Northwestern plans new downtown Milwaukee building
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. plans to build a new office tower in downtown Milwaukee.
The 840,000-square-foot building could be more than 30 stories. The company says the tower would replace Northwestern Mutual’s 16-story building and would be built once the existing building is demolished.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (http://bit.ly/Uoql6x) reports Northwestern Mutual plans to seek $48 million in city financing for the $300 million project. The new building would be completed in 2017.
Company executives and city officials say the downtown project would retain 1,100 employees now housed at the building that would be razed. Northwestern Mutual currently has 3,600 downtown employees and expects to add up to 1,700 additional downtown employees by 2027.
The life insurance and financial services company also has 2,000 employees at its Franklin campus.
Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Business Journal says Franklin Mayor Tom Taylor will not give up trying to to woo Northwestern Mutual to expand its Franklin facility rather than build in downtown Milwaukee.
Dec 6, 2012 at 11:35 a.m.
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Think again diverdown. In 2009 Northwestern Mutual purchased a building in Seattle for $115 million and sold it recently for $480 million. Nice profit. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-20...
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That’s how capitalism should work – an opportunity exists for an individual or entity with the available means (cash) and they are able to make a very good profit. So perhaps someone can explain to me why taxpayers should pay for 16% of Northwestern Mutual’s new office building in Milwaukee. Are we getting interest on that money? Will we own 16% of the new building? Taxpayer money is required to fund our education system, roads and bridges, our water supply and waste treatment, parks, airports, fire and police protection and the wages of all those who actually manage, maintain and provide many of those services. So why are taxpayers financing multi-million dollar earning free enterprise entities – especially one that just pocketed $365 million? Especially when those entities pay at a lower tax rate than families earning $75,000 per year? If our tax money is going to be used to bribe businesses who is going to finance badly needed infrastructure improvements?
Dec 6, 2012 at 9:31 a.m.
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I hardly think that Northwestern has $250million just lying around , that they are going to pay cash for this and i realize your comment was off the cuff. However, this is a good way to explain to people that this is how successful companies operate. They don't just pocket the money, they re-invest in their businesses. Think of the amount of construction jobs this will produce, along with all the other jobs that will go along with a project of this size. Once again showing that businesses and consumers do a much better job at spurring the economy than any stimulus plan ever can. And on top of that, the city of Milwaukee will reap the benefits of more tax revenue. Plus the other businesses in the area will feel an impact from bringing in more people to the downtown to spend money.
Dec 5, 2012 at 9:46 p.m.
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Apparently my life insurance premiums are too high if they have millions laying around for this.
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