Under its human resources agreement with the City of Milwaukee, the company committed to hiring small business enterprises for 25 percent of project costs and assured the city that 40 percent of project hours worked would be completed by city residents through the Resident Preference Program.
The Northwestern Mutual Tower and Commons project had surpassed those expectations through March 31, hiring SBEs for 29.6 percent of the total value of construction and professional services contracts and commitments, which totaled $98.7 million. And more than 46 percent of the construction hours through March 31 had been performed by Milwaukee residents in the RPP program.
The company also has met its commitment to pay prevailing wages where applicable.
In order to meet the requirements, NML worked with chambers of commerce, industry representatives and more than 100 community organizations to target diverse Milwaukee community members, held 15 informational sessions for contractors, and worked with the Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership/BIG STEP to host nine workforce fairs.
“We’ve embraced the commitments we made to the city of Milwaukee. We wanted to reinvest in our community by growing our own workforce in Milwaukee and also by creating opportunities for small businesses and residents during the construction of the project,” said Sandy Botcher, Northwestern Mutual vice president and project leader.
The Tower and Commons is a 32-story, 1.1 million-square-foot tower and public space under construction at Wisconsin and Prospect Avenues.
