Vantage project a boon for businesses

Paul Drews has gotten used to the sight of large trucks from the Vantage Data Centers Lighthouse Campus construction site in his parking lot.

Every day, he said, workers from the construction site — primarily those from Michels or The Weitz Co. — stop at Drews True Value on Port Washington’s north side to pick up supplies.

“It’s whatever the project of the day is,” Drews said. “It might be nuts and bolts. It might be pressure washer fittings, some Milwaukee Tools. It might be paper towels.”

The $15 billion Vantage project has been overwhelming for some in the city, but for area small businesses, it’s been a boon.

When the data center construction got underway late last year, he said, Vantage called to get 12-gauge extension cords to run to some of the new Caterpillar trucks on site.

“They needed a bunch of them,” Drews said, adding he generally only has three to five of them in stock.

He called around and picked up all the needed extension cords he could from the True Value and Do It Best warehouses in Illinois, Drews said. He also stopped at Beyers True Value in Cedarburg and everywhere else he could think of until he filled the order.

Then, he delivered the extension cords to the data center site.

That personal service garnered rave reviews from Vantage. Tracye Herrington, vice president of new site development, told the Common Council in January that Drews’ efforts were appreciated.

“That’s going well above and beyond,” she said.

Drews said that the items he’s sold to the crews have changed as the work has changed.

“It’s a lot of incidental stuff,” he said. “At the onset, we were selling them stuff to set up their offices — paint, tables, cleaning supplies. They bought a bunch of grills in November to do some cookouts for some of their crews.

“More recently, they’ve been buying a fair amount of tools.”

And, he said, the companies buying from his store are encouraging workers to come in and shop too.

“We’re seeing people who we haven’t seen before,” Drews said. “People who are new to town, people from out of town. They’re coming in and buying their personal tools.”

Drews said the business from the data center has been “a nice boost we wouldn’t have otherwise had. What this means for us is we have more dollars available for payroll.”

It’s not just hardware that the data center crews are purchasing.

Angie Hill, who with her husband Andy owns Java Dock Cafe in Port, said she has seen an influx of traffic from both the construction crews and Vantage’s office workers, and Kyle Simpson, owner of Kyote’s Bar and Grill in Belgium, said his business is up about 20%, primarily due to the data center workforce.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “It’s been really good for us.

“I know a lot of area businesses, it’s been very good for everyone.”

Simpson said workers will stop by to unwind after their shift, adding the night crew suggested he add breakfast to his menu.

“I told them, ‘If I can find the employees, I will,’ and it’s worked out really nicely,” Simpson said.

He opens at 7 a.m., and Simpson said the crews often arrive at 6:45 a.m. and wait to get in. Now, even the locals are coming in for their morning meal.

“They’re really, really great guys and women,” he said of the data center workforce. “I think they enjoy having a place where people aren’t glaring at them. I have a pretty strict rule — no politics, no religion and no data center talk in the bar.”