Chicago business owner plans redevelopment of George Williams College campus on Wisconsin’s Geneva Lake

Liam Krehbiel, the scion of a noted Chicago-area business family, is behind an ambitious plan to reimagine and transform the 137-acre George Williams College campus on Geneva Lake in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, into a retreat center, amphitheater, country inn and nature preserve.

The campus, which is owned by Aurora University, has been at risk of being proposed for subdivision as a residential development, particularly as Aurora University has wanted to divest itself of the property and lakefront estates on Geneva Lake have been commanding stratospheric sale prices.

On Tuesday, the Williams Bay Plan Commission will take its first look at the plans by Krehbiel and his firm for the George Williams property, which is immediately west of the landmark Yerkes Observatory. Krehbiel, who is the founder and CEO of Chicago-based Topography Hospitality LLC and the great-grandson of Frederick Krehbiel, the founder of the Lisle-based electronics company Molex, plans to convert the campus’ former golf course into a 90-acre nature preserve that would be open to the public, and create a path linking the Geneva Lake Shore Path with the nature preserve.

Topography also is proposing a country inn along the lake that would be a mix of bedrooms and cabins, along with a restaurant and a full-service spa. Krehbiel and Topography are billing the nature preserve as a way to be a good neighbor to the Yerkes Observatory, which would be negatively affected from light pollution if a residential development were built on the former golf course site.

Also, on a vacant, wooded site between the nature preserve and the country inn, Krehbiel is proposing constructing a new retreat center and a performing arts center at the northwest corner of Ravina Road and Constance Boulevard, which would be used for learning, seminars, meetings and events. The popular Music by the Lake program, which now takes place closer to Geneva Lake, would remain on the property and be relocated to the amphitheater.

It’s not known yet precisely how many existing buildings would be demolished. A concept plan submitted to the Village of Williams Bay suggests that a decent number of the existing structures would remain. Topography’s submittal states that close to the lake, what now is about 9 acres of buildings, driveways and parking lots would be scaled back to 6.3 acres, with total building square footage on the property decreasing from 109,143 square feet to 94,000 square feet.

Krehbiel’s Topography Hospitality presently has a contract pending to buy the George Williams campus. In a brief telephone interview in mid-December, Liam Krehbiel declined to comment to Elite Street on his then-rumored plans for the property.

“I’m not going to comment on that,” he said.

Along with his brother Jay, Liam Krehbiel co-manages Ballyfin Demesne, a 19th-century neoclassical manor estate about 60 miles southwest of Dublin, Ireland, which his father bought and converted to an award-winning hotel.

A real estate source in Lake Geneva told Elite Street that the campus, which is not on the tax rolls, appraised at a value of about $35 million.

Aurora University merged with George Williams College in 1992. The university announced in 2022 that it would stop offering academic programs there at the end of 2023, and put the campus up for sale last year with an eye toward finding a nonprofit buyer. The campus most recently offered programs in nursing, social work and psychology.

The campus dates to the 19th century, when it started as a summer camp founded by YMCA leaders and later became a college. It became known as George Williams College in 1933.

The University of Chicago owned the Yerkes Observatory from 1897 until 2018, when it sold the observatory to a local nonprofit. A women’s leadership center run by Chicago business owner Ann Drake is set to be constructed on 8.6 lakefront acres adjoining the George Williams campus that formerly had been part of the Yerkes property. Previous plans to rezone those 8.6 lakefront acres for residential use ran aground.

Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.

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