$30M NML TIF plan gains a first OK
Common Council approval also needed
Mayor Cavalier Johnson administration’s plan to spend $30 million to help finance Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.’s downtown campus expansion has received its first approval.
The Milwaukee Redevelopment Authority board on Thursday endorsed the new tax incremental financing district for the $500 million project, which includes relocating 2,000 employees from the company’s Franklin operations.
The financing district also needs Common Council approval, with that review scheduled for March.
Northwestern Mutual plans to transform its 18-story office building, at 818 E. Mason St., by stripping it down to the frame, foundation and core.
That building, which opened in 1990, will be remade to look like the company’s 32-story office tower and commons that opened in 2017 at 800 E. Wisconsin Ave.
The city’s $30 million grant would come through annual payments for up to 23 years from the transformed office building’s higher property tax revenue.
Northwestern Mutual is among the Milwaukee area’s largest employers, and is the largest corporation based in Wisconsin. It has annual revenue of $34 billion.
The tax incremental financing district is justified in part because Northwestern Mutual’s investment in its downtown campus would be significantly smaller without it, according to the Department of City Development.
The company’s plans to substantially grow its downtown campus comes as other cities struggle with big declines in downtown workforces tied to the rise of remote work, said Dan Casanova, a DCD economic development specialist.
“A project like this is going to help stabilize the entire downtown workforce,” he told the board.
Also, the company could shut down the aging Mason Street building and shift more employees to Franklin − although that’s not a desirable option, said Rebecca Villegas, Northwestern Mutual vice president of enterprise compliance.
Marty Wall, a Milwaukee resident, told the board that the company doesn’t need financing help for the development.
“We should not have to pay people to come to our city,” he said.
Downtown work force would grow to at least 5,750
The project would help boost Northwestern Mutual’s downtown workforce by 2030 to at least 5,750 employees − not including consultants and contractors. The company now has 4,480 employees, consultants and contractors based downtown.
Northwestern Mutual plans to begin construction on its project as early as this fall, with completion expected in 2027.
Along with the jobs requirement, the company must meet goals for hiring small business enterprises and unemployed city residents, as well as ensuring a $15 hourly minimum wage with built-in escalators for the new building’s janitors, security personnel and other vendor employees.
In addition, the company and its foundation must provide $2.5 million during the financing district’s first five years “towards affordable housing efforts and/or efforts to improve the fitness, health or education of economically disadvantaged youth in the City,” according to the proposal.
The financing district also would generate $10 million for nearby public improvements. That includes $6 million for bike and pedestrian safety upgrades, new pavement and other street work to an area centered on the intersection of North Lincoln Memorial Drive and East Michigan Street.
That project, with a preliminary estimate of $12 million to $15 million, will need additional funding, Casanova said.