Opportunities for new development along metro Milwaukee’s lakefront are rare, since most of the prime real estate near the lake was developed years ago and much of the land along the shoreline has been set aside for public parks.

However, thousands of truckloads of soil, dug up as part of the Mitchell Interchange project, will be brought in to cap a desolate, contaminated, 250-acre lakefront site in Oak Creek, which could become the next great development site in southeastern Wisconsin.

The Mitchell Interchange soil is “like manna from heaven,” said Gary Billington, Vice President of sales and client relations for Milwaukee-based Plunkett Raysich Architects LLP. An Oak Creek resident, Billington leads up a citizens advisory committee for the redevelopment of the city’s lakefront.