One of Fredonia's biggest empty factories is on track to get busy again. A logistics company has agreed to lease the 316,550-square-foot former Guy & O'Neill manufacturing plant at 200 Industrial Drive, putting one of the village's largest idle industrial properties back into circulation and potentially adding new jobs and truck traffic to a tight industrial corridor.
According to the Milwaukee Business Journal, KODIS LLC, doing business as Solvr, has leased the facility and is positioning itself to serve southeast Wisconsin's growing data center market. The outlet reports that Solvr plans to use the site for material logistics tied to construction projects and data center supply chains.
Village officials say Solvr is finalizing the move
Village documents show KODIS LLC d/b/a Solvr filed for a conditional use permit to establish indoor warehouse storage at the Fredonia site, with a public hearing scheduled for June 8, 2026. As outlined by the Village of Fredonia, the draft permit includes conditions meant to limit neighborhood impacts and will go through the Plan Commission review process before anything is finalized.
What Solvr gets inside the old plant
A property brochure from Cushman & Wakefield | Boerke lists the building at about 316,550 square feet, with clear heights up to 38 feet 7 inches, 16 loading docks, two drive-in doors and roughly 12 acres of land. The brochure also notes 13,560 square feet of office space and a multi-tenant layout that can be delivered immediately, giving an incoming tenant space to stage materials and equipment.
From shutdown to second act
The Fredonia factory has already gone through several transitions since its 2025 shutdown. A WARN notice filed with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development shows Guy & O'Neill closed the site effective Jan. 31, 2025, affecting 196 employees. About a year later the facility briefly resumed activity under a different operator, according to a 2025 report in the Milwaukee Business Journal, and the new Solvr lease represents the latest commercial pivot for the property.
Village planning materials include draft conditional use permit conditions intended to reduce community impacts, including daytime operating hour limits and routing requirements for trucks, and call for notices to be sent to abutting property owners. As outlined in the Village of Fredonia packet, those measures reflect the kind of compromise municipal officials often seek when large manufacturing shells are converted to warehousing or logistics uses. The final permit and any additional conditions set by the Plan Commission will determine how many trucks the site can handle and when they can operate.
For now, details on staffing levels and a precise move-in schedule remain under wraps. Brokers and local officials say repurposing big industrial footprints is a cost-effective way to meet demand for supply chain space tied to data centers and other large projects in the region. The Solvr lease is expected to be watched closely by manufacturers and municipal leaders as another test of how flexible older factory buildings can be for new industrial uses.
