CEDARBURG
The General Aluminum plant that makes castings for the automotive industry and employs about 140 production workers is set to close May 1. The factory was sold last summer to Cleveland-based Park-Ohio Holdings Corp. by Amcast Industrial Corp., Dayton, Ohio. A combination of factors including shipping costs, no room for expansion, and environmental concerns about alleged PCB contamination of Cedar Creek were cited by management as reasons for the closing.
METRO MILWAUKEE
A new health care plan is available to the more than 2,000 member businesses that are members of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce and employ approximately 200,000 people in the metro area. The Patient Choice plan was introduced to the area in April by WPS Health Insurance. Patient Choice is designed to create competition among health care providers using data that ranks their quality, efficiency, and total costs of Care Systems. Employees then compare Care Systems and choose the one they want as part of their health insurance plan.A similar network has been offered in Minneapolis since 1997 and has produced significant savings for participants.
Area political and business leaders meeting at the University Club agreed to work together on extending Chicago's Metra commuter trains from Kenosha to Milwaukee to help the region grow and compete with other metro areas that have commuter rail. The leaders included Bob Mariano, chief executive officer of Roundy's Inc. and chairman of the regional transportation committee of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and his Chief of Staff Patrick Curley, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, Racine County Executive William McReynolds, Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian and state Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale). Racine Mayor Gary Backer, Kenosha County Executive Allan Kehl and Sen. Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee) sent aides. Business leaders present included Dennis Kuester, chief executive officer of M&I Corp., Fred Luber, chief executive officer of Super Steel Inc., and Tim Sheehy, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce. The 33-mile route from Kenosha to Milwaukee could run on existing freight railroad tracks with stops in downtown Milwaukee, Cudahy, South Milwaukee, Oak Creek, the Town of Caledonia, Racine, and the Town of Somers. The next step is to start preliminary engineering and the final two-year phase of study on the line.
MILWAUKEE
The Main Street Milwaukee program was approved by the city's Common Council to help revitalize older traditional neighborhood commercial districts. The program would provide technical assistance for up to four commercial areas in its first year for fa�ade improvement design, business planning, marketing and other business issues. The Department of City Development will partner with the Local Initiatives Support Corp. to provide support services. Under the program, $350,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds will be matched with private resources raised by LISC.
A high-tech business incubator called IT Fusion Business Center 633 was created by Towne Investments, a major owner and manager of downtown office space. The facility on the seventh floor of the 633 W. Wisconsin Ave. building and has more than 6,000 square feet available for start-up and emerging tech businesses. In addition to the latest Internet and Wi-Fi connections, the facility has shared conference and meeting space and other office services. Kuhlfsion LLC is the on-site manager.
Smurfit-Stone Flexible Packaging is nearly doubling the size of its packaging factory on the northwest side with a 54,000-sq.-ft. $3 million addition. The Parkland Court plant now employs about 100 and the company expects to add at least 12 more jobs when the expansion is complete in July. Smurfit-Stone prints and fabricates flexible packaging materials for customers in the meat, cheese, candy and pharmaceutical industries. SmurfitStone Flexible Packaging is a division of Chicago-based publicly traded Smurfit-Stone Container Corp., which also has plants at 2800 W. Custer Ave. and in Germantown, and has 250 plants nationwide.
PEWAUKEE
Up to $13 million would be invested along Wisconsin Avenue's lakefront in a project proposed by Cameron Scott Development. The four-story building would have 12,000 square feet of retail space on the first floor and 32 condominiums on the upper three floors. It would go next to a two-story building called Old Main Street developed by Siepmann Realty Corp. in 2002 with retail space on the first floor and office space on the second floor. A riverwalk on the Pewaukee River is also being proposed.
RACINE
A contaminated 14-acre brownfield site downtown will be cleaned up and turned into an industrial park that could employ up to 200, thanks to a $550,000 Department of Commerce award to the city. The site had been used by the Jacobsen Textron Company for 35 years to manufacture lawn care equipment. The City of Racine purchased the land in 2002. The project includes demolition and infrastructure improvements with a total project investment of $4.6 million.
SUSSEX
TPS International Inc. has been awarded two contracts valued at $2.9 million to supply highly automated computer-controlled metal-cutting manufacturing equipment to an undisclosed maker of fluid power parts. TPS makes machine tools and equipment for the metal-cutting and turned-parts industries, and has plants in Chicago, Atlanta, New York City, Columbia, S.C., and Switzerland.
STATEWIDE DEVELOPMENTS
NORTHEAST
GREEN BAY: From last October to December, members of the local Young Professionals Network participated in a project called Downtown H.Y.P.E. (Harnessing Young Professionals Energy). The project was a joint venture between the YPN, UW-Green Bay and Downtown Green Bay Inc., in which young professionals provided weekly summaries of their impressions of the downtown area. Food, entertainment and shopping options were good or better than expected, but the group found too many empty buildings in central Green Bay. Two other groups are expected to conduct similar evaluations of the area this spring.
