Foxconn HQ
Foxconn says office to draw younger workers.
Foxconn Technology Group’s decision to buy a Milwaukee office building marks yet another business coming to the downtown area, where it can better recruit and keep younger employees.
Foxconn’s downtown building, to be called Foxconn Place, will provide a place for innovation, Louis Woo, a company executive, said at a news conference Tuesday in downtown Milwaukee.
It also will serve as a magnet to ataround tract young talent from Marquette University, the University of Wisconsin and other universities, said Woo, special assistant to Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou.
Foxconn doesn’t yet have a specific job count for the building, at 611 E. Wisconsin Ave., which will serve as a regional headquarters.
But the building is expected to be filled with employees from Foxconn and companies it plans to draw as partners, said Alan Yeung, who oversees U.S. strategic initiatives for Foxconn.
Yeung noted the building can hold 600 to 650 workers.
The downtown offices will feature what Woo called Wisconn Valley Innovation Center.
It will provide incubator space for startups, offices for venture capital activities and other ways for Foxconn to develop new products for advanced manufacturing and other industries.
The building also will have a showcase for Foxconn’s products, both for its customers and the general public.
Finally, a downtown Milwaukee office will help Foxconn better connect with other businesses that could provide potential partnerships, Yeung said.
Foxconn Place’s focus on innovation, entrepreneurship and product development will be tied to the company’s future manufacturing complex in Racine County.
The 1,200-acre flat screen manufacturing operations are under development in Mount Pleasant, just east of I-94 and north of Highway KR.
The $10 billion project’s financing could include up to $3 billion in state cash and $764 million in local funds.
Much of those state funds are in the form of tax credits tied to the number of jobs — up to 13,000 — that Foxconn expects to eventually create in southeastern Wisconsin.
That number includes an estimated 870 employees in “business support functions” in southeastern Wisconsin by the end of 2022, according to a Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. analysis.
Some of those employees could be based at the seven-story, 132,800-square-foot downtown Milwaukee building.
That office building, which Foxconn is buying from Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. for an undisclosed price, is around 30 miles from the rural Mount Pleasant site.
Downtown keeps growing
The Milwaukee operations will be in an area where an increasing number of businesses have been relocating in recent years.
That shift by offices from suburban to urban sites, also seen in other U.S. cities, is tied to millennial generation members and other employees who want to work, live and play downtown.
In Milwaukee, that’s resulted in downtown moves from Brookfield, Menomonee Falls, Greenfield, Glendale and other communities by businesses such as as Bader Rutter & Associates Inc., Dohmen Co., Plunkett Raysich Architects, Healthcare Business Insights, HSA Bank, RDA Enthusiast Brands and Badger Liquor Co.
Meanwhile, a new headquarters for Brookfield-based Hammes Co. is to be completed by May, and WageWorks Inc. plans to move its area operations from Mequon by late summer.
Younger workers want “a vibrant lifestyle” that’s tied to both working and playing in urban areas, Yeung said.
Foxconn’s downtown presence will “allow us to much easier recruit” those employees, he said.
It’s not surprising that Foxconn would set up offices in downtown Milwaukee for the same reasons that are attracting Bader Rutter, Dohmen and other companies, said one source familiar with the company’s plans.
“They’re subject to the exact same market dynamics as anyone else,” said that source, who asked not to be identified. That source is not authorized to speak for Foxconn.
A Foxconn statement cited the downtown building’s location near such attractions as the Milwaukee Art Museum, Lake Michigan and restaurants.
Also, the Wisconsin Ave. location provides easy access to interstate highways, rail transit and Mitchell International Airport, the statement said.
Among those attending the event, at Northwestern Mutual’s new office tower and commons, were Gov. Scott Walker, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele and Northwestern Mutual Chief Executive Officer John Schlifske.
Foxconn Place is “really about the revitalization of downtown Milwaukee,” Walker said.