Northeast Wisconsin

Corporate Report Wisconsin, Nov 2006

Continuing the biotech theme, UW-Madison placed in the top 10 of universities worldwide in the number of biotechnology patents granted, coming in ninth.

NORTHWEST

EAU CLAIRE: GSI Commerce Inc., headquartered in Pennsylvania, announced plans to open a new customer contact center here, creating 700 new jobs by December 2009. GSI is investing more than $8 million in the project, and received a $3 million tax credit and $1 million loan from the Department of Commerce.

MARSHFIELD: Groundbreaking was held for a new $1.6 million terminal at the Marshfield Municipal Airport. The previous terminal was torn down in September, to make way for a new 4,000-sq.-ft. building. The city will pay for less than 1% of construction costs, with the remaining funding coming from fuel taxes paid by airplane users.

WISCONSIN RAPIDS: The city received a $300,000 Blight Elimination and Brownfields Redevelopment grant from the Department of Commerce, to help with an expansion project for Advanced Fiberglass Technologies Inc. The company plans to construct a new facility and the money will help with acquisition of a building site. Advanced Fiberglass manufactures reinforced plastic equipment and expects to create 20 new jobs over the next three years, as part of public/private project with nearly $5.4 million in investments.