A proposal to create a private retreat center, country lodge, amphitheater and nature preserve on the former 137-acre George Williams College campus in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, has drawn significant local opposition as it heads toward officials’ consideration at a meeting on Monday night.
Liam Krehbiel, the scion of a noted Chicago-area business family and the founder and CEO of Chicago-based Topography Hospitality, is behind the plan, which was first reported in January. The proposal has gained steam in recent months as details about his plan for the historic property have become clear. His company is under contract to buy the campus, which is owned by Aurora University and is immediately west of the landmark Yerkes Observatory, which a local nonprofit purchased from the University of Chicago in 2018.
To be called The Preserve at Williams Bay, the plan would involve the formation of a private club, with a country lodge and surrounding one-bedroom and two-bedroom cabins. The current plan is for the project to have 68 private rooms, along with two on-site restaurants, a racket sports pavilion, an activity center and a spa and pool area. In addition, an amphitheater would be constructed that would be available to the public.
To fund some of the project’s infrastructure, a tax increment financing district — called a TIF in Illinois but a TID in Wisconsin — would be created, which would direct additional property tax dollars generated by the Preserve to be used by the project’s developer.
On Monday night, the Williams Bay Village Board and Plan Commission will hold a joint meeting in the auditorium of Williams Bay’s elementary school to hear public comment and to consider a variety of actions, including altering Williams Bay’s comprehensive plan to allow for The Preserve’s zoning. If village trustees ultimately agree to that rezoning, votes in the future would involve approving The Preserve’s development plan, annexation of the property and an agreement with the developer.
In advance of Monday’s meeting, some area residents are sounding the alarm, saying they consider the project to be a step too far for their community. Some residents complained that the proposed resort’s exclusive nature is anathema to Williams Bay’s diversity and generally welcoming spirit, and fear that rezoning would mean at least some of the land will largely be off-limits to the public.
Others expressed concerns over the project’s finances, contending that the resort’s guests aren’t likely to spend much money in town, and that the TID — used to extend village utilities to the site — simply would be a tax break for the developer and not a benefit to the community as a whole.
Susan Franzen, who owns a bed-and-breakfast inn across the street from the Yerkes Observatory, noted that Williams Bay’s board of trustees approved a long-range comprehensive plan just last year that intentionally did not include options for resorts in future land use categories. While she conceded that plans can be changed, doing so so soon after the adoption of the plan “negates resident interests and creates mistrust in the planning process,” she said.
Franzen also contended that Topography’s initial plan was one of lower density — a small country inn with one restaurant and a small meeting space. The plan now has expanded, and Topography is asking for a planned unit development, which offers a developer more opportunity to shape the plan.
“By September it was a full-blown resort with a hefty membership fee, 26% more rooms with nightly rates three times higher than surrounding resorts, two restaurants, a retreat center, pool, spa (and) racket center,” she said. “Their plan removes beloved buildings like the chapel and the 2,500-seat Ferro Pavilion and creates a 3,500-seat pavilion on Vision Hill, a place many consider to be a sacred space. Topography’s plans just keep getting bigger and bigger.”
Richard Lyons, a writer and Williams Bay native who opposes the plan, contends that the area already has enough walled-off, private resorts.
“You have this influx of wealth and massive houses and massive resorts in Lake Geneva, in Fontana, and now in Lake Como with Geneva National, and tending to all those populations are private clubs for the very wealthy,” he said. “We need the unique character in Williams Bay that has been there for 100 years that is welcoming to populations from underadvantaged urban areas to enjoy the lake and for the residents to be involved with those camps and to welcome those people.”
Franzen contended that the TID, which the Village Board approved earlier this year, requires a $10 million bond that residents are responsible for paying back, even if The Preserve development is not approved.
Ann Drake is the founder and president of the Women’s Leadership Center at Williams Bay, which is under construction on 9 acres in front of the Yerkes Observatory property and which adjoins the former George Williams campus. She said Topography’s plan is “the wrong change for this village and the land” and that it risks “changing the nature of the village.”
“We’ve got a legacy of facilities and institutions dedicated to education, and we’ve got a pristine nature of the lakefront, and my concern is the complete change in direction as to what’s described in the comprehensive plan,” she said. “We went through a lot of good process (last year), in terms of meetings with different groups. It wasn’t like we didn’t work on it. So it’s like, wait a minute — here we are, suddenly chasing a whole different ballgame.”
Krehbiel did not respond to requests for comment. Nor did his attorney, Nicholas Egert. However, in a Nov. 28 op-ed article in the Lake Geneva News, Krehbiel touted the fact that the site’s former golf course and some farmland would be placed in a 90-acre nature preserve that would be open to the public. He also pledged to use Topography’s amphitheater as the new home for the annual Music by the Lake series, noting that the the facility would host eight to 10 live performances each year.
From a financial standpoint, he pointed to $1.5 million a year in annual property and room taxes — the site currently is not on the tax rolls — along with more than 110 permanent jobs. And Krehbiel reminded readers that he had held multiple community meet-and-greet events to inform the public of his plans.
“These efforts demonstrate our commitment to being transparent and fostering open dialogue with the community,” he wrote.
Krehbiel is the great-grandson of Frederick Krehbiel, the founder of the Lisle-based electronics company Molex. Krehbiel’s father, also named Frederick, sold Molex for $7.2 billion in 2013 to Kansas-based Koch Industries and died in 2021 at age 80.
Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
