Final home within Foxconn development site is moving - literally - to a new location

This article was made available for all readers Feb. 11, 2023

They're the last holdouts.

For five years, Kim and Jim Mahoney fought the Village of Mount Pleasant to keep their newly-built, three-bedroom ranch house from being thrown away.

Now, at last, they will say good-bye to their patch of land, but not their home.

After years of litigation, the Mahoneys and the village came to a $951,000 agreement in August. The home at 10640 Prairie View Dr. is being deconstructed and moved from the Foxconn campus five miles north, where it will still be in the Village of Mount Pleasant.

When the Mahoneys built their home in 2016, it was one of 13 houses in a new subdivision. On Oct. 4, 2017, then-Gov. Scott Walker's administration announced a $2.85 billion contract had been inked with a company called Foxconn that was going to change Wisconsin with 13,000 jobs and $10 billion of investment. That has not happened.

More:Foxconn says it now employs more than 1,000 people in Wisconsin. What are they doing?

The project was going to be built right where the Mahoney home sat. The Mahoneys have watched as four Foxconn buildings, including a large globe has been built right outside of their front door.

Multiple offers made, none accepted until this summer

Within three weeks of the Foxconn announcement, the Mahoneys made their first offer to the village to sell their house. Their second offer was made on Jan. 31, 2018. A third offer was made by the couple on Aug. 3, 2018 and a fourth on Feb. 15, 2019.

None were accepted - or even taken to the Mount Pleasant Village Board for consideration. All talks between the parties stopped. The village then put up a chain-link fence around the Mahoney's property.

Meanwhile, the village was using eminent domain to force homeowners to sell across the Foxconn footprint - including all of the houses in the Mahoney's subdivision, leaving them as the last remaining residents. In the end, the Mahoneys ended up getting less money than they were asking for.

More:Property owners near Foxconn say they were misled. Now their homes are gone.

As part of their agreement with the village, the Mahoneys cannot comment on the sale of their home. The village also declined to comment, only providing the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel with a copy of the terms of the sale.

During a joint board meeting between the village and Racine County Board on March 22, Kim Mahoney asked why village officials were refusing to negotiate with her on the sale of her house. Village officials wouldn't answer, but County Board Supervisor Fabi Maldonado pushed for an answer, prompting the two parties to meet again through their attorneys.

Kelly Gallaher, whose group A Better Mount Pleasant has been a vocal critic of the village and the Foxconn project, said without Maldonado pushing the village board to restart negotiations, the village would have continued to stall.

"They were treated terribly by the village and more importantly by the consultants hired by the village," Gallaher said.

In March 2018, the Mahoneys purchased a lot on Camelot Circle in the village, optimistic their negotiations with the village would work out and they could move their home there.

In a previous interview, Kim Mahoney said she didn't want her brand new house to end up in a landfill. The original plan was to resell it - and move the family to Yorkville, a small town in Racine County. The couple had an option to purchase a second lot in Yorkville, but they let it go, when negotiations with the village stalled.

"We thought it was a win/win for us and the village," Mahoney said. "There is a shortage of houses in the village, this still maintains the property taxes, it could be used by another family and it didn't have to be demolished. But they never liked the idea."

Kim Mahoney's fight for her house has made her the public face of Foxconn. She has been interviewed by numerous national publications including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, National Public Radio, CNBC and Bloomberg, and she became a high-profile advocate for homeowners displaced by government.

Now, it has finally come to an end. The Mahoneys are expected to have the move complete by the end of the year. So far, they've received $758,200 from the village. Once the move is complete, they'll be paid the remaining $191,800.

"There are no residents in the village who know better than Kim and Jim Mahoney how important holding local government accountable is," Gallaher said. "I'm glad they'll still be here as a constant reminder of how much better we can do."