Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker has appointed Damon Dorsey as the interim director of economic development for Milwaukee County and is seeking approval from the Milwaukee County Board to permanently hire Dorsey for the post.
“A panel reviewed applications and recommended Damon Dorsey to me,” Walker said in a statement. “He has a good background on economic development and on work throughout Milwaukee County.”
The county’s economic development director position has been vacant since October of 2008 when the county’s previous director of economic and community development, Robert Dennik, left the job to become a vice president for Pewaukee-based VJS Construction Services.
“I’ll be very happy to finally have someone who I can call on in economic development (matters),” said Milwaukee County Supervisor Theodore Lipscomb, vice chair of the board’s Economic and Community Development Committee. “I’ve been very disappointed by how long it has taken (to fill the job).”
Dorsey said he wants to cultivate relationships and build partnerships to assist economic development.
“Milwaukee County hasn’t been involved in economic development for the last couple of years,” he said. “I’ll be at the table, not just for the home run projects but also for the first base projects. I think you’ll see Milwaukee County at the table more.”
Dorsey has been the interim economic development director for the county since late August.
Previously, Dorsey was an urban and regional planner for high speed rail for the state Department of Transportation, according to his LinkedIn page which indicates he held the post this year from March until August. However, the copy of Dorsey’s resume submitted to the County Board and Walker’s letter to the board about Dorsey’s appointment only refer to him as a regional planner for the DOT. As a Republican candidate for governor, Walker has been a strong opponent of the Madison to Milwaukee high speed rail project, promising to stop the project if he is elected.
As the Milwaukee County director of economic development Dorsey said he will not be an advocate for the high speed rail project. He will just present information about it to the county board.
“I wouldn’t take a position on high speed rail again,” Dorsey said. “I just can’t get involved in that. There is $823 million in federal funds for high speed rail for the state of Wisconsin. That creates quite a few jobs. That’s a good thing.”
Dorsey has experience doing real estate development in the inner city of Milwaukee. From 2000 to 2006 he was the president of North Avenue Development Corp.
According to his resume, the projects that he has been involved in developing in Milwaukee include:
- Columbia Square (22 apartments and 12,000 square feet of retail space at 34th Street and North Avenue)
- Touissaint Square (24 apartments and 30,000 square feet of retail space at 35th Street and North Avenue)
- Johnson Park Lofts (24 apartments and 20,000 square feet of retail space at 18th Street and Fond du Lac Avenue)
- New Village Apartments (24 apartments at 17th and Center streets)
- Fond du Lac Center (24 apartments and 10,000 square feet of retail space at Fond du Lac Avenue and Center Street)
- Prince Hall Village (24 apartments and 3,000 square feet of retail space at 13th Street and North Avenue).
One development project that is not listed on Dorsey’s resume is Scoopz, a $2 million custard and hamburger stand at North 37th Street and North Avenue, which opened in February of 2008 and closed 11 months later. Scoopz was modeled loosely on Milwaukee’s iconic Kopp’s custard stands. Dorsey was a partner in Roots Development, a firm formed for the purpose of developing Scoopz.
According to Dorsey’s resume he has also worked with the city of Milwaukee to organize three business improvement districts.
According to his LinkedIn page, Dorsey was the director of economic development for Edgewood College in Madison from December of 2008 to March of this year and he was a principal consultant for Urban Development Group in Milwaukee from November of 2006 to October of 2008.
Prior to his work with the North Avenue Development Corp., Dorsey worked as a senior market analyst for Northwest Airlines and as a financial analyst for Wisconsin Electric Power Co.
Dorsey has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Marquette University and a masters of business administration in finance from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
When asked if he thinks Dorsey is qualified for the job, Lipscomb said it will be up to Dorsey to create a role for the economic development director job since it has been vacant for so long and has played such a small role.
“You have to make it into something because it hasn’t been done,” Lipscomb said. “He’s got a lot to prove and he’s eager to do that. He’s extremely passionate about economic development and job creation.”
One of the biggest projects for Dorsey will be to work on the county’s efforts to attract development to its land in the Park East corridor, which remains vacant years after the freeway was demolished.
When asked what is needed to attract development to the Park East corridor, Dorsey said, “the market needs to improve. Capital needs to be made available again.”
City and county officials also need to work together and reach a compromise for how to assist development on the county’s Park East land, Dorsey said. The city needs to offer TIF assistance for park east corridor developments, he said. The city has been reluctant to do that because city officials say the city has already invested millions in preparing the corridor for development. Dorsey said the county may also need to adjust its demands, possibly lowering land prices and reducing the size of the lots that are sold to developers.
