It’s New Year’s Eve, and time to take a final look back at 2025, with my annual review of the biggest local business stories of the year (you can also check out my lists for the biggest local business stories of 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 and 2015).

Here are my picks for the top 20 local business stories of 2025, in descending order:

20. Foxconn announces big expansion plans

Much-maligned in Wisconsin, Taiwan-based Foxconn is notorious for its failure to live up to its original grandiose plan for a 20 million-square-foot manufacturing complex in Mount Pleasant with 13,000 employees to produce large LCD screens. Although that never came to fruition and the company made multiple changes to what it planned to build here, Foxconn eventually focused on making servers and server racks, reportedly for Google. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. says the company has spent $717 million and created 1,242 jobs in Mount Pleasant. In November, the company said it plans to expand in Mount Pleasant with a $569 million investment and plans to create 1,374 new jobs over the next four years. While those plans were met with skepticism by many, WEDC has confirmed that the company has a significant operation here and the artificial intelligence and data center boom create an opportunity for the company to make servers in Mount Pleasant to support that growing market segment.

19. Marcus Corp. completes $42 million renovation of downtown Hilton hotel, will open second hotel there

Milwaukee-based The Marcus Corp. this year completed a $42 million renovation of its historic Hilton Milwaukee hotel downtown. Located at 509 W. Wisconsin Ave., the hotel opened in 1928. The renovation project, which Marcus called its most extensive in company history, included upgrades to 554 guest rooms and improvements to the lobby area, Monarch Lounge bar and meeting and event spaces. When Marcus originally announced its renovation plans, it also said it would mothball the hotel’s 175-room, 14-story west tower, added in 2000. But then this year, the company said it would instead convert the west tower into a separate, limited-service hotel called The Marc, expected to open in January. Marcus’ huge investment in this property and the company’s decision to bring the west tower rooms back to the marketplace are both extremely positive developments for the downtown hospitality scene. With conversations ongoing about the need for a large headquarters hotel downtown to complement the recently expanded Baird Center, the logical solution would be to expand the Hilton property to achieve that goal.

18. Former Northridge Mall site now ready for redevelopment

We continued to see progress this year on redevelopment efforts for the former Northridge Mall site on the far northwest side of Milwaukee. Demolition of the former mall is now complete. The site is owned by the city, which in December released a report examining potential uses for the site which included a sports, recreation and entertainment hub; a health care, wellness and life sciences campus; an advanced manufacturing and innovation campus; a workforce training, trades and employment center; and a food and culture hub. However, these are all just concepts. Now the hard part comes. What sort of development can the city actually attract to this site? What will the marketplace bring forward? Will anyone in the private sector be interested in this site? It remains to be seen, and the city is likely going to have to provide a significant subsidy to support any major proposal.

17. Buc-ee’s coming to Oak Creek

Texas-based Buc-ee’s, the cult brand chain of large travel center stores, this year unveiled plans for a 73,370-square-foot store with 120 gas pumps southeast of South 27^th Street and West Elm Road in Oak Creek, along I-94. The company obtained city approval to build the store and despite pushback from some neighbors, including a legal challenge, the company plans to break ground on construction for the store during the first quarter of 2026. It will be interesting to see the impact that the Buc-ee’s store has on the retail landscape of southern Milwaukee County.

16. Lilly plans for Kenosha County grow

This was my pick for biggest story of 2024, and its significance grew in 2025. Last year Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company entered southeastern Wisconsin with its acquisition of a 100,000-square-foot pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Pleasant Prairie, built in 2021 by Nexus Pharmaceuticals Inc. Later in the year, the company acquired a nearby 323,930-square-foot industrial building and adjacent 31 acres of vacant land, creating a 52.5-acre site in Pleasant Prairie and the Village of Bristol. Late in 2024, the company unveiled plans for a $3 billion expansion of the former Nexus Pharmaceuticals facility and creation of 750 jobs.

