Foxconn to open Eau Claire hub with 150 jobs at The Grand

Facility will be laboratory and incubator for tech

Foxconn Technology Group will buy an office building in downtown Eau Claire and create a technology hub that will employ at least 150 people, the company said Monday.

The announcement marks another step in Foxconn’s effort to scatter development projects across Wisconsin as the firm moves forward with its massive manufacturing campus in Racine County.

The unveiling of the Eau Claire plans follows the announcement last month of a similar tech center in Green Bay, and Foxconn’s purchase of a downtown Milwaukee office building that will serve as the Taiwan-based company’s North American headquarters.

As part of what it is calling Foxconn Place Chippewa Valley, Foxconn said it has agreed to buy an 89-year-old, sixstory office building in downtown Eau Claire called The Grand. The company said it will update the structure and turn it into “an incubator and laboratory for next-generation technological solutions.”

Foxconn said it also has purchased more than 15,000 square feet of coworking space in Haymarket Landing, which is a part of a public-private partnership aimed at redeveloping downtown Eau Claire and its riverfront. The

company said it will use that space as an innovation center related to highdefinition displays connected to ultrafast data networks.

Operations at the Eau Claire sites will begin early next year, Foxconn said.

Foxconn has begun site preparation work for a 22-million-square-foot manufacturing campus in Mount Pleasant that the company has said will cost $10 billion and lead to the creation of 13,000 Wisconsin jobs. If the firm hits those targets, it stands to receive about $4 billion in public subsidies. Most of that money would come in the form of cash payments from the state.

The project and the incentive package have split Wisconsin voters, the Marquette University Law School Poll shows, and Foxconn has emerged as an issue in the 2018 governor’s race.

Gov. Scott Walker, who worked to bring Foxconn to Wisconsin, has fully backed the project and the government incentives that support it, while some candidates for the Democratic nomination have been sharply critical, saying the state gave away too much and should be focusing on building up small businesses.

Walker, who was on hand for Monday’s announcement, has repeatedly pointed to developments such as those in Eau Claire, Green Bay and Milwaukee as evidence that Foxconn will benefit more areas than Racine County.

“Once again, we’re seeing how Foxconn’s historic investment in Wisconsin is impacting every region of the state as the company makes yet another commitment to both create jobs and support entrepreneurs and innovators,” Walker said in a statement.

Meanwhile, state Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Schilling (D-La Crosse) issued a statement condemning Walker’s “multi-billion-dollar state tax giveaway for Foxconn.”

“While Gov. Walker celebrates yet another taxpayer funded subsidy for Foxconn, our local schools continue to struggle, our roads are falling apart and we’re seeing an unprecedented spike in farm bankruptcies,” Schilling said in her statement.