The Fort at the Rail Yard in downtown Green Bay's Rail Yard District, January 21. 2025. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — After going unpaid for months after completing work on downtown Green Bay’s new mixed-income apartment complex, The Fort at the Railyard, some local businesses say they’re finally getting what they were owed.
Just days after The Fort at the Railyard’s opening was celebrated by city leaders, subcontractors came forward with concerns about the development and its ownership group after they reported not receiving thousands of dollars they were owed for work they did on the building.
Professional Heating and Air Conditioning owner Michelle Legios said her small business was owed $276,000. After months of hounding the organization, she has finally been paid back in full.
Wisconsin court records show that at least eight other local or regional businesses filed construction liens against TWG & The Fort, the companies that run the development.
These are the following businesses and how much they were owed:
- $96,379 to Ace Iron & Steel Corp. in Milwaukee
- $262,097 to Bayland Buildings in Green Bay
- $135,245 to Northeast Asphalt in Greenville
- $22,257 to H.J. Martin & Son Inc. in Green Bay
- $255,892 to Lakeland Construction in Manitowoc
- $61,554 to Van Vreede in Appleton
- $187,806 to Gateway Construction in Green Bay
- $423,900 to Vos Electric in Appleton
Reports say some businesses have been paid back, some have organized payment plans with TWG & The Fort, and that some are still being ignored.
A spokesman for Mayor Eric Genrich’s office says the mayor has been in touch with the owner of the complex, who says they’re working on the liens but didn’t provide a timeline. “They’re working in the right direction,” the spokesman said.
While the city says it wants to see its local businesses paid back and have success with another company bringing housing to the area, there’s very little it can do about the liens.
“It’s in the court’s hands,” the spokesman adds.
However, while some businesses, like Legois’s, are seeing resolution, residents inside the building say they’re still struggling.
Several residents, who have declined to go on record out of fear of being evicted or retaliated against, have expressed issues with cleanliness, management, lack of amenities, and apartment repairs.
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