The official medal for the presidential inauguration of George W. Bush was produced by Medalcraft Mint Inc., the same as in 2001. Minted in gold, silver, bronze and brass, the commemorative medals cost between $12.50 and $1,200.
MANITOWOC: National home-improvement retailer Lowe's paid a little over $1 million for a 13-acre parcel at the Harbor Town Center. Construction on the new Lowe's store will begin this spring, with the store opening by the end of 2005. Lowe's just entered the Wisconsin market with a store in Milwaukee, and plans to open a second store in Plover this spring. With more than 1,000 stores in 46 states, Lowe's is now the second-largest home-improvement retailer in the country after Home Depot.
NEENAH: Aurora Health Care broke ground on a new 38,550-sq.-ft. clinic on five acres in the Westowne Village development. Aurora currently leases space for a primary care facility. The new building will provide additional primary care space, along with room for specialty care services, physical therapy, a laboratory and a pharmacy.
NEW LONDON: Wolf River Lumber Inc. received $250,000 in Technology Zone tax credits from the Department of Commerce toward the construction of a new 80,000sq.-ft. facility. The company is investing $4.5 million in the project and expects to create 60 new jobs. Wolf River Lumber manufactures and kiln-dries more than 36 million board feet of hardwood lumber annually.
OSHKOSH: The local FedEx Ground facility should create 130 jobs when it opens a new 51,000-sq.ft. distribution center here. Construction is scheduled for completion this spring.
SHEBOYGAN: Construction on a new $1.7 million aviation museum should be completed this month. The privately funded museum is located on the grounds of the Sheboygan County Memorial Airport and will celebrate its grand opening in June, after volunteers finish the building's interior work.
RIPON: Family-owned manufacturer Admanco Inc. announced in early January that it was closing its business, due to a lack of working capital. About 180 employees lost their jobs, although Admanco was reportedly still looking for an outside buyer that would be willing to keep the company in Ripon.
NORTHWEST
MARSHFIELD: Marshfield Clinic was named one of the nation's most technologically sophisticated medical providers by Health Imaging & IT magazine. The clinic was praised for its leadership role in health care information technology and listed as one of the 'top 15 connected health care facilities' in the U.S.
Macintosh computer users in the Marshfield area no longer have to travel to larger central-Wisconsin cities for Mac products. SimplyMac opened for business in December and sells computer systems, laptops, peripherals, software and iPods to individuals and companies.
MERRILL: Rondele Specialty Foods was sold to France's Groupe Lactalis, one of the world's largest dairy companies that sells in about 140 countries and is best known for cheese brands such as President and Sorrento. Rondele had been owned by Facilitator Capital Fund, a Wisconsin-based private equity fund, since 1998. There are no plans to move Rondele, which has about 75 employees and has been in town more than 30 years.
STEVENS POINT: JHL Mail Marketing is building a 10,000-sq.-i't. addition to its current facility in the Stevens Point Industrial Park. The expansion will create room for new mail-processing equipment and additional warehouse space for customer inventory. The 20-year-old company provides laser-printing, imagining and mail services.
SOUTHWEST
MIDDLETON: National Specialty Insurance is moving to the Greenway Center from Madison, occupying 47,000 square feet in the Wisconsin Trade Center building. NSI started in 1999 with two employees, has 75 now, and expects to add at least 20 this year.
MADISON: Expansion will continue at the former Tetrionics, a chemistry services company founded in 1989 in University Research Park that was acquired last year by St. Louis-based biotech Sigma-Aldrich Corp. and is now part of its SAFC division. The firm will add 38,000 square feet to its 23,500-sq.-ft. Research Park building.
American Family Insurance will add 100,000 square feet to its 225,000-sq.-ft. regional office in St. Joseph, Mo., where it has centralized its commercial lines of insurance and added 300 employees since 2000. In Madison, American Family has added more than 425 jobs since 2000, bringing the current total here to 3,710.
Madison Area Technical College announced that its Business Procurement Assistance Center has helped Wisconsin companies get a total of $1.2 billion in government contracts since its began in 1988. In 2004, BPAC guided state firms in winning a record $205.5 million in contracts, up from $193 million in 2003. BPAC is funded by an annual Department of Defense grant. Wisconsin is 48th among the states in winning federal dollars.
Waterpark developer Great Wolf Resorts Inc. completed its initial public offering of stock in December, raising $238 million on the Nasdaq exchange. The company has five resorts open and plans 10 more this year. In Wisconsin, it has Great Wolf Lodge in Wisconsin Dells and Blue Harbor Resort in Sheboygan. It also has resorts in Michigan, Ohio and Kansas.
[Sidebar]
'Developments' is a monthly roundup of significant economic development news in Wisconsin. We track government actions/ new capital, expansions, layoffs, and other activities that affect the competitive infrastructure of the Wisconsin economy or the well-being of citizens and businesses. Each month we focus on one quadrant of the state while also keeping an eye on the other quadrants. Submit development Items to crweditor@wistrails.com.
