There’s something shifting within Milwaukee’s 30th Street Industrial Corridor. At least that’s what some business owners and economic development professionals are sensing.
Kyle Stephens moved his company Craft Beverage Warehouse LLC into the original Century City Business Park building, located at 31st Street and Capitol Drive, more than two years ago. Formerly vice president of finance for Milwaukee-based Good City Brewing, Stephens is part of the group that acquired the Century City building back in 2018. Today, the building is entirely leased with five tenants.
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Stephens[/caption]
“People call all the time to ask if we have space available. It wasn’t like that when we first purchased the building,” said Stephens.
This might seem counterintuitive to what most Milwaukeeans have heard about the 30th Street Industrial Corridor over the years.
Earlier this year, news broke that Oak Creek-based Master Lock was planning to close its manufacturing plant in Milwaukee, located at North 32nd and West Center streets. The closure will cost 330 people their jobs.
Master Lock is by no means the only manufacturer to have shuttered operations within the corridor. A.O. Smith, Briggs & Stratton, Glenn Rieder Inc., Perlick Corp. and Leonardo DRS have all moved operations out of the city’s northwest side over the past couple of decades
The Master Lock news is, however, the latest hit in a cycle that city leaders and stakeholders have been working to combat for years.
But Stephens believes the corridor is primed for redevelopment with readily available incentives for business owners and access to the local workforce. His own company, which specializes in wholesaling packaging materials and digital printing, has grown from two employees to 10 within the last year. There are also two open positions.
Access to the interstate is of high importance to Craft Beverage Warehouse and since Century City is a newer building, the logistics behind shipping products are easier. Of equal importance is the nearby access to workers.
Stephens believes smaller businesses willing to take more risks will be key to spurring redevelopment efforts in the corridor. He also thinks some sort of attraction could serve as a catalyst for those efforts – ideally something that would get visitors out of their cars to explore the neighborhood.
He pointed to how American Family Field has familiarized visitors with the Menomonee Valley.
“Bigger companies are going to see (what’s happening here) and say ‘if those guys can do it when we have all this infrastructure and capital, then we can do it too,’” he said. “We’re going to see a funnel start to happen at some point. I can feel it.”
Ongoing redevelopment efforts
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Blue[/caption]
Cheryl Blue, executive director of the 30th Street Industrial Corridor Corp. and business improvement district #37, grew up down the street from Master Lock in the city’s Amani neighborhood. For as long as she can remember, the name Master Lock had been deeply engrained within the community and said it was “very disheartening” to hear about the planned closing.
“But we have to continue to move forward,” she said.
Part of moving forward is a new strategic plan created by the 30th Street Industrial Corridor Corp. (a nonprofit organization that supports and promotes economic development in the area), the organization’s board and a group of stakeholders last year. The goal is to take a comprehensive approach to revitalizing the corridor, Blue said.
Unlike the Menomonee Valley or Harbor District, other parts of Milwaukee seeing revitalization, the 30th Street corridor is not completely industrial, Blue explained. This means 30-IC must take a people-centered approach to revitalizing the area.
“When we look at revitalization, we definitely want to attract great companies, however, we also need to invest in the corridor’s greatest resource, the people that live there” she said.
Housing is one of the major initiatives mentioned in the organization’s strategic plan, which has not yet been publicly released. Blue said many of Milwaukee’s 3,000 vacant lots are located within the 30th Street Industrial Corridor. The 30-IC and BID #37 are working on creating a fund that would support emerging developers looking to build homes on those vacant lots.
Having a satellite historically Black college or university (HBCU) move to the corridor in the hopes of increasing the number of professionals in the area is another idea under consideration, but the idea is still in the exploration stage. HBCUs produce a large percentage of Black professionals in America.
“Manufacturing has changed a lot since Master Lock came here over 100 years ago,” Blue said. “We need to invest in other ways to train and retain the young people that are here.”
Ongoing redevelopment efforts being spearheaded by the city of Milwaukee include using $2 million out of a $5.5 million EPA grant for environmental cleanup efforts at 3940 N. 35th St. Another $500,000 is earmarked for environmental site assessment and will likely be targeted within the corridor. The ongoing Melvina Park expansion project will restore a vacant lot in the corridor, at West Melvina and North 29th streets. The expanded park will include community gardening and other recreational activities.
Millions of dollars have also been spent through a tax incremental financing district to prepare the former A.O. Smith and Tower Automotive site for redevelopment, including to support the building Craft Beverage Warehouse and Good City call home.
There’s also been good news recently with Sussex-based printer and marketing firm Quad/Graphics opening a presence in the Century City Tower on North 27th Street.
An emphasis on smaller businesses
But with so many other large companies relocating their operations from the area, it isn’t unreasonable to question whether the city and partnering organizations should put less emphasis on attracting big corporations to the corridor.
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Smith[/caption]
Willie Smith, executive director of Northwest Side Community Development Corp., believes as manufacturing continues to evolve and become more automated – leading to fewer employees and less space required – the corridor doesn’t need to rely as much on heavy industry as it has in the past.
“The argument is that small businesses are going to hire the majority of the people, as they do now,” said Smith. “We’d be wise to focus more on these smaller businesses.”
He echoed Stephens’ sentiment in saying the corridor has become an increasingly popular area for business owners in the last couple of years as it benefits from newer buildings like Century City and efforts to address potential environmental concerns.
NWSCDC remains focused on economic development and workforce development issues within the corridor. In recent years, the organization closed on an expanded loan to the Mid-West Energy Research Consortium to build an innovation center in the Century City Tower building at 4201 N. 27th St. M-WERC has its own accelerator aimed at attracting new businesses. NWSCDC also funded in part the development of the Century City building.
Now, the organization is working on developing an FDA-approved food manufacturing facility for businesses. The building would be located within the Century City Industrial Park in an adjacent, 54,000-square-foot building, according to Smith.
“I really see it as one small piece at a time, but at some point, you reach a critical mass and others are able to see what you’re able to see,” he said. “I’m able to see a lot but others sometimes have to see something physically happen.”
