Excerpted from Wisconsin State Journal
By Judy Newman

The Madison area may be a great place to live and run a business, but people outside the region don’t know it, consultant J. Mac Holladay told community leaders on Wednesday.

“There is no question that this is a strong place,” Holladay said. But the problem is: “Nobody knows about you. Nobody knows what’s happening in the Madison region,” he added.

Holladay’s comments led off the latest meeting of Advance Now, an economic growth project for the region. About 175 business, community and government representatives attended the session at the Sheraton Hotel.

Holladay and his Atlanta consultant group, Market Street Services, have been meeting with site selection groups around the U.S. and analyzing results of 1,500 surveys filled out by area residents. He said marketing efforts for the area are “not up to the quality that you deserve.”

Holladay presented five strategic goals:

• Pursue a regional approach to job creation and business growth.
• Attract and grow top talent.
• Provide capital and support to entrepreneurs and small businesses.
• Develop internal and external marketing efforts for the region “to become globally recognized as a competitive and distinctive place for businesses, talent and quality of life.”
• Establish partnerships to enhance regional collaboration.

All five are connected, Holladay said. “They reflect what people told us they want to see happen.”

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Excerpted from Channel300.com

Thousands of new jobs could be coming to the Beloit area in the next few years if a tribal casino is built.

Beloit’s City Council on Wednesday night drafted an inter-governmental agreement with the Ho-Chunk Nation to build a casino.

Beloit City Manager Larry Arft describes the potential casino as a significant economic development generator.

“This certainly is a game changer, a paradigm shift, to get a facility of this size and magnitude. We don’t have all the final numbers yet, but the job totals would be in the thousands. The annual operating budget, many millions of dollars, and much of that would flow through the local economy,” Arft said.

Arft said the Ho-Chunk Nation purchased the land a few years ago in hopes of building a recreational facility. He said he’s optimistic the project will spark additional development in the area.

“Of course it will have the normal accoutrements that would support the facility. There’d be a hotel, theater, conference convention meeting space, that sort of thing. Probably some restaurants and shops,” Arft said.

The project is still in the early stages and no commitments have been made.

Arft said the facility would help put Beloit on the map.

“We would become a destination location in Wisconsin,” he said.

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Excerpted from Wisconsin State Journal
by Barry Adams

Steam no longer rises from the tobacco warehouses here.

Instead, there is hope.

Two of the brick and timber buildings are undergoing renovations. One will be used to expand the support programs and services of Edgerton Community Outreach, while another is being turned into apartments that could help bring more people and businesses downtown.

If the projects succeed, it could lead to more renewal for other empty warehouses that at one time used monstrous coal-fired boilers and heating systems to raise the temperatures in the buildings to 140 degrees so that tons of tobacco could be readied for market.

Now, the buildings could help revitalize the historic downtown.

“Anything that’s going to bring people into downtown is going to be a benefit,” said Mayor Chris Lund, a lifelong resident. “Any foot traffic has to be good.”

First, a little history.

The city was founded in 1853 and eventually became a tobacco center. At its peak, Edgerton had 52 buildings that cured tobacco from Dane and Rock county farmers who at one time combined to produce 27,000 acres of tobacco. Of the 52, just seven remain, but they no longer are used for tobacco operations.

Of course, finding a use for a non-insulated building with thousands of square feet isn’t easy.

In Viroqua, another former tobacco hub, an old tobacco warehouse is home to a 250,000-book collection and store called Driftless Books and Music. In 2003, in Madison, a pair of former tobacco buildings near West Washington Avenue and Proudfit Street were converted into apartments.

The tobacco transformation is providing reason for hope in Edgerton, a bedroom community between Madison and Janesville, just a couple of miles west of Interstate 39-90.

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Excerpted from Wisconsin State Journal
by Barry Adams

Since the late 1800s, a two-block stretch along East Washington Avenue was home to Gisholt Machine Co., one of the city’s largest manufacturers.

When it closed in 1971, about 875 people lost their jobs. In later years, the Gisholt space hosted a number of small businesses and for a time, 450 employees of Marquip, which closed in 2000.

They owned homes, shopped in the area and, after a long day of factory work, would trek two blocks to the south for a cool one at Coughlin’s Tavern at the corner of South Baldwin and Williamson streets.

Life has again returned to this 210,000-square-foot industrial stronghold.

Only now the employees are focused on designer women’s clothing instead of machines, grab coffee at the EVP across the street, order noontime sandwiches at the Willy Street Co-op and unwind with local craft beers and music at what is now the Crystal Corner Bar.

Shopbop, an online, high-end fashion retailer started out of a downtown clothing store in 2000, has 300 employees and spent more than $5 million converting the former Gisholt space into its headquarters.

The company, which leases the space, expects to be at more than 400 employees by the end of 2012, could hit 650 by 2015 and is seen as a key spark to the redevelopment of the East Washington Avenue corridor.

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MadREP published the Advance Now Target Cluster Analysis, an assessment of the Madison Region’s employment concentrations and leading industries, as well as workforce and occupational strengths. This research is intended to identify the existing and emerging sectors with the greatest potential to spur employment growth.

The Target Cluster Analysis marks the completion of the second research phase of Advance Now: Madison Region’s Strategy for Economic Growth, a comprehensive, action-oriented regional economic development strategy that will systematically move the Madison Region’s economy forward.

Researched and written by consultants from Atlanta-based Market Street Services, the Target Cluster Analysis takes a “bottom up” approach to target identification, examining the attributes of the region’s workforce. This methodology measures occupational strengths, training capacity, infrastructure capacity, and quality of life concerns, as well as the more accustomed practice of measuring employment concentrations and the presence of top employers in potential target sectors.

Market Street Services analyzed the region’s occupational clusters and concentrations, reviewed regional industry-level wage and employment growth over two- and five-year spans, and assessed qualitative information attained during the stakeholder input process to develop five business sector targets.

Legacy targets are transitioning sectors in the regional economy with important historical influence and “next generation” potential:

• Advanced Manufacturing (machinery & materials; pharmaceuticals & chemical; instruments & precision components)
• Agriculture and Food Systems (plant & animal cultivation; food processing; food systems development & distribution)

Leading targets are mature sectors with immense opportunities for growth:

• Health Care (medical care & wellness; health informatics; management & support operations)
• Life Sciences (research, development, & testing; production & distribution)

Emerging targets are sectors with the potential to create further economic opportunities within the region:

• Design and Technology (technology & software; design & communications; direct-to-consumer & specialty retail)

In each target cluster, Market Street has defined specific niche areas and cross-cluster opportunities to help focus economic development efforts. In addition, Travel and Experience is identified as an opportunity area (rather than a formal target) for the Madison Region.

Research conducted in the Competitive Assessment and Target Cluster phases will be used to determine draft goal areas as a basis for the Advance Now strategy. The draft goals will be presented and discussed at a Community Leadership Summit hosted by MadREP and Market Street Services on Tuesday, January 18, 2012, 1-3pm at the Sheraton Madison Hotel (706 John Nolen Drive, Madison). Input from this Summit will shape goals and objectives for the Advance Now strategy.

The final phase of the Advance Now development process culminates in April 2012 with a detailed implementation plan that includes one-to-five year action plans to be carried out by partners across the entire Madison Region.

Download the Target Cluster Analysis Executive Summary or Full Report.