Development

Although Sheboygan County will be in the national spotlight this month as the PGA Championship returns to the Whistling Straits Golf Course on Lake Michigan, the county’s economic development corporation is hoping that attention doesn’t fade once the TV cameras and crowds leave.
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Ken Stubbe, executive director of the Economic Development Corporation of Manitowoc County, calls the project going on at the intersection of York and Eighth streets a gift to the City of Manitowoc. “It’s not every day that a downtown the size of Manitowoc gets a corporate headquarters. This is great news for us,” Stubbe says about Dermatology Associates of Wisconsin’s decision to expand its corporate headquarters as part of a $7.5 million construction project just a few blocks away from Lake Michigan.
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Green Bay’s long-awaited Watermark project is still on hold – yet another victim of the commercial credit crunch. That centerpiece of downtown riverfront development holds the key to the city’s core health, but an active event schedule downtown is keeping attention focused there, and developer John Vetter says he’s optimistic that financing is nearing completion on Watermark. At the same time, two public projects on the city’s perimeter ensure that Green Bay is not standing still.
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To paraphrase the current economic cliché, Oshkosh apparently has decided not to participate in the commercial construction slowdown. In the dead of winter and the depths of one of the worst economic declines in recent memory, Oshkosh has no fewer than four high profile development projects under way or soon to be so, headlined by the $48 million University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh academic building and the $30 million-plus Marion Road redevelopment project.
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New relationships are leading to new opportunities for companies in Shawano and Waupaca counties. In Waupaca County, increased business at Spirit Implements comes just as the company plans a build-out of its year-old facility in the Waupaca Technology and Industrial Park. The company will hire additional workers to fulfill an exclusive deal to make front-end loaders and other attachments with McCormick International USA and Landini McCormick Canada.
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With miles of endless forest and shoreline, the Northwoods counties of Marinette, Oconto and Florence face the unique challenge of balancing the preservation of their natural beauty while also keeping the local economy humming along.

The key to the area’s economic success lies in growing entrepreneurship, tourism and its strong industrial sectors such as shipbuilding and forestry products, says Jim Golembeski, executive director of the Bay Area Workforce Development Board. “They’re a vital part of the New North and we want to make sure they stay connected and feel a part of what we’re doing,” he says.
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Sometimes it takes a big loss – or the threat of that loss – to make people realize what’s really important. The Fond du Lac area went through that process last month as the future of Mercury Marine’s manufacturing facilities, which employ about 850 in Fond du Lac, hung in the balance.
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Adjusting to what the market wants is a proven business success strategy and it’s one J.F. Ahern of Fond du Lac has followed as it grows its environmental services segment and the company’s bottom line.

“More businesses are interested now in energy efficiency and other environment friendly options,” says Jim Jarvis, executive vice president of J.F. Ahern’s industrial contracting division. “Environmental service is an area we see for big growth potential. We have seen a big increase in work despite the economic downturn because businesses are seeing the ROI of environmental friendly options and programs.”
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Appleton is a city built on the water. Paper mills were built on the Fox River and the city grew outward.  But looking at the city today, most residents don’t recognize its waterfront. That’s about to change, according to local economic development officials.

“For many years, Appleton – like a lot of cities – didn’t really pay attention to its riverfront. That changed about five years ago and since then we’ve been focused on developing the riverfront economically and as a place where the community can come and enjoy it,” says Karen Harkness, Appleton’s director of community development.
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Downtown Neenah is sporting a whole new look. The Glatfelter Paper Mill, which dominated the city’s skyline for decades before closing three years ago, has come down and in its place Plexus Corp. is building a 104,000-square-foot corporate headquarters. Besides Plexus’ new offices, city officials are looking at other development opportunities, including retail and office uses, as well as public open space and additional parking for the seven-acre site.
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There’s been no rail service between Plymouth and Sheboygan Falls for more than 20 years, and companies along that rail corridor – major employers like Bemis Manufacturing and Richardson Industries – have managed without the service. But transportation costs continue to rise, and the cost and efficiency savings of shipping by rail could provide a significant competitive advantage, officials at both companies say. They’ll get that, thanks to a pair of rail improvement projects that should aid the Sheboygan County economy.
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Millions of dollars in federal stimulus money has yet to find its way to Brown County, but the local economy has gotten a fair amount of stimulus from other sources, including private investment and state transportation funds. Among the noteworthy private stimuli applied in the past year:
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Say  “Door County” and images of cozy downtowns with unique shops, wineries and miles of beautiful shoreline pop into your head. But Bill Chaudoir wants to put another image into that mix – Door County is a great place to start and grow your business.

Chaudoir is the executive director of the 20-year-old Door County Economic Development Corp., a public/private partnership dedicated to improving the county’s economic vitality.
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Be vocal. Buy local. That simple phrase is at the heart of a new economic development initiative in Kewaunee County. Earlier this year, the Kewaunee County Economic Development Corp. launched a program encouraging businesses to shift 10 percent of their out-of-county spending to a Kewaunee County business. Read More...

It’s not a coincidence that Kevin Crawford has traded in his 20 years of service as Manitowoc mayor for a seat at the table of one of the nation’s leading “green” companies. Crawford, who helped spearhead Manitowoc’s “go green” initiative, left office on April 21 to become vice president of  business development for Orion Energy Systems, the Manitowoc-based provider of energy-efficient lighting systems.
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Manufacturers across Wisconsin and the United States may be trimming jobs, but industry maintains a solid footing throughout Calumet County.

The county, which includes the southern and eastern segments of Appleton, runs along Lake Winnebago’s eastern shore, creating a landscape that’s both urban and rural. It’s also a county on the grow. From 2000 to 2008, the county’s population grew by 9.7 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s compared with 3.6 percent for all of Wisconsin.
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While layoffs and plant closing announcements are a regular part of the nightly news, Fond du Lac County is actually in need of workers – at least 17,000 within the next 15 years.

That was the finding of a Retirement and Departure Intentions Survey Report conducted by the Fond du Lac Area Association of Commerce and the Fond du Lac Human Resource Association in conjunction with Moraine Park Technical College. The impending retirements of baby boomers combined with a declining population are the main reasons cited in the future employee shortfall. But Fond du Lac County officials are not standing by idle. They are developing plans to make sure when the worker shortage arrives the county’s businesses will be ready.
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