Get to know: Alan Peters
Economic development executive, UW-Green Bay/Brown County
Alan Peters brings more than 20 years of engineering, real estate and finance experience to his role as economic development executive at Phoenix Innovation Park, a jointly-funded venture of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and Brown County.
Planning for the park has been underway for a number of years, but the hiring of Peters marks a turning point in its development.
“I’ve always had a passion to blend the built environment into the natural and social fabric of the community,” says Peters, who started his position in November 2023. “Energizing neighborhoods through timeless design, collaborative financing and sustainable operations brings quality of life to the local culture.”
Phoenix Innovation Park encompasses 64 acres of undeveloped land on the west side of the UW-Green Bay campus. Peters will lead the development of the park, which aims to increase student enrollment and community involvement by partnering with local industry, including water sciences and advanced manufacturing.
Peters says by developing partnerships with local government, the business community and economic organizations, Phoenix Innovation Park will not only attract business but accelerate institutional growth and attract students outside of the region to come to UW-Green Bay and start their careers.
“Phoenix Innovation Park builds on our already forward-thinking efforts and demonstrates how a regional university provides direct value to its constituents by helping to solve problems, bring people together to learn and be a cultural resource for the community,” he says.
Some of the top priorities for Peters include working with the UW Board of Regents on the organizational structure and governance of Phoenix Innovation Park while implementing funding sources to start the first phase of the project. Additionally, he will be collaborating with Brown County on economic development opportunities to enhance the tax base, job creation and quality of life for the region.
Peters says the most rewarding part of his job is “witnessing these seeds of ideas come into bloom, grow and mature.”
— Amelia Compton Wolff
New North broadband map
A new interactive tool — the New North Broadband Overview Map — is now available for public use. The mapping tool, funded through a Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Local Planning Grant from the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, provides a means for broadband planning through the use of localized data in a visual, easy-to-understand manner. The New North Broadband Alliance identified the need for a regional map that addressed shared county boundaries. The map was developed collaboratively with multiple community partners: the East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, the Bay-Lake Regional Planning Commission, Door County, Marquette County and Neverman Consulting, among others. Visit tinyurl.com/NEWBroadbandHub to access the map.
Winnebago County Revolving Loan Fund
The Greater Oshkosh Economic Development Corporation introduced the Winnebago County Revolving Loan Fund, an initiative between Winnebago County and Greater Oshkosh EDC that activates $2.7 million in underutilized economic development funds. The Winnebago County Revolving Loan Fund, which is designed as a flexible gap financing tool, will match up to $1 for every $1 of traditional capital investment sources, within the funding range of $25,000 to $250,000. The fund supports a wide range of activities for businesses and projects in Winnebago County, including the acquisition of land and buildings, inventory, construction, rehabilitation, working capital, research and development, intellectual property, employee training and marketing for new products, among others.
Video game tax incentive
A proposed tax credit aims to attract more video game developers to Wisconsin and hire in-state workers. The bill’s authors propose tax incentives similar to those that currently exist in Vancouver, Canada; Quebec, Canada; and Austin, Texas, which are all considered hotbeds for video game development. The bill would create a refundable income tax credit equal to 30% of salary or wages paid to Wisconsin employees and 30% of eligible expenditures. Lawmakers note that in 2024, the video game market is projected to reach revenues of $282 billion and is expected to grow at an annual rate of 8.76% between 2024 and 2027.
