Significant economic development opportunity abounds in the corridor between Madison and Milwaukee, leaders in the public and private sectors say, but seizing that opportunity will take strong partnership between the state’s two biggest economic engines and the diverse industries within them.
BizTimes Media on Wednesday hosted MadWaukee 2050, an event in which keynote speakers Dale Kooyenga of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC) and Everett Butzine of Madison Region Economic Partnership (MadREP), and panelists Mark Crave of Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese, Wendy Harris of the Wisconsin Biohealth Tech Hub, Matt Moroney of Wangard Partners, and Jefferson County County Administrator Michael Luckey gave their take on what the “Madwaukee corridor” could look like in 2050, using their industry as a lens, and offering actions they believe will be critical to making it a leader in the state and the Midwest in decades to come.
Here are five takeaways from the event:
1. Jefferson County’s growth could mean more collaboration between Madison and Milwaukee
Much of the discussion at Wednesday’s event was centered around growth in Jefferson County, which has seen more than a billion dollars of manufacturing investment in the last couple of years.
Kooyenga and Butzine, who lead metro Milwaukee and metro Madison’s business and economic development agencies, agreed that more collaboration between the metros that flank Jefferson County would be key to attracting further investment in the corridor between them. Madison and Milwaukee, however, do not have a history of being close collaborators.
“I believe there’s now intentionality that wasn’t there before for many different reasons, and there’s many organizations that deserve credit for that happening, the most tangible win we just had with the (Wisconsin) Biohealth Tech Hub, and also the leadership of Republicans and Democrats and local, state and federal officials,” Kooyenga said. “They’re all part of big wins for the region.”
“The time is now (for more collaboration) there’s a lot of shared interests that both regions have to play off each other,” Butzine said. “For example, workforce and supply chain. As we look at how Madison is very tech and research driven, and Milwaukee is very strong in manufacturing, financial services and logistics, working better together makes a lot of practical sense.”
Part of this collaboration could be in better promoting Madison and Milwaukee’s proximity to one another for prospective businesses and tenants.
Kooyenga emphasized that the drive from Madison to Milwaukee is often no longer than driving from the north side to the south side of the Chicago area, but many people don’t realize it.
“There’s really not that tyranny of distance you might think there is, and that’s why these communities need to work together,” Kooyenga said.
2. Housing development will be crucial— and challenging
As the housing markets in metro Madison and metro Milwaukee continue to tighten, and Jefferson County continues to see job growth, keeping up with housing demands will be an important piece of the corridor’s economic development puzzle.
Jefferson County in particular has the opportunity to position itself as an affordable alternative to Dane and Waukesha counties, which are seeing some the fastest-rising home prices in the state, panelists said.
Although Jefferson County has an abundance of land that could potentially be used for housing, land availability is only a small impediment for housing development these days.
As developers contend with high construction costs, high interest rates and sometimes tricky public approval processes, panelists said, finding municipalities that are willing and able to partner on housing development is one of the most important factors.
“I think it’s crucial to expand housing,” Butzine said. “To do that, having a municipal approval process to help offset some of these rising costs that we’ve seen, minimizing red tape, is important. Jefferson County has been very proactive in trying to work with their communities to be able to have the ability to approve housing fast, to get shovels in the ground, and build things, which is attractive.”
3. Economic development and rural roots aren’t always in conflict
Crave, managing partner of Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese, shared his family’s story of modernizing their farm, incorporating technology and growing the business, which he said is an important inflection point for both farmers in the corridor and the corridor itself as both work to balance the future with the corridor’s agricultural roots.
Currently, more than 80% of Jefferson County is undeveloped or used for agriculture, which Luckey said the county plans to preserve much of, and views it as a pillar of the county’s economic growth strategy.
“We can view change as a threat, and some in my community would say, ‘Let everybody stay in Madison. We’re fine out here,'” Crave said. “But we have challenges. We have fewer kids in schools, declining small towns, the empty storefronts. How I approach it is, you just have to be smart about it. …There’s plenty of room for everybody.”
4. Challenges could include retaining workforce
As panelists take stock of the growth opportunities in the Madwaukee corridor, several noted that there are serious challenges that could come in the way of realizing that growth.
Chief among them is attracting and retaining the necessary workforce, an issue that touches on housing growth, job growth and educational opportunities.
“For every engineer that comes out of (UW-)Madison, there’s seven job offers. That’s crazy,” Harris said. “We need more to stay in Wisconsin. Technical colleges are becoming much more attractive, so how do we make that a bigger draw for young people is a big opportunity.”
Additional challenges could also include keeping up with energy demands, panelists said, as We Energies contends with a host of power demands, including from new data center users.
5. Stakeholders will need to balance patience with urgency
Panelists discussed the importance, going forward, of being patient and smart about economic development, while being nimble enough to keep up in today’s fast-paced economy.
“Building trust and having a ‘no surprises’ communication style is important,” Moroney said, pointing to experience working with the City of Oconomowoc on real estate development projects. “…Making decisions fast because the market changes, tenants change. Everyone in business now is operating with speed and urgency. Communities that are successful at economic development are operating at that speed.”
“In Jefferson County, we’re looking at ways where we can get some type of proactive planning in place to get our development-ready sites in all the municipalities and other transportation corridors, so that when the right project comes along, the right developer comes knocking, we can say, ‘This is exactly what we have to offer,'” Luckey said. “We’re doing it in the county, but we can do it as this larger corridor. How can we get this done quickly so we can be very patient with very intentional relationships, because that is going to build the ability to be urgent.”
