Komatsu celebrates grand opening of new headquarters in Milwaukee’s Harbor District

Komatsu Mining Corp. on Monday marked the official opening of its $285 million headquarters and manufacturing facility in Milwaukee’s Harbor District.

The celebration included remarks by company executives and state and local officials, including Gov. Tony Evers, and the ceremonial planting of three trees – one signifying the leadership collaboration of the city, state and Komatsu and the other two representing the company’s vision for the headquarters project and those who helped make it a reality.

Komatsu’s 58-acre South Harbor campus includes 170,000 square feet of office space, a 20,000-square-foot museum and training center and 410,000 square feet of manufacturing space. The project was announced in 2018, and construction began in fall of 2020. The campus relocates and combines the company’s longtime West Milwaukee manufacturing facility, located at 4400 W. National Ave., and office space at the Honey Creek Corporate Center.

“The South Harbor campus provides us with an opportunity for advancement in state-of-the- art facilities, it will expand our products, our services, and digital and automation capabilities to support our global mining customers,” said John Koetz, executive vice president of Surface Mining at Komatsu. “It also confirms our commitment to support the people of Wisconsin for future generations. This investment in the new facility will help us achieve our goal of creating and sustaining family support jobs right here.”

The campus has the capacity for 1,000 total employees, but given a hybrid office model and because much of the company’s manufacturing operations have not yet relocated there, that number right now hovers around 600 employees, mostly office personnel. The company will fully move out of the West Milwaukee facility later this year.