Tomah gets Wal-Mart hub

0 Comments | La Crosse Tribune, Jan 12, 1999

TOMAH, Wis. -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to start construction this spring on an 880,000-square-foot food distribution center in Tomah that will have about 250 employees when it opens in spring 2000, a company spokesman said Monday.

Earlier in the day, Gov. Tommy Thompson announced Wal-Mart will build the facility and said it eventually will employ 400 workers. That includes 250 to start and 150 jobs that will be added in the first three years of operation.

A press release from the governor's office said Thompson negotiated with the company to bring the center to Tomah, and that details of the state and local incentive package are still being worked out.

The center will be built "to keep up with demand for the growing number of Wal-Mart Supercenters in the region," said Keith Morris, a spokesman at Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.

The Tomah center will supply food products to Supercenters in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and perhaps some other states in the region, Morris said. Wal-Mart has 544 Supercenters, which sell groceries as well as traditional Wal-Mart products.

"We looked at a number of potential locations throughout the region," Morris said. "And it really came down to the willingness of the local and state officials to work with Wal-Mart to encourage this type of investment in Tomah."

Morris also said Tomah, which is at the intersection of two major interstate highways -- 94 and 90 -- met the company's criteria for infrastructure and location. "It's a central location to serve our existing and future stores in the region," he said.

The 193-acre site is east of Industrial Avenue and north of Town Line Road. The city of Tomah will buy it for $2.4 million and sell it to Wal-Mart for $775,000. But the city will be reimbursed for the difference and for costs of infrastructure improvements such as water, sewer and street work, through a tax increment financing district that will be established at the site. Tax revenue on newly created tax base in a TIF district returns to that area for a specified time.

The city also agreed to work to convince state and federal officials to build an Industrial Avenue-Interstate 94 interchange. Revenue from the TIF district also will be used to pay the city's one-half share of the $5 million estimated cost of the interchange, Mayor Wayne "Bud" Johnson said.

Other nearby industrial businesses also will benefit from the interchange, and Johnson said it could be five to six years before it's in place. But he said he hopes it is created faster. The city also agreed to provide temporary city office space to Wal-Mart next fall so it can begin interviewing job candidates, Johnson said.

With 400 jobs, the distribution center will be one of the city's largest employers, said Eric Prise, executive director of the Greater Tomah Area Chamber of Commerce.

"We were told they were looking at other communities in Wisconsin and outside the state," Prise said of Wal-Mart.

"It's impact won't be felt just here, but throughout the entire area," Prise said.

Mayor Johnson and Prise said the center is expected to draw workers from within 60 miles and possibly farther. Neither official thought the center will make it harder for existing local businesses to attract employees. Monroe County had a 4.3 percent unemployment rate in November.

"It might help (other businesses)," Johnson said. "It night bring other people into the area."

"It's great for the Tomah community," said Donald Kortbein, executive vice president and chief executive officer of Farmers & Merchants Bank in Tomah. "Any time we get more jobs in the community, we have more housing and our population increases."