As Wauwatosa commissions and the Common Council meet next month on whether to approve a tax-incremental financing district for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's nearly 89-acre Innovation Park development, the announcement by the university's chancellor, Carlos Santiago, that he will leave his post Oct. 1 must not derail that approval.
This final push for Innovation Park must continue as it will greatly benefit Wauwatosa and the region. The development, with about $101 million in buildings, the majority of which will pay property taxes with only buildings owned by UWM being tax exempt, has the potential to be a catalyst for economic development. Why am I so confident? One need only look to the southwest of the Innovation Park grounds for a shining example of success - the Milwaukee County Research Park.
Park has been successful
The original investment Wauwatosa made in roads, bridges and other amenities is about to pay off handsomely as that TIF is expected to expire five years early. The success has been stunning. Consider:
• The value of property in the park has grown from $4.4 million in 1994 to more than $230 million this year. This is roughly the value on which property taxes will soon be paid to Wauwatosa, helping to keep the city on solid financial footing in continuing turbulent economic times.
• The park's executive director, William Drew, said that as of December 2009, 4,500 people were employed by 113 companies housed in the park.
• Those businesses were involved in information technology (42 percent); industrial applications and engineering (21 percent); biotechnology and medical devices (10 percent). All are relatively high-paying, clean sectors that any community would fight to have.
There are no guarantees, of course, but Innovation Park has been conceived and designed from the beginning to capitalize and build upon the momentum of the Milwaukee County Research Park. Indeed, much of the work that will take place at Innovation Park will be in conjunction with organizations at the Research Park, including the Medical College of Wisconsin, GE Medical and others. The word synergy is overused today, but is aptly applied here.
Following Santiago's vision
Santiago's vision will be missed. In an article I wrote for another publication in 2008, I told the story of his first address to the university as chancellor containing dichos, or proverbs that represent accumulated folk wisdom in Spanish-speaking languages. I wrote at the time:
"One of the reasons Santiago was chosen to serve as the seventh chancellor of UW-Milwaukee in 2004 was his belief in universities as transformative institutions and their ability 'to discover and create and to use those discoveries and those creations to change our world for the common good. Higher education has the capacity to transform society as well as individuals, and I firmly believe that public higher education, especially, has a calling to be both a private benefit an a public good,' Santiago told the crowd gathered to hear his first address as UWM Chancellor."
Time for Tosa to be daring
One of the two dichos he quoted was, "To the daring, fortune will lend a hand." With Santiago moving on to head a nonprofit that helps racial minorities go to college and universities, it is time now for Wauwatosa leaders to be bold. There is some risk, but the risk is minimized by a strong development team at the UWM Real Estate Foundation, a federal government grant that will help with construction of the first building, a mixed use for the grounds of Innovation Park and the momentum of the Research Park on which to build.
Nancy Welch, Wauwatosa community development director, told the city's Tax Incremental Financing Review Board, "This has the potential to be a significant economic engine for southeastern Wisconsin."
To the daring, fortune will lend a hand. It's time to be a bit daring.
Robert Warde is a freelance business writer living in Wauwatosa. He has been a journalist for more than 27 years and a business journalist for the past 15 years. Reach him at robert.warde@yahoo.com.
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