With expansion of the Pleasant Prairie facility underway, the company this year submitted plans to build six additional buildings in Bristol. The lineup of new buildings will be used for manufacturing, distribution, and safety and security. Lilly also plans to build a new parking structure and visitor center. Edgardo Hernandez, executive vice president of manufacturing operations at Lilly, said its Kenosha County campus will be built out in three phases. “Phase three is a massive expansion that, when it’s all said and done, will be the largest biotech operation in Wisconsin, and probably in the U.S., making sterile injectable medicines,” said Hernandez. Lilly is quickly becoming one of the most exciting and important growing companies in southeastern Wisconsin.

15. Italian manufacturer to move U.S. headquarters to Jefferson County

Has Jefferson County gotten your attention yet? There was more significant news there this year. Abet Laminati, which is based in northern Italy with its U.S. headquarters currently in New Jersey, submitted plans to build a new 223,000-square-foot U.S. headquarters in Johnson Creek, where it will employ 120 people. The company designs and manufactures decorative laminates and phenolic panels for a wide range of architectural and design applications, including interior surfaces like furniture and countertops, as well as exterior facades. Abet Laminati is joining other international companies that are building facilities in Jefferson County. Within the last couple of years, companies including Japan-based Kikkoman Corp. and Finland-based Onego Bio have announced projects in Jefferson County.

14. Derse to build new HQ in Oak Creek

Derse a Milwaukee-based company in the trade show and event industry, which specializes in event exhibit production, announced plans to build a new facility in Oak Creek, moving its headquarters from Milwaukee’s Menomonee Valley. While a loss for the city of Milwaukee, the company’s plans to move to Oak Creek keep it in Milwaukee County. In addition, Derse will consolidate operations there from Waukegan, Illinois. The company said its new facility will be “substantially larger” than its 158,000-square-foot Milwaukee facility and its Waukegan facility, combined. Keeping this growing company in the Milwaukee area is a big win for the region.

13. Downtown area gains two significant office space tenants

Two companies moved their offices from Menomonee Falls to the downtown Milwaukee area this year. Global manufacturer Enerpac Tool Group moved to a 50,000-square-foot space in the downtown building at 648 N. Plankinton formerly known as the ASQ Center, now known as the Enerpac Center. Also this year, Charlotte, North Carolina-based Allspring Global Investments completed the relocation of its office from Menomonee Falls to the Historic Third Ward, just south of downtown. The office real estate market has struggled since the COVID-19 pandemic, but the downtown area is holding up a bit better than the suburbs with a third quarter vacancy rate of 18.8% downtown compared to 20.6% in the suburbs, according to the Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin and Moody’s.

12. Palermo’s opens new plant in West Milwaukee

Milwaukee-based frozen pizza manufacturer Palermo Villa Inc. this year opened a new 200,000-square-foot production facility at the former Froedtert Malt Corp. plant site in West Milwaukee. The new plant brought the site back to life after the Froedtert Malt facility, last operated by Malteurop, was shut down in January of 2022. It’s the latest growth move for Palermo’s in the area, following its 2023 acquisition of a former Tyson Foods plant in Jefferson that had been shut down in 2021. Sadly, the new West Milwaukee plant was the site of terrible tragedy this year when an employee, 45-year-old Robert Cherone, was killed in a workplace accident. The accident remains under investigation by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration.

11. Milwaukee Rep opens rebuilt theater complex

Completing an $80 million project, Milwaukee Repertory Theater this year opened its rebuilt Associated Bank Theater Center complex, located within the same space at 108 E. Wells St. in downtown Milwaukee as the Rep’s Patty & Jay Baker Theater Complex. The project, which broke ground last year, transformed the Ellen and Joe Checota Powerhouse Theater; constructed the 2,700-square-foot Herzfeld Foundation Education & Engagement Center; and connected the Rep’s auditoriums through the new Sandra & William Haack Galleria, which includes gathering spaces, accessible restrooms, a gift shop and bars. A second phase of the project — scheduled to be completed in February — will also renovate the Herro-Franke studio and administrative offices. Audiences have flocked to experience the rebuilt facility. The first major production there, ‘Come From Away’ became the highest grossing show in the theater company’s history.

