Franklin's undergoing development boom

Daily Reporter (Milwaukee), Nov 16, 2006 by Joe Grundle

The Milwaukee suburbs are no strangers to growth.

But no suburb is growing as much and as quickly right now as Franklin, so much so that the city hired its first director of city development, Doug Wheaton, in August 2005.

Wheaton, who previously worked as director of government affairs for the Southeastern Wisconsin Realtors Association, jumped into a blazing fire of both residential and commercial development and has done his best to fan those flames.

"A goal has been set for $1 billion in new nonresidential development on the Franklin side of the South 27th street corridor, and we achieved 20 percent of that this year," he said. "And we are currently in the process of forming a streetscape plan with Oak Creek for the entire South 27th street corridor."

According to the Wisconsin Department of Administration's 2006 census estimates, Franklin was the largest community in Wisconsin to experience at least a 10 percent population growth since 2000, going from 29,494 to an estimated 33,000, an11.9 percent increase.

Neighboring Oak Creek kept pace in that time increasing population from 28,456 to 32,104, a 12.8 percent hike.

Sun Prairie led all state municipalities of at least 25,000 people with a whopping 23.6 percent population increase, but as far as southeastern Wisconsin is concerned, Franklin is pacing the field and, more important, acting on it.

"We need to balance the city's property tax base," Wheaton said. "Our elected officials have embraced the goal of 70 percent residential and 30 percent business property. Our most recent figures indicate that we are at approximately 81 (percent) to 19 (percent) in the Franklin School District, which encompasses most of the city, so we do have a ways to go."

Major projects in worksBut much progress has been made. In 2006 alone, major projects under construction in Franklin include:

Northwestern Mutual's $85 million, 400,000-square foot office expansion at its headquarters on South 27th Street. A new $35 million Indian Community School (formerly of Milwaukee) built by Milwaukee-based J.H. Findorff & Sons Inc. at 10405 W. St. Martin's Road. A $90 million Wheaton Franciscan outpatient medical center at the northwest corner of South 27th Street and West Oakwood Road. A 70,000-square-foot Fountains of Franklin retail center by Equitable Development LLC on West Rawson Avenue. A 20,000-square-foot expansion at Carma Laboratories Inc., makers of Carmex. And that tip of the iceberg does not include a proposed 295,000-square-foot retail center on 30 acres southeast of Drexel Avenue and Highway 100 that will include a Sendik's and possibly a Target.

Also, Proteus Packaging (formerly Beck Carton Corp.) and Transpak Corp. are each adding 200,000 square feet to their respective facilities in the Franklin Business Park after moving from Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward. California-based Central Aquatics (formerly All-Glass Aquarium) is expanding in the park as well and has told the city it plans to move a division headquarters to Franklin, transferring positions from Dallas and Atlanta.

"We see (business growth) as a means to a) achieve quality development, b) have good strong family supporting jobs for the community, c) have amenities that don't currently exist and, at least as important, to provide property tax relief," said Wheaton.

Clearly, any city growing like Franklin needs additional housing as well.

Of the 77 projects currently in development, 45 are residential. Those include an 84 single-family home subdivision at South 51st and Rawson, 55 single-family homes at South 27th and Oakwood, and more than 1,000 condominiums.

In the first half of 2006, Franklin had 105 new home starts, 24 more than Muskego, which had the second most of any community in southeastern Wisconsin.

"We seem to be bucking the national trend of the (housing) slowdown," Wheaton said. "We've had a very big year."

Still growingThe city's first chain hotel, a $10 million, 100- room Staybridge Suites, has also been proposed for the southwest corner of South 27th Street and West Ryan Road. Considering Franklin's projected growth, along with expected road improvements to Ryan Road and Interstate 94, there figure to be more hotels to come.

"We'd love to see a full-service hotel with a banquet facility, said Wheaton. "Our schools are literally bursting at the seams, but we don't have a single hotel where people can get married."

While the four major commercial corridors in Franklin consist of South 27th Street, Highway 100, Highway 36 and Rawson Avenue, residential growth has been rampant throughout the city.

The only area of Franklin that is not under extensive development is the southwest corner where the city's utilities currently do not extend. Even that land, however, has drawn interest from developers willing to extend sewers for new development, according to Wheaton.

Despite the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission's projection that Franklin's population will increase to 45,314 by 2020, an increase of two people per day, Wheaton did not feel the city ran the risk of overgrowing.