Team effort brings green jobs to Wisconsin

by jboullion | Feb 17, 2010 | Uncategorized

From a blog post on BizTimes.com by Steve Jagler, executive editor of BizTimes Milwaukee:

. . . BizTimes Milwaukee broke the story that Milwaukee was one of three finalists to be the North American headquarters of a Spanish alternative energy company.

As we now know, that company turned out to be Ingeteam, a Spanish wind turbine company that confirmed Tuesday it will construct a $15 million, 100,000-square-foot facility in Milwaukee’s Menomonee River Valley. The complex will span about 8.1 acres at 3757 W. Milwaukee Road.
Ingeteam, headquartered in Bilbao, Spain, will employ about 275 workers in Milwaukee by 2015.

Milwaukee was chosen to be the site of the new plant after a coordinated recruitment effort that included officials from the Milwaukee 7 economic development team, We Energies, Marcoux and Wisconsin Commerce Secretary Richard “Dick” Leinenkugel, who went to Spain to seal the deal.

“The Menomonee Valley was once Wisconsin’s largest brownfield,” said Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. “Now, the valley is home to businesses that employ thousands of people.”

The deal was made possible by $1.6 million in tax credits through the federal stimulus program, up to $4.5 million in state tax credits and another $500,000 forgivable loan from the state.

“After carefully analyzing our company’s needs, we selected Milwaukee for our new production facility because the city is conveniently located for distribution of our products and has a solid industrial base from which Ingeteam can source materials,” said Ander Gandiaga, Ingeteam’s corporate director for international development.

“Milwaukee also has a labor pool experienced in electrical manufacturing. In addition, the area boasts prestigious universities with some of the highest-ranked engineering departments in the country that offer specific courses in renewable energy, which will be very useful when it comes to finding specialized staff,” said Aitor Sotes, chief executive officer of Ingeteam Inc., Ingeteam’s subsidiary in the United States.

Gandiaga also said the Wisconsin team “made an impressive effort to sell Ingeteam on the virtues of locating in this community. The Ingeteam project perfectly fits the model of the clean energy economy and job creation goals that the city and state are pursuing.”

Ingeteam considered more than 80 sites before selecting Milwaukee as the North American home for its company.

“They could have located this $15 million facility anywhere in the nation. Believe me, Michigan tried very hard,” Leinenkugel said. . . .

The doomsday naysayers who perpetually beat the drum that Wisconsin is a horrible place to do business again had to take a holiday Tuesday. I love when that happens.

Wind energy firm picks Milwaukee for plant

by jboullion | Feb 16, 2010 | Uncategorized

From an article by Larry Sandler in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Politicians and business leaders were quick to celebrate – and claim credit for – Monday’s announcement that a Spanish company will bring hundreds of new jobs to Milwaukee.

Wisconsin’s current governor, two candidates to succeed him, and not one but two regional economic development alliances all lined up to score points from a new Menomonee Valley plant for Ingeteam, a Spanish manufacturer of wind-turbine generators.

About 270 manufacturing jobs will be created by the plant, said Greater Milwaukee Committee President Julia Taylor. Building the plant will bring construction jobs as well, said Patrick Curley, chief of staff to Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.

It will be Ingeteam’s first North American factory, said Gale Klappa, co-chairman of the Milwaukee 7 economic development coalition.

Ingeteam chose the valley because of its proximity to workers, I-94 and Spanish-speaking neighborhoods, as well as Milwaukee’s “great reputation for manufacturing,” said Barrett, also a Milwaukee 7 co-chairman.

The plant will be built near the western end of the valley, Barrett said. The exact site will be announced Tuesday, Curley said.

Barrett called on Klappa, the chief executive officer of We Energies, to make the announcement during the mayor’s “state of the city” address at the downtown headquarters of Manpower. He also introduced five Ingeteam executives, who he said had just flown in from Spain for the announcement.

In January, President Barack Obama’s administration announced that Ingeteam had been awarded $1.66 million in clean-tech manufacturing tax credits to make wind turbine generators as well as power converter and control systems in Milwaukee. Further indications surfaced last week that the company had picked Milwaukee.

Ingeteam is a privately held, diversified manufacturer based in Zamudio, Spain, a suburb of Bilbao, the city visited last fall by state Commerce Secretary Richard Leinenkugel, City Development Commissioner Rocky Marcoux and Milwaukee 7 representatives. Outside Spain, the company has operations in seven countries, including an office in Mequon.