Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

New campus with a focus on the past

Komatsu emphasizes connection­s to Milwaukee

- Tom Daykin Milwaukee Journal Sentinel USA TODAY NETWORK – WISCONSIN

For more than a century, Milwaukee-based Harnischfe­ger Industries Inc. was known throughout the world for making heavy industrial equipment — including its P&H brand mining shovels that move tons of earth with a single scoop.

But, for all those years, Harnischfe­ger, reorganize­d as Joy Global Inc. in 2001 before being acquired by Japan-based Komatsu Ltd. in 2017, didn’t make a big effort to tell its story.

Now, the rebranded Komatsu Mining Corp. is opening its new corporate campus in the Harbor District south of downtown — a developmen­t that includes a focus on the company’s history in a city with a rich industrial heritage.

“We really feel like we’ve missed that opportunit­y to be associated with that long history of (Milwaukee) manufactur­ing,” said Caley Clinton, Komatsu Mining’s senior manager for public relations.

The new $285 million Harbor District headquarte­rs aims to change that.

Komatsu’s three-story, 176,000-square-foot office building is now open at 401 E. Greenfield Ave., with employees relocating there through next month. The connected 430,000-square-foot manufactur­ing space is to open by summer.

The corporate campus is replacing manufactur­ing operations now based at 4400 W. National Ave., West Milwaukee, as well as offices at Honey Creek Corporate Center, 135 S. 84th St., on Milwaukee’s far west side.

Komatsu expects to have 500 employees at the Harbor District campus by January, with about 1,000 employees once the manufactur­ing operation is running.

Using rainwater to flush the toilets

A city financing package, approved in December 2018 by the council and Mayor Tom Barrett, will provide annual payments to Komatsu from the new developmen­t’s property taxes.

Those payments could total $18.2 million by 2034 — if the company has 946 employees by that year. The annual payments would be proportion­ately reduced by around $19,200 for each job that falls short.

The payments could eventually total $25 million — if Komatsu creates 1,300 jobs, with additional developmen­t phases, in the long term.

Also, the city will spend $15 million to build a river walk and other public improvemen­ts. The walking path, with constructi­on to begin next spring, will extend from the end of Greenfield Avenue up the Kinnickinn­ic River to South Kinnickinn­ic Avenue.

Komatsu’s new office building, where employees began relocating this fall, features several items designed to reduce energy and water use.

Those include a system that collects rainwater in an undergroun­d tank and then recycles it to flush the building’s toilets, said Matt Beaudry, the company’s Harbor District project manager.

The building’s lights automatica­lly dim in proportion to the amount of natural light that comes into the offices, he said.

Other sustainabi­lity touches include electric vehicle charging stations in the parking structure; small wind spires to generate power for the parking structure’s lights, and plans for solar panels on the manufactur­ing building’s roof.

Also, bio-swales throughout the campus are designed to reduce storm water runoff, and its pollutants, into the harbor. (The state Department of Natural Resources disclosed Dec. 9 that Komatsu’s West Milwaukee operations spilled about 400 gallons of oil into a storm sewer which drains into the nearby Menomonee River).

In addition, the Harbor District developmen­t uses an air purification system that was upgraded in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also, the office building reflects the trend for co-working space, including conference rooms with audio-visual equipment that connects with colleagues around the world, as well as smaller work spaces that are broken away from the traditiona­l desks.

“There’s a lot of interestin­g nooks,” said Jill Rick, a senior communicat­ions specialist.

Such features seem especially important after a long period of people working remotely, Beaudry said.

“We’ve really learned to appreciate that incidental contact,” he said.

Mining shovel from Utah copper mine

Another new feature: a coffee shop that includes space exclusivel­y for employees as well as an outward-facing portion for the public.

The coffee shop’s public portion, featuring Anodyne Coffee and scheduled for a Jan. 10 opening, is within the office building’s Komatsu Experience Center.

That center features displays of the company’s history, including products from the turn of the 20th century; conference rooms that can be used for meetings of such groups as the neighborho­od’s business improvemen­t district, and an interactiv­e model of Komatsu’s corporate campus that highlights its sustainabi­lity features.

The company plans to install interactiv­e informatio­n kiosks along Greenfield Avenue’s sidewalk which leads to Harbor View Plaza at the end of the street. That plaza will connect with the future river walk.

Meanwhile, the office building’s public entry is marked by two huge pieces of retired company equipment: a P&H brand mining shovel last used at a Utah copper mine and an accompanyi­ng offroad loading truck.

“We make big, cool equipment and things people want to see,” Clinton said.

The experience center will include a store where the public can buy company-branded apparel and other items.

That focus on the company’s long history, and the important role mining plays in making products people use every day, was “something we really couldn’t do in our old building,” Clinton said.

Meanwhile, the Harnischfe­ger and P&H names still resonate in Milwaukee, Rick said.

“I feel like it’s a hometown pride thing,” she said.

 ?? PHOTOS BY MIKE DE SISTI / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL ?? Komatsu Mining Corp.’s new Harbor District corporate campus includes a focus on the company’s history, with retired mining equipment helping to mark the office building’s main entrance.
PHOTOS BY MIKE DE SISTI / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL Komatsu Mining Corp.’s new Harbor District corporate campus includes a focus on the company’s history, with retired mining equipment helping to mark the office building’s main entrance.
 ?? ?? Work continues on the manufactur­ing facility that’s connected by a walkway to Komatsu Mining Corp.’s new office building at its Harbor District corporate campus.
Work continues on the manufactur­ing facility that’s connected by a walkway to Komatsu Mining Corp.’s new office building at its Harbor District corporate campus.
 ?? MIKE DE SISTI / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL ?? The office building’s Komatsu Customer Experience features displays of the company’s history, including products from the turn of the 20th century when it was known as Harnischfe­ger Industries Inc.
MIKE DE SISTI / MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL The office building’s Komatsu Customer Experience features displays of the company’s history, including products from the turn of the 20th century when it was known as Harnischfe­ger Industries Inc.

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