10. Modine opens new plant in Franklin

Racine-based Modine opened a new production facility this year in a 153,000-square-foot space at 3303 W. Oakwood Road in Franklin. The plant is being used to produce Modine’s Airedale brand of data center cooling solutions, including high-efficiency chillers, indoor air systems, liquid cooling technologies and intelligent controls. The company said it will create more than 300 new jobs at the facility by March of 2026 and will have 430 people working there within three years. Founded in Racine in 2016, Modine is a global company that hasn’t built a new production facility in the area in many years, so it’s great news for the region to have the company invest in a new facility here and create hundreds of new jobs.

9. Global Power Components to convert former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel printing plant into production facility

Milwaukee-based Global Power Components this year unveiled plans to convert the former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel printing plant into a production facility and eventually employ up to 1,000 people there. The company bought the 476,000-square-foot facility for $17.5 million, and has plans to expand it. Global Power, which manufactures fuel tanks, enclosures and other equipment for the power generation industry, employs 1,200 people across five Milwaukee-area facilities. Despite that, it has a lower profile than many other large Milwaukee companies. But its plans in West Milwaukee could change that and provide a huge boost for the metro area’s economy.

8. Milwaukee Tool plans $42 million expansion in Menomonee Falls

Milwaukee Tool just keeps growing its presence in the area. In late 2024 the Brookfield-based company acquired the former Strong Funds office building in Menomonee Falls. This year the company unveiled its plans for the building: a $42 million expansion, expected to create 300 jobs. It will be the company’s fourth facility in Menomonee Falls. Milwaukee Tool is clearly one of the area’s most important companies. Within the last decade it has expanded its Brookfield headquarters twice, added a downtown Milwaukee office building, acquired several buildings in Menomonee Falls and opened a plant in West Bend. It continues to post impressive sales growth with an 11.9% increase during the first half of the year, following 11.6% sales growth in 2024. Based on prior disclosures, the company has annual revenue of about $10 billion. Hopefully the company’s growth continues.

7. Generac opens new plant in Beaver Dam and acquires Sussex facility from Quad

Speaking of southeastern Wisconsin’s most impressive growing companies, Generac continued to make news in 2025. The Town of Genesee-based generator manufacturer is seeing growth to serve the booming data center market, while its residential sales have declined. This year the company opened a new 345,000-square-foot plant in Beaver Dam, and planned to have 320 employees there by the end of the year. In addition, Generac recently purchased a 200,000-square-foot building in Sussex from Quad for $20 million. That deal is an indicator of the different direction those companies have been heading in. Generac continues to grow its presence in the area while Quad has for years been shifting its business from being a printing company into a multifaceted marketing business. Quad’s sales have been declining for years, but the company says it plans to return to sales growth in 2028.

6. Rockwell Automation plans huge new manufacturing facility in Milwaukee area

Want some more good news from the region’s manufacturing sector? Milwaukee-based Rockwell Automation announced plans to build a new 1 million-square-foot manufacturing facility at an undisclosed “greenfield” location in southeastern Wisconsin. A Milwaukee commercial real estate industry source told BizTimes that the company is seriously considering a site in New Berlin, southeast of Moorland Road and Grange Avenue, for the plant. The facility, which could become Rockwell’s largest manufacturing site in the world, will house advanced automation, robotics and digital systems that “showcase modern manufacturing,” the company said.

If you are following along the list of large Wisconsin-based manufacturers that either opened or announced plans for new plants in the region this year includes Rockwell, Generac, Modine, Palermo’s and Global Power Components. That is a tremendously exciting trend that hopefully continues.

5. Yaskawa America to invest $180 million to relocate HQ to Franklin

More good manufacturing news for the region in 2025. Yaskawa America a manufacturer of AC inverter drives and motion control and robotics automation systems, announced plans to spend $180 million to build out a new headquarters campus in Franklin. The new headquarters campus will create 700 new jobs once complete. The campus will expand upon Yaskawa America’s existing Franklin location at 2 World Packing World in the Franklin Business Park. Yaskawa America, which is currently headquartered in Waukegan, Illinois, will build between six and seven new buildings and consolidate its existing Illinois and Wisconsin plant operations in Franklin. The consolidation process will take between eight and 10 years.

