Excerpted from ConnectOregonWi.com
By Scott Girard

Five years ago, a Brooklyn resident told Village President Nadine Walsten he couldn’t afford to commute out of the village for a minimum-wage job with gas prices as they were.

That conversation became a “driving force” for Walsten in her quest to bring jobs to Brooklyn, and the work culminated Friday in a groundbreaking ceremony at the new Brooklyn Business Park on Hwy. 92.

The project began in spring 2012, when Walsten learned of a Community Development Block Grant available through Dane County and the village decided to apply for $261,000.

After the application advanced to the second round last summer, a county subcommittee reviewing the applications found six things the village needed before it could officially approve the grant.

Within five months, the village completed each of those steps, which included expanding its sewer district, purchasing land, reaching an annexation agreement with the Town of Rutland, acquiring a permit for an access point to the highway and creating a tax-increment financing district.

“It was a tremendous accomplishment to be able to put together all of these applications and approvals,” Walsten said. “I’m just very proud of all of the people … and all of the work they put in to make this not only a priority but to approve it.”

Walsten said she expects the park’s infrastructure to be completed by mid-November, and she and the village’s economic development committee have already begun marketing to businesses for the lots, specifically light industry because of the proximity to a residential neighborhood.

The interest in building the park came from seeing multiple businesses that had started in the village look to expand, without any place in Brooklyn to expand to, Walsten said. That led those businesses, along with their jobs and contributions to the economy, to go elsewhere.

“I think Brooklyn is an example of how small communities of less than 2,000 population can revitalize their local economy,” she said. “It’s not impossible, even though it’s a sobering task.”

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As appeared in Wisconsin State Journal
By Paul Jadin

Tom Still of the Wisconsin Technology Council, in his recent “Inside Wisconsin” column, provided a good analysis of the trends weighing down the state’s economy and, more important, reasonable recommendations for improvement.

An examination of these long-standing trends leads to several important conclusions about how to reshape Wisconsin’s economy, invest where it matters, and expand our presence in international markets.

The same analysis also should spark optimism about the economic future of the eight-county Madison region:

• While the state is not heavily invested in high-growth sectors, the Madison region boasts unique strengths in information technology, life sciences and health care, three sectors that have seen recent job growth and are predicted to lead growth in the future.
• Wisconsin has deep roots in the historically low-growth manufacturing and agriculture sectors, yet these sectors are buoyed in the Madison region by cross-sector collaboration with our critical mass of high-growth industries.
• Though the aging of the state’s population compared to others may work against Wisconsin as a whole, the Madison region bucks that trend because our percentage of working-age individuals is well above the state’s. In addition, our proportion of adults with college degrees surpasses the state and nation’s, further contributing to the strength of our work force.
• Because the Madison region, like the state, lags in exports, there are a wide range of groups in the region working hard to improve the presence of our businesses in international markets. These organizations include the Madison Region Economic Partnership (MadREP), the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce and the Madison International Trade Association, among others.

With these and other assets, the Madison region is poised to lead the state in economic recovery and job creation and retention. MadREP’s Advance Now strategy is designed to build on the region’s strengths and catalyze growth through initiatives such as:

• A regional business retention and expansion program that identifies and addresses challenges and opportunities for growth.
• An international trade development program that increases regional exports by identifying potential new exporters and leveraging the marked improvements in the state’s international capacity.
• The establishment of a regional network of physical innovative spaces and seasoned mentors for entrepreneurs.
• The strategic alignment of education and work force development efforts with high-growth sectors.
• A more productive and ongoing relationship with site selectors who historically have not had this region on their radar.

Tom Still paints an accurate, if sometimes difficult, picture of the trends driving Wisconsin’s economic performance. But the Madison region has the ingredients necessary to stem the trends that need reversing and leverage the unique advantages of this area to spur the state’s resurgence.

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Excerpted from Janesville Gazette
By Jim Leute

Construction is on track for a Janesville company to open a $17 million manufacturing facility next summer that will keep a minimum of 130 employees on the local payroll.

GOEX is building the 175,000-square-foot facility on Highway 14 near Newville Road.

When it’s complete, the company plans to move its operation from 2532 Foster Ave, Janesville.

GOEX is an industry leader in extruding resins into custom rigid plastic sheet and roll stock. It has posted double-digit growth in each of the last 10 years but is landlocked at its current plant.

Mark Gottlieb, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, visited the site Thursday to present city officials with a ceremonial check for $650,000, the state’s contribution toward the construction of a frontage road along Highway 14 and a rail spur that will help GOEX make and receive shipments via the Union Pacific Railroad.

The state money is in the form of a Transportation Economic Assistance grant, which requires a 50 percent local match that targets economic development.

Earlier this year, the city approved a package for GOEX that includes public contributions of more than $1.5 million. After the state grant is applied, the city’s cost for site improvements drops to $891,000.

As part of the agreement, GOEX will be required to retain 130 full-time jobs for the seven years remaining in the life of Tax Increment Financing District 21.

GOEX President Josh Gray said Thursday the company now has 140 employees.

Gottlieb said the TEA grant program is an example of the state working with local communities and their businesses to create and retain jobs.

“I want to thank the folks at GOEX for keeping these jobs from leaving Janesville, Rock County and Wisconsin,” Gottlieb said. “These are good-paying jobs that have a great effect on the local and state economy.”

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Excerpted from Beloit Daily News
By Shaun Zinck

About 18 construction projects currently are under way in the city of Beloit, which officials say is more than normal post-recession.

The projects are commercial, industrial and institutional, and total more than $133 million in renovations and construction. Andrew Janke, executive director of the Greater Beloit Economic Development Corporation, said the work is positive even while the city and surrounding communities are recovering from slow economic activity.

“It definitely represents more than average for commercial activity in the city,” he said.

In addition to the 18 projects, three new construction projects are expected to break ground this fall.

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Excerpted from Wisconsin State Journal
By Karen Rivedal

Irish biotech company GenCell Biosystems Ltd. has opened a two-person U.S. office in Madison’s University Research Park, with plans to hire a few more people in the coming 12 months.

GenCell, an analytical-instrument maker based in Limerick, employs 30 people in Ireland, where it was formed in spring 2011. It hired Robert Roeven, a former senior manager for diagnostic test maker Third Wave Technologies/Hologic, to run the Madison office, known as GenCell USA, which will provide customer support on technical and sales matters, Roeven said.

Roeven said Madison was a logical location for the company, quickly standing out as preferable for GenCell’s needs to even major bioscience hubs in larger cities on the East and West coasts.

“It’s ideally located,” Roeven said. “It’s central to a number of our customers in the Midwest.”

“University Research Park made the choice fairly easy,” he added. “I would say they’re very helpful in getting a young startup company, as GenCell is, established.”

Greg Hyer, associate director of University Research Park, said GenCell located in Madison largely so it could recruit Roeven, whose expertise in Third Wave’s ag/bio sector gave him complementary expertise.

“That illustrates why it’s important to keep some of this scientific and business talent in the Madison area, even as individual companies go up and down,” Hyer said, in a reference to Third Wave’s pending closure next year, after its purchase by Hologic in 2008.

“It’s important to hold those people here so they can end up being an attraction to these national and international companies,” Hyer said.

Read the full article.