Beloit-Powerhouse | Credit: Visit Beloit. The city of Beloit received a $250,000 Community Development Investment Grant from WEDC to help complete a segment of the Beloit Riverwalk near Beloit College’s Powerhouse student center. This new section of the walk opened to the public in November.

From building new hotels to restoring historic buildings and converting a former grocery store into a community center, WEDC awarded more than $5 million in Community Development Investment (CDI) Grants to 25 municipalities across Wisconsin during the 2020 calendar year.

An additional six communities received Idle Sites Redevelopment (ISR) Grants totaling more than $1.8 million to help redevelop abandoned or blighted properties such as disused factories or empty big box stores.

Here’s a look at some of the larger projects that received $250,000 CDI grants in 2020:

  • City of Adams to help construct a new YMCA Healthy Living Center.
  • Town of Baileys Harbor to assist with the development of a mixed-use building.
  • Bayfield County toward the expansion of the Wild Rice Retreat, a center for guided retreats and venue space in the town of Bayfield.
  • City of Beloit to assist with the development of the Beloit Riverwalk.
  • City of De Pere to help construct a mixed-use development downtown.
  • City of Kenosha to help Herzing University relocate its campus.
  • La Crosse County to help convert a former Holmen grocery store into a Boys & Girls Club and a community center.
  • City of Lancaster to help fund the first new hotel constructed in the city in 30 years.
  • Village of Little Chute to help construct a downtown hotel.
  • Village of McFarland toward the construction of a 47-unit apartment building and a standalone commercial space.
  • City of Oshkosh to help transform the roughly 100-year-old Gibson Auto Body into the Gibson Social Club, an event space for weddings, meetings and other gatherings.
  • Village of Slinger to help developers renovate an historic carriage house providing more dining space for the Slinger House Pub and Grille, construct a nano-distillery with sales and a tasting room, renovate a neighboring historic building for use by cabinetry and construction businesses and restore a downtown apartment.
  • City of Sturgeon Bay to help create a new retail center in a long-vacant department store building downtown.
  • City of Superior to help construct a downtown hotel.
  • City of Wisconsin Dells to aid in the expansion of Wizard Quest, an interactive game and tourist attraction, that will serve as an anchor in the city’s Downtown River Arts District and help with the city’s revitalization of the Broadway Street area.

And here are examples of the projects that received ISR grants in 2020:

  • City of Eau Claire ($250,000) to help redevelop the site of a former Kmart store into a Hy-Vee grocery store.
  • Village of Kimberly ($500,000) to revitalize part of the former NewPage Paper Mill by creating dining, event and commercial space as well as housing as part of The Cedars development.
  • Community Development Authority of the City of Neenah ($123,000) for infrastructure and soil remediation on the final .964 acre piece of the 17.5 former P.H. Glatfelter Company paper mill site.
  • Town of Cable ($250,000) to assist the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation in the redevelopment of the former Telemark Lodge and Resort.
  • City of West Bend ($500,000) toward the redevelopment of the former Gehl agricultural equipment manufacturing site.