4. Harley names new CEO, requests employees to return to its HQ

Harley-Davidson got a new CEO this year, after earlier in the year an investment firm led an unsuccessful activist campaign attempting to oust three board members, including then CEO Jochen Zeitz. That came after the company revealed in April that it began a search for a new CEO in the fourth quarter of 2024 and that Zeitz planned to retire. A partner with the investment firm, New York-based H Partners Management, resigned from Harley’s board and raised numerous concerns about the company’s leadership and performance. Harley shareholders re-elected the three board members that H Partners tried to have removed, but later in the year all three stepped down from the board.

In August, the board named its new CEO, Arthur Starrs, who previously served as CEO of Dallas-based Topgolf and before that was global CEO of Pizza Hut. Since taking the helm on Oct. 1, Starrs has made several leadership changes and the company has requested corporate office employees return to work at the Harley headquarters on Milwaukee’s west side. Since the COVID-19 pandemic Zeitz had allowed the company’s white collar workforce to work remotely and the Harley headquarters was largely abandoned. Starrs clearly has a different view about the importance of having employees work together in the office. That move will fill a major void on the city’s west side and should help bring some vibrancy back to that area.

3. Kohl’s CEO drama

In what was probably the most surprising local business story of 2025, the Kohl’s board of directors fired CEO Ashley Buchanan after less than four months on the job. The company said Buchanan was fired because he violated company ethics policies by seeking to have the company enter into a “multi-million-dollar consulting agreement” with a firm owned by an individual with whom he had had a personal relationship with, and had not disclosed that information to the company. The Wall Street Journal reported that Buchanan had been in a romantic relationship with the woman who owned the consulting firm.

The company’s board chair, Michael Bender, was named interim CEO in early May and in November he was named permanent CEO.

Kohl’s has had significant leadership turnover in recent years. Bender is the third person to lead the company since former CEO Michelle Gass departed in 2022 after five years in the role. Bender is now tasked with reversing years of sales declines for the company.

2. Edison construction halted as project faces major cost overruns

Construction of the Edison, a 31-story apartment tower that was to be built along the Milwaukee River downtown, began in March but was halted in September as the Madison-based development firm for the project, Neutral, experienced cost overruns of more than $25 million. Foundation work was completed for the building, but work has not resumed, and there’s no sign of that happening anytime soon. Several construction liens have been filed against Neutral for the Edison project and for its Bakers Place project in Madison. While disappointing, the suspension of the Edison project takes some pressure off the luxury apartment market downtown, which is still taking time to absorb the new units added by The Couture and the 333 Water buildings, both of which opened in 2024.

1. Data center development boom continues in southeastern Wisconsin

The development of massive data centers in the region to support the growing usage of artificial intelligence dominated local headlines this year. Construction continued this year at the massive data center campus that Microsoft is building in Mount Pleasant, and the company this year announced plans to expand the project, estimated at $3.3 billion a year ago, with an additional $4 billion planned investment.

But that huge project pales in comparison to another that recently began construction in Port Washington, where Denver-based Vantage Data Center will build a $15 billion data center along I-43 for OpenAI and Oracle.

In addition Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, unveiled plans for a $1 billion data center in Beaver Dam.

The growing number of data center projects in the state has sparked significant opposition from individuals with concerns that include their impact on energy costs, the environment and nearby property values. In the face of community pushback Microsoft dropped plans for a smaller data center in Caledonia. Supporters of the facilities have pointed to the construction jobs and permanent jobs that they create, as well as the significant property tax boost they will provide to their communities.

Clearly the data center story and many of these other stories will remain prominent in the news throughout 2026. I can’t wait to see what other big stories will emerge next year. As always, we will work hard to report them to you.

I want to wish you, your family, friends and your business a very Happy New Year and a prosperous and joyous 2026!

Andrew Weiland is the editor of BizTimes Milwaukee.