New renderings released Monday by the village of Mount Pleasant show plans for Foxconn Technology Group’s first Wisconsin factory, a facility that designers and engineers working for the company say will manufacture and assemble “a variety of finished products.”
Mount Pleasant’s plan commission is set to consider three Foxconn related proposals on Wednesday, including site, building and operation plans for the Foxconn fab and power sub-station along with a conditional use permit allowing the Foxconn facility to exceed village height limits.
Village staff is recommending approval of all three items with limited conditions primarily related to updated landscape plans and submission of a certified survey map. The village released its executive summaries of each proposal along with supporting documents on Monday afternoon.
The documents included the first detailed renderings of Foxconn’s first manufacturing facility in the state. The images show the 993,460-square-foot building located almost a quarter-mile south of Braun Road and more than a third of a mile from Highway H.
Most of the building would be 48 feet in height, but a red decorative entry element would extend to more than 51 feet and the exhaust stack would reach more than 60 feet.
The plans and renderings show extensive landscaping to the north of the building including dozens of trees, shrubs and plantings. The plans indicate final landscape designs, including for a Japanese-themed garden at the main entry, are still being finalized.
The narrative also indicates the initial facility will have around 570 employee parking stalls.
The initial traffic impact analysis prepared for the site in 2017 assumed Foxconn would have 2,000 professional employees and another 1,900 non-professional staff in 2020. More recently local officials indicated the company would have around 1,500 employees in the first phase of manufacturing.
Not included in the plans released to the public is any detailed description of the planned operations at the facility beyond a reference to manufacturing and assembling a variety of finished products.
When Foxconn originally announced plans for its manufacturing campus in Wisconsin the project was billed as a Gen 10.5 LCD manufacturing facility that would make the largest display screens in the world. The company later scaled back to a Gen 6 facility that would make a variety of screen sizes, providing more product flexibility amid global trade tensions and an oversupply of large screens.
Last week company executives said the products made at the Foxconn facility would be extended to include servers, networking products and automotive central controls, according to media reports.
Asked for additional details on the comments, Foxconn provided a statement that said:
“As part of its long-term investment in Wisconsin, Foxconn’s Gen6 advanced manufacturing facility will produce LCD technology integral to many vertical industries at the leading edge of growth and advancement in coming years, including automotive, computer, consumer electronics, medical/health care, and aerospace.
“Foxconn considers customer demand and the needs of the market when evaluating the production of additional products at any of its manufacturing facilities. Further updates will be made as appropriate.“
