Green Bay, Eau Claire hope Foxconn fills properties it bought
GREEN BAY - There’s been little sign of movement in the three years since Foxconn Technology Group bought a prominent downtown Green Bay building with the promise it would be part of a group of regional technology centers in Wisconsin.
Nor has there been notable progress in Eau Claire or Racine, two other cities in which the company paid millions for prime downtown real estate.
Economic development officials last week said the global technology manufacturer has been silent for more than a year about the “innovation centers” Foxconn said it would launch in those buildings as tech hubs for Foxconn’s manufacturing center in Mount Pleasant.
The cities have no control over Foxconn’s use of the sites. But, as they wait for movement, officials are optimistic they can help the company find tenants to fill the vacant space and increase the economic contribution of the highly-visible downtown properties.
In Green Bay, three floors of Foxconn’s six-story office building are unoccupied, as is the first floor space Foxconn owns in a new, mixed-use building at the confluence of the Chippewa and Eau Claire rivers in Eau Claire.
“There’s certainly signs they could still become a part of the local economy here, at the very least, as a corporate landlord,” said Neil Stechschulte, Green Bay’s economic development director. “Their space here in Green Bay is gorgeous. It’s awesome. It’s on the river, overlooking the CityDeck.”
A Foxconn spokesperson did not respond to an interview request or provide answers to questions submitted regarding innovation centers.
Foxconn paid $9.3 million in 2018 for the six-story WaterMark building on Washington Street in downtown Green Bay. The building, once a shopping mall department store, was converted by a previous owner into ground floor retail spaces and five floors for office space, two of which are leased. Foxconn intended to take one floor, but contractors selected in 2019 to perform the work have done little to the space.
In Eau Claire, Foxconn bought about 15,000 square feet of first floor commercial space in the Haymarket Landing building for $2.7 million in
November 2018. It has done little to the space other than some HVAC work.
The building is in the heart of a rapidly redeveloping part of downtown, said Aaron White, Eau Claire’s economic development director.
“It would be a beautiful spot for a riverside restaurant,” White said. “We hope that they lease the space or sell it off. It’s a shame to see it sit empty the way it has.”
Companies continue to contact Downtown Green Bay Inc. in search of prominent office space in the heart of downtown, Executive Director Jeff Mirkes said. And only one available property fits that bill: The Foxconn building.
“Currently, office space on the Fox River is not readily available,” Mirkes said. “As the 2021 business recovery continues, we are confident that this location will become a viable and attractive location.”
Economic development officials understand that, for now, the company is focused on its massive manufacturing property in Mount Pleasant, but even there Foxconn’s focus is unclear. The company’s original plan to employ thousands in the manufacturing of large LCD screens never materialized, and a plan last year to produce ventilators in the manufacturing plant fell apart.
Last month, Foxconn and Fisker Inc., a California electric vehicle company, announced a manufacturing agreement that led to speculation the company might build electric cars for Fisker in Mount Pleasant. If it happens, it would be the second product Foxconn has made in Wisconsin; it made masks in Mount Pleasant last year.
Meanwhile, Foxconn and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. are attempting to renegotiate the agreement that originally brought the company to Wisconsin.