The Milwaukee Common Council Thursday approved deals to lease space in the former Tower Automotive complex to Spanish train company Talgo Inc. and to sell land in the Menomonee Valley to Bilbao, Spain-based renewable energy company Ingeteam.
“Milwaukee is moving in a very positive direction with hundreds of new jobs in growing industries,” said Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. “We are enthusiastic about the future of both Ingeteam and Talgo, and we appreciate the investments both companies are making in Milwaukee.”
Talgo Inc. will lease 133,000 square feet of space from the city in a building at the corner of North 27th Street and Townsend Street in the former Tower Automotive complex.
The company will lease the space for $2.59 per square foot, or $344,470 a year.
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 to a development that city officials call Century City.
Talgo is expected to create 80 jobs at the Milwaukee facility, which is located in the middle of an area of Milwaukee’s north side with a high level of unemployment.
“As someone who represents an area and a population that is in dire need of jobs, this is truly exciting and wonderful news,” said Ald. Willie Wade. “Just the prospect of job opportunities for many people today is very exciting news. But this recession has hit people in my community extremely hard, and quite frankly things were pretty tough even before the recession. Talgo has given us a bright ray of hope that we can once again manufacture valuable machines – this time trains that will be carrying passengers to destinations near and far, in a future where public transportation plays a pivotal role in our everyday life and in stimulating crucial economic development our city needs.”
Ingeteam will purchase an 8.1-acre site in the Menomonee Valley to build a $15 million, 114,000-square-foot manufacturing facility. The facility will also serve as the company’s North American headquarters. The site is located at 3757 W. Milwaukee Road, just south of the new Charter Wire plant, in the Menomonee Valley Industrial Center.
The Ingeteam site is in the Menomonee Valley Industrial Center, which is an industrial park created by the city at the west end of the valley, near Miller Park, that the city acquired from Chicago-based CMC Heartland Partners in 2003. The city spent millions to clean up and attract development to the industrial park.
Several businesses have built facilities in the Menomonee Valley Industrial Center including Palermo Villa Inc., Derse Inc., Charter Wire, Badger Railing, Caleffi North America Inc. and Taylor Dynamometer Inc.
Ingeteam is purchasing the 8.1-acre site from the city for $120,000 an acre, or about $972,000 total.
The company plans to begin manufacturing operations in January 2011 with about 50 to 60 employees and will employ about 275 workers there by 2015.
