25 square feet)
• A 24-inch by 80-inch address sign on the property located at 9700 S. 13th Street. (13.5 square feet)

The first hearing will be held at 6 p.m. on Jan. 28 at the Oak Creek City Hall Common Council Chambers, 8040 S. 6th Street. The second hearing will be held at 6 p.m. on Feb. 11 at the Oak Creek City Hall Common Council Chambers, 8040 S. 6th Street.

Amazon Chose Oak Creek Site

Officials in Oak Creek finalized a deal in Nov. 2018 to bring in the agreement between the City and Amazon.com Services, Inc. Amazon committed to investing $100 million in property improvements and $100 million of personal property installed in the facility. In addition, Amazon guaranteed to create a minimum of 1,500 full-time jobs with annual gross wages of $40 million by the end of 2021.

The four-story, 2.6 million square foot structure is currently under construction in the new Ryan Business Park in the City of Oak Creek, adjacent to the I-94/Ryan Road interchange. Officials said the Amazon site will be developed and owned by an affiliate of Hillwood Development, LLC, and leased to Amazon. The City of Oak Creek established a new tax increment district for the business park earlier in 2018.

As part of a tax increment package, Hillwood will fund infrastructure costs, estimated at $13.4 million, mostly related to rebuilding the intersection of 13th Street and Highway V, as well as improvements to Ryan Road. Officials said Oak Creek would refund Hillwood for roadway and utility costs, and up to $3.5 million of reimbursable costs to ready the site for development, through new property taxes collected from the development.

A Million Packages A Day

As the massive structure rises from the ground in Oak Creek, new details about the project were obtained by the Milwaukee Business Journal earlier this year regarding the scope of the facility and the tax incentives that were used to lure the company here instead of to Michigan or Ohio.

According to data obtained by the Business Journal, the Wisconsin Economic Development Council gave Amazon a $7.5 million incentive package divided into $1 million in incentives to create the 1,500 jobs in Oak Creek, with $6.5 million in tax credits offered for building the facility. Those jobs would pay $33,495 annually.

Data obtained by the publication also stated that the facility would ship a staggering 1 million packages each day.