Close to 200 developers and community representatives gathered at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Tuesday to talk about dealmaking, landmark projects and opportunities in Northeast Wisconsin.
Insight’s InDevelopment conference at the UW Oshkosh Culver Family Welcome Center kicked off with remarks from John Miller, the secretary and CEO of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. Miller says WEDC embraces the “Wisconsin Idea” which leads the University of Wisconsin system to try and reach every corner of the state. In the fiscal year ending June 30, WEDC grants reached 67 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties.
Miller says the effort goes beyond the WEDC’s geographic reach.
“We take a comprehensive approach to helping communities thrive,” Miller says. “We really measure our success by the breadth and the depth of the investments.”
Investments range from grants and tax credits that help downtowns, to those that lead to workforce housing and training and brownfield reclamation. Miller urged communities and developers to reach out to regional contacts.
“I definitely sense a bit of optimism with Wisconsinites. They want to persevere, they want to grow and they want to partner most importantly with any player that wants to help them and their communities succeed,” Miller says. “We’re committed to being the convening source that brings these communities together.”
Other speakers and panelists at InDevelopment echoed Miller’s emphasis on partnerships with keynote speaker Sheldon Oppermann of Milwaukee-based New Land Enterprises describing how public-private partnerships led his firm to develop projects in the Milwaukee area that range from redeveloping theaters, an alleyway and park to constructing the world’s largest mass timber building in the world.
Oppermann says developers and municipalities have to approach projects with a partnership mindset realizing that once a project is constructed, they are linked to each other long term by the success or failure of that project.
During a panel that focused on development in Oshkosh, the panelists said their developments were dependent on the state and local partnerships that helped them obtain gap financing, regulatory approval and acceptance for ideas that were outside the box.
Volare Hangars plans to construct 100 hangars at Wittman Regional Airport and Rob Jafek of Volare Hangars says, “There’s no way we could have done it by ourselves.”
He explains that the complicated state and federal regulation as well as the numerous public and private entities involved in a project at an airport required not just planning, but partners who were committed to the lengthy process of bringing the project to fruition.
Tanya Marcoe of Advocap says building a childcare incubator to help foster startup childcare businesses is so far outside the box, it is the first of its kind in Wisconsin and likely only the second in the United States. Finding partners who were willing to invest in a new idea has led to a project that will be completed this year and is scalable.
“This project truly is a community project,” Marcoe says.
The day also included a panel discussion focused on site selection as well as presentations from New North, Inc., cities of Menasha, Sturgeon Bay, Appleton and Green Bay.
