Beloit, Wisconsin is a classic rust belt community located in the south central region of the state. Like many other legacy industrial cities across the Midwest, Beloit was hit hard by the loss of thousands of blue-collar jobs during the ‘80s and ‘90s. This was a period of widespread urban decay, population loss, and abandoned properties after the collapse of heavy manufacturing in the industrial heartland.
Beloit Corporation, originally known as the Beloit Iron Works, was the world’s leading manufacturer of massive paper-making machinery. It served as the economic backbone of the region for 141 years providing 2,000 high-paying local manufacturing jobs. The company became a juggernaut in the industry, servicing several other paper and pulp manufacturing companies for over a century.
According to Beloit Daily News, after a series of corporate acquisitions and risky international investments, the parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1999. By early 2000, it liquidated its assets selling off its paper machine service business to Valmet (still operational in Beloit), and closing a chapter on a huge part of Beloit’s history.
The abrupt closure of the manufacturing giant reverberated across Beloit. The mass exodus of industrial jobs decimated the local tax base, igniting a “brain drain” as younger professionals left the area to find work.
According to Capitol Lien records, “unemployment numbers skyrocketed, and at one point, USA Today even ranked Beloit as Wisconsin’s ‘worst city to live in’ due to its economic stagnation.”
Places like Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee are intimately acquainted with the downstream implications of large, blue-collar employers abandoning a community. High vacancy rates strongly correlate with persistent economic disinvestment, segregation and poverty.
Once the process begins, rarely is it reversible, typically leaving a community hollowed out.
Familiar sightings of a bleak abandoned landscape start to take shape on the sprawling industrial campus. The company lettering remains etched into the multi-story buildings, often covered in graffiti, serving as the backdrop to the vacant lots that accumulate litter, scrap metal, broken glass and tires.
Massive, faded logos, rusty company signs and broken gates become poignant historical artifacts. Other remnants of the former economic powerhouse are left behind representing a constant reminder of the devastating blow to local residents.
The inevitable is guaranteed to happen – drugs arrive to help those left behind cope with the reality of joblessness, often for the first time in their adult life. Once the drugs have a stranglehold on a community, the crime and homelessness shortly follow.
Individuals afflicted by a newfound opioid addiction often move into the vacant buildings to discreetly trade stolen goods, cash or services for drugs. Crime is always a part of the equation. The gangs move in too, seeing a lucrative opportunity to move product. The ripple effects are extensive and everyone pays the price. Small businesses, schools, libraries, parks, charities and other civic institutions are deeply affected when a large employer leaves town.
The decline of Beloit carried through the 2010s after the ’08 financial crash pulverized the region yet again. After the closure of Beloit Corp, many former employees went on to work for the GM plant in Janesville. Following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the GM Plant abruptly shuttered its doors as well (Dec. 2008), devastating the entire Rock County region. The hits kept coming and the community was on the brink of utter despair.
Beloit narrowly missed becoming another casualty of the rustbelt vacancy era if it weren’t for Diane Hendricks and her late husband Ken swooping in to save it.
As she has said of Beloit, “If you want a thriving community, you support it, and this community is unique in showing up to support one another.”
The Hendricks began investing significantly into the community and she continues to do so today. Hendricks rebuilt entire city blocks and personally attracted businesses to Beloit by offering private real estate and economic development investments. She also believes “helping children reach their potential one of the most important things” she can do.
In 2001, Ken and Diane Hendricks purchased the Beloit Corp property along the Rock River, a roughly 24-acre campus containing more than 750,000 square feet of buildings, now known as the Ironworks Campus.
The Henricks began a massive renovation project in 2002. Rather than demolishing the old factories, they decided to preserve the bones of the buildings — keeping the exposed brick, open truss ceiling, and industrial artifacts to retain the industrial character — and place new businesses inside of them.
Several Beloit officials have expressed their appreciation for the investment, essentially making the point that the downtown area would have looked very different if the buildings remained abandoned.
Hendricks Commercial Properties says it is now home to 20+ businesses and more than 1,200 employees inside the Ironworks campus. Its tenants include technology companies, professional businesses, engineering firms, startups, manufacturing-related businesses and community-oriented operations.
The site also became an incubator for entrepreneurship through Irontek, a coworking and startup space that opened in 2016.
The overall Beloit portfolio now includes the Ironworks Hotel, restaurants, residential, career development, historic property redevelopment and other downtown projects.
The Background Story:
Diane Hendricks wasn’t born into wealth — Diane Marie Smith was born in Mondovi, Wisconsin and grew up milking cows as the daughter of dairy farmers in the small Wisconsin town of Osseo.
