Talgo Inc., the Spanish train company that plans to establish a manufacturing facility in Wisconsin, has considered sites in Milwaukee, Racine, Janesville and Appleton for the plant.
BizTimes Milwaukee obtained a list of the sites that were submitted in response to Talgo’s request for proposals (RFP) for a factory site in the state.
Those sites are:
- The Tower Automotive site, 2900 W. Townsend St., Milwaukee.
- Super Steel, 7100 W. Calumet Road, Milwaukee.
- 3441 S. Memorial Dr., Racine.
- Former ThyssenKrupp headquarters, 214,900-square-foot facility, 305 W. Delavan Dr., Janesville.
- Helgesen Industrial Center (former LSI plant), 700,000-square-foot facility, 2929 Venture Dr., Janesville.
- A 246,700-square-foot facility at 1840 W. Spencer St., Appleton.
In addition, the Midwest Transportation Center on 77th Avenue in Kenosha responded to the RFP, but has since withdrawn.
The former Tower Automotive site was submitted to Talgo by city of Milwaukee officials. The city purchased 84 acres of the former 140-acre Tower site last year for $4.5 million. The property is bounded roughly by West Capitol Drive, the Soo Line railroad tracks, West Townsend Street and North 27th Street.
The city plans to spend about $30 million to redevelop the property and attract new businesses.
LSI and ThyssenKrupp were suppliers to the now closed General Motors plant in Janesville. LSI closed its operation at 2929 Venture Dr. in 2008 and ThyssenKrupp closed its operations at 305 W. Delavan Dr. last year.
No additional information was immediately available about the site at 3441 S. Memorial Dr. in Racine, but that is the same address as Alloc Inc., a flooring company.
Talgo spokeswoman Nora Friend said the company plans to lease a facility with an option to buy. The company is not interested in outsourcing the manufacturing work to a subcontractor, she said. That could rule out Super Steel’s bid. A Super Steel executive declined to comment when asked if the train manufacturer would lease space to Talgo.
“Internal analysis (of the bids) is still going on,” Friend said.
The state of Wisconsin agreed to purchase 2 train sets from Talgo for $47.5 million. Talgo has agreed to establish a manufacturing operation in Wisconsin and will build those trains at that plant.
The state will also purchase 2 more train sets as part of the $810 million allocated by the Obama administration for the Milwaukee to Madison high speed rail project. Those train sets are expected to be purchased from Talgo, Friend said.
The company is hoping to use its Wisconsin manufacturing facility to build several additional trains if it can sell more trains for services funded by Obama’s $8 billion high speed rail initiative.
“We hope this is just the beginning,” Friend said. “This is just the tip of the iceberg. We’re hoping there is going to be a lot more down the road.”
