The prospect of starting over on the GM/JATCO site is happening amid broader fresh momentum on Janesvilles southside.
If other recent movement is an indication, the redevelopment of the GM/JATCO site may not ultimately be the beginning of something. It may, rather, be a further catalyst to something that is already finding its own way forward.
The GM assembly plant site was once the southsides workforce hub. Then, beginning in 2009, it sat idle for a decade. With the buildings gone, it has since lingered as a 250-acre brownfield scar.
But all around that scar, a collection of close-knit neighborhoods roughly bordered by and in some cases extending just a bit beyond Delavan Drive, Beloit Avenue and S. River Road city voting wards 7-13 and part of 14 have in the past year or so seemed to find new spark. Thats happened even as the future of the GM/JATCO property remains undefined, with ideas and discussion but not yet a firm plan.
In recent months, positive movement has included the re-opening of Bazinga! on Kellogg Avenue, the opening of Santa Maria Supermarket on Center Avenue, the expansion of Buckys Lucky Bell Bar & Grill on Center Avenue, the wrapping up of the Center Avenue reconstruction and the soon to be completed reconstruction of the 5 Points intersection that connects the southside to downtown.
A new Kwik Trip is about to open on Center Avenue and in June, YWCA Rock County opened an early learning center for 2 and 3-year-olds, offering a new, affordable childcare option for families thats close to home. And literally in the shadow of the former GM plant on South Jackson Street, the Boys & Girls Club of Janesville is constructing a brand new $12 million building thats expected to open in 2026.
The southside is also increasingly an industrial hub. Among the newest examples of that: construction is starting on the first building in the Janesville Innovation Park, a new master-planned 224-acre development bounded by Beloit Avenue and U.S. Highway 11.
Amid all of this is a rising citizens group, SNOW, which stands for Southside Now. It has made its voice heard loudly this year on matters of the southside.
While not always aligning with majority decisions on the city council nor with city administration, SNOW has made its priorities clear. We connect individual citizens, local businesses, and community partners to advocate for South side development and improve quality of life for local residents and businesses, it says on its social media site.
SNOW has raised questions about whether the idea of putting a data center on the former GM/JATCO site is the best direction. It has raised questions about the makeup of the citys newly created GM/JATCO Redevelopment Advisory Board. While its approach could be more broadly collaborative and it could demonstrate more patience with the timeline of complex city processes, it nevertheless is aiming to listen to southside citizens and to hold the city accountable, and on those fronts its got the citys attention.
With that voice of advocacy that is SNOW, with its deep sense of community, and with its businesses and organizations that welcome long-awaited movement on the GM/JATCO site but arent waiting for that to gel before forging ahead with their own plans something seems to have kickstarted on the southside.
We hope that deepens as discussions about the future of the GM/JATCO site get underway in earnest. We hope citizens, business owners and community leaders and SNOW continue to respectfully raise their voices, to collaboratively work with but also to question City Hall as needed, and to be the drivers of further productive discussion about how to bring in more affordable housing, retail business and other things the southside continues to need.
When a tornado hit the southside in June of 2024, the turnout of volunteers to help with the cleanup was a testament to the community that calls this part of the city home, with its long-established church congregations, supportive nonprofit organizations like YWCA Rock County, a network of elementary schools that feed into Edison Middle School and Parker High School, the longtime presence of the Wisconsin School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and many locally-owned businesses along the Center Avenue, Beloit Avenue and Kellogg Avenue corridors.
The outpouring of assistance in the wake of the tornado offered a glimpse of what is possible when the southside comes together. Now, new and long established businesses and organizations are continuing to carry that spirit forward.
As energy continues to rise on the southside, the new occupants of the GM/JATCO site may find themselves soon joining a party thats already well underway, rather than being the ones relied upon to host it.