Northwestern Mutual is on track to meet commitments for construction of the 32-story, 1.1 million-square-foot Northwestern Mutual Tower and Commons project that it is building at its corporate headquarters campus in downtown Milwaukee, according to the first quarterly report submitted by Prism Technical to the city of Milwaukee.
The city is providing $54 million in tax incremental financing for the $450 million project, and as part of that deal Northwester Mutual has promised to use small business enterprises (SBEs) for 25 percent of the project costs and to use city residents through the Resident Preference Program (RPP) for 40 percent of the hours worked on the project.
Demolition work for the project began in December and construction work began recently. The project is expected to be complete in 2017.
According to the Prism report, Northwestern Mutual paid SBEs for 24.1 percent of project costs through March 31 totaling $2.43 million. The company contracted professional services from SBEs for 35.3 percent of the costs or $3.18 million. Nearly 44 percent of the overall work was performed by Milwaukee residents, exceeding the goal by more than 1,400 hours. In total, Milwaukee residents have worked nearly 18,000 hours on the project before construction even started. In addition, Northwestern Mutual provided on-the-job learning experiences to 15 construction apprentices.
“We are excited to see how our construction project has already had a significant impact on small businesses and local residents, and believe this report provides evidence of the company’s commitment to the city,” said Sandy Botcher, Northwestern Mutual vice president and project leader. “We look forward to demonstrating continued strong results in the future.”
