BUILDING BLOCKS: Ellis Construction breaks ground on $14.5M shoe factory

ADDRESS: Commerce Drive and Cherry Street, Marshfield

SIZE: 70,000 square feet

COST: $14.5 million

START MONTH: September 2024

COMPLETION: Late 2025

GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Ellis Construction

LEAD ARCHITECT: Ellis Construction

PROJECT SIGNIFICANCE: Stevens Point-based Ellis Construction in late September broke ground on a $14.5 million facility for Weinbrenner Shoe Company in Marshfield. Weinbrenner, which makes work boots, will get a new 70,000-square-foot building with a modernized production floor with safety and technology upgrades. After completion, the company will have room for 35 new jobs, expanding the current manufacturing workforce of 120.

The project is expected to be completed in late 2025, when Weinbrenner celebrates its 90th anniverary.

The new facility will be located in the Mill Creek Business Park, and the company will buy the land and own the building, after operating from 305 W. Third Street since 1935, the Marshfield News Herald reported.

Weinbrenner worked with Ellis Construction to select union contractors for nearly 80% of contracts on the job.

“We invited both union and non-union trade partners to bid, and we are proud that union firms won the majority of the work.” Jeff Burns, president of Weinbrenner, said in a statement.