The 30th Street Industrial Corridor is home to several thriving, growing companies that are helping to improve the neighborhood. They include:
United Milwaukee Scrap LLC
United Milwaukee Scrap has grown its revenues to $150 million from about $23 million in 2003, said Art Arnstein, one of its owners. The company sends material across the United States and all over the world, because some of the biggest demand for scrap comes from China, he said.
The company has 130 employees, the majority of whom live within a 10-mile radius of its six locations within the corridor, and has a fleet of 22 semi-trucks and 100 trailers that travel to northern Illinois, as far north as Green Bay and west to Baraboo.
United Milwaukee Scrap has invested $7 million to $8 million in those facilities over the past several years.
United Milwaukee Scrap wants to keep its operations in Milwaukee as it continues growing, Arnstein said, but finding additional property might be difficult.
“If we grow to a $300 million company, we couldn’t do it with the same space,” he said.
Master Lock Co.
While its workforce of 335 hourly and 40 salaried employees is a fraction of the more than 1,100 that worked there in the mid-1990s, Master Lock is still a large employer in the corridor. And the company is slowly growing its local workforce, said Dan Carey, general manager of the firm’s Milwaukee operations.
Carey said the company will hire a “significant” number of employees in 2008, but declined
to elaborate.
“(Master Lock) has invested millions in the last three years on equipment and facilities to set itself up for new growth,” Carey said. “With the automation here, with our assembly in Nogales, Mexico, we’re very competitive here as a supply chain.”
Master Lock’s headquarters are in Oak Creek, and its main assembly plant is in Nogales, Mexico.
Carey said he’s seen momentum building for the area. He currently serves as secretary on the 30th Street ICC’s board of directors.
“I see a lot of momentum and energy focused on improving the 30th Street corridor,” Carey said. “The energy and passion is phenomenally different than it was two years ago.”
Glenn Rieder Architectural Millwork & Custom Interior Contracting
A manufacturer of interior millwork, cabinetry and decorative fixtures for four- and five-star hotels, casinos and restaurants, Glenn Rieder has operated at 3420 W. Capitol Drive for since 1988.
Michael Floyd, chief executive oficer of Glenn Rieder, and James Caragher, executive vice president and general counsel, purchased the company in 2000. Since then, it has grown to more than 140 employees from about 40.
The company’s headquarters and manufacturing are based in Milwaukee, but it has a significant installation workforce in Las Vegas, Floyd said.
The hotels and casinos that Glenn Rieder typically works for are built all over the world, Floyd said. As the gaming industry has enjoyed significant growth in recent years, so has Glenn Rieder.
“Casinos have figured out that to keep customers on site, they have to make them very comfortable, and they’re willing to spend whatever they have to to keep them there, on restaurants, shops, clubs, lounges, spas and everything else,” Floyd said. “The casino companies have the resources to hire the most prominent designers in the world, and each is more elaborate in detail. We’re charged with building the designer’s brainchild or vision.”
Glenn Rieder had about $35 million in revenues for 2007 and has posted double-digit annul growth over the past three years. Since 2002, the company has grown revenues by 200 percent, Floyd said. Glenn Rieder expects to grow employees by about 10 percent this year, and revenues should grow 10 to 15 percent, he said.
Floyd, who is a member of the board of directors of the 30th Street ICC, said he’s had a chance to talk with Benji Timm and Bob Trimmier, two of the DCD workers assigned to the corridor on a full-time basis.
“These are committed guys,” Floyd said. “The talent’s there. The ground work has been laid. and there’s a lot of hope it will happen. And businesses like Glenn Rieder aren’t going anywhere. We’re willing to do whatever we can to promote the cause.”