Before becoming a billionaire, she started building a career in real estate, pursued a broker’s license and began selling custom-built homes. It was through that work that she met roofing contractor Ken Hendricks. The couple began investing in real estate together, purchasing and rehabilitating homes around Beloit
In 1974, Diane established what became Hendricks Commercial Properties, beginning with a single multifamily property near Beloit College that she rehabilitated, rented and managed. That small investment became the foundation for what is now a national real estate development and management company.
Ken Hendricks was born and raised in nearby Janesville and had dropped out of high school before going into the roofing business with his father.
In 1963, the 22-year-old Hendricks founded International Roofing Company. Within four years, International Roofing had 500 employees and sales of $45 million a year. By 1968, International had become the eighth largest roofing company in the country. He regrettably dedicated too much time to this single endeavor, admitting he did not agree with certain business decisions in his early 20s. He moved away from roofing and into real estate.
The couple married in 1975 and began buying, renovating and renting homes in and around Beloit, eventually expanding into commercial and industrial properties.
In 1982, the couple purchased three failing building-supply stores and turned them into what became ABC Supply, ultimately establishing the company’s HQ in Beloit. Ken was generally the public facing entrepreneur who got things started while Diane was the one who “takes things down to the last detail.”
Diane is known as a detail-oriented business operator, a valuable characteristic that helped grow ABC Supply into the country’s largest wholesale distributor of roofing and exterior building products, generating $20 billion revenue, with roughly 20,000 employees and hundreds of locations.
Ken Hendricks died in 2007 after falling through the roof of a building in Beloit. The couple has seven children, which is one of the main reasons Diane predominately focuses on children, education and career development in her philanthropic endeavors. Diane still chairs the company from Beloit and resides in Rock County.
Hendricks and the Hendricks Family Foundation have invested tens of millions of dollars into community development, education, and revitalization projects primarily focused in Beloit.
She offered a $2.5 million grant to launch an intensive elementary literacy tutoring program to combat falling reading scores, and $1 million to Beloit Public Library for the “Discovery Playce” early learning hands-on interactive exhibit and launch programming.
The Stateline Family YMCA became part of the Ironworks redevelopment. Diane donated an approximately 80,000-square-foot building valued at about $4 million to facilitate the YMCA’s relocation downtown and offered a $1 million grant (over three years) toward the organization.
Diane Hendricks has also played a significant role in the arts, culture and future of Beloit College. Her connection to the college began years ago when she a Ken rehabilitated homes in Beloit and rented some to Beloit College students. Diane later served as a member of the college’s Board of Trustees.
Her philanthropy has helped transform both the college campus and its relationship with the surrounding community. Hendricks provided substantial support for the Hendricks Center for the Arts, a former downtown post office converted into a 58,000-square-foot arts facility used for classrooms, music and dance studios, performance spaces, a film screening room and other arts facilities. At the building’s opening, Diane described the project as helping the college “come down off the hill” and become more closely connected with the city.
She was also recognized as one of the founding visionaries behind the Powerhouse, the transformation of a decommissioned power plant along the Rock River into a 120,000-square-foot student union, recreation and athletics center. The $38 million project combined historic preservation with modern student and community space and was funded through private donations
A former Beloit College trustee wrote that Hendricks ultimately donated “tens of millions of dollars” to the college and that “the Hendricks Center and Powerhouse would not exist without her support.”
The A&E Network filmed a show with Diane Henricks last year called “Betting on Beloit,” following Hendricks and her daughter Konya Hendricks Schuh, focused on purchasing, gutting, and restoring 100-year-old homes in Beloit’s Historic College Park and surrounding districts
On the political side: Diane Hendricks has emerged as one of the largest individual financial supporters of Wisconsin Republicans.
In the latest state campaign finance filings covering the period through September 23, Hendricks gave $5.6 million to the Republican Party of Wisconsin, according to Wisconsin Public Radio’s review of the filings. The New York Times has reported her total giving to the state party at roughly $12 million based on the 2025–2026 filings.
Hendricks has also provided millions directly to the legislative campaign committees. The Republican Assembly Campaign Committee (RACC) raised approximately $6.2 million during the latest reporting period, with $5.5 million coming from Hendricks. She had previously given the committee approximately $1 million in December 2025 and $2.5 million on June 22, 2026, bringing her contributions to RACC to roughly $9 million since late 2025.
On the Senate side, the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate (CERS) raised approximately $2.3 million during the latest reporting period, including $1.75 million from Hendricks. She had previously given CERS $2 million on June 22, 2026, bringing her contributions to the committee to approximately $3.75 million.
To close it out: The political class continues to squabble about the billionaire class buying influence in our state elections. The next time democrats say, “tax the rich” and billionaires must “pay their fair share,” just remember, the Republican billionaires like Diane Hendricks already do pay their fair share of taxes and heavily contribute to our local communities. Election day is November 3. Register to vote or find out where to vote here: https://myvote.wi.gov/en-us/
