Neighborhood must wait for Tower property in Milwaukee

Many properties in Milwaukee's 30th Street Industrial Corridor are too small for manufacturers, and a prime site that meets the size standard is embroiled in a lawsuit with the city.

The 84-acre Tower Automotive site is big enough to accommodate large businesses that generate industrial jobs, and that makes it important to the overall redevelopment of the area, said Brenna Holly, executive director of the 30th Street Industrial Corridor Corp. The smaller parcels with less than one acre are good for start- up businesses or entrepreneurs, but industrial companies want at least a couple of acres, she said.

"That's a key property and will be a catalyst for everything in the area," she said. "From our perspective, we'd like to see light manufacturing, maybe a little bit of heavier industrial use near the railroad side and commercial use along Capitol (Drive)."

But the property is in the middle of a lawsuit between its owner, Milwaukee Industrial.

Trade Corp, and the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Milwaukee. On top of that, the city spoke out against MITC's plan to use the railroads running through the property for a terminal that would switch freight between trucks and trains.

The legal dispute makes it difficult for residents to get involved in planning for the property's future, said Pamela Fendt, director of the Good Jobs and Livable Neighborhoods Coalition. It'll also probably delay the ability to get new businesses settled onto the property, she said.

The area needs new manufacturing jobs, since many residents lost their jobs when Tower Automotive closed, said Barry Givens, board president of the Sherman Park Community Association. Givens was unfamiliar with the rail terminal plan and said truck traffic could raise some neighborhood concern.

But any jobs on the property would be welcome, he said.

"There's a dire need now," he said. "Currently, we don't have the jobs there, but if it's a matter of waiting a year, so be it, so long as they're taking steps to make it happen. I would hate to see the Tower site sit like that for another five years."

MITC Principal Gerald Blomberg said in court last week his company discussed selling the property to the redevelopment authority, but the authority never made any valid offers to purchase. The company purchased the property for $2.1 million and spent $2.4 million clearing environmental contamination left behind from decades of industrial use, he said.

"They never got serious," he said. "The negotiations we had were pretty much a waste of time."

The redevelopment authority wants Milwaukee County Circuit Court to let it perform environmental inspections of the site. MITC attorneys last week argued the redevelopment authority never stated its reasons for wanting the tests.

An environmental consultant hired by the city said Tuesday there were 150 recognized environmental conditions on the site, and city attorneys argued the city should be able to enter the property to conduct test to ensure there are no public health threats.

The Good Jobs and Livable Neighborhoods Coalition requested from the city information about the site's contamination and the city's redevelopment plan but didn't get answers meeting the level of detail discussed in court this month, Fendt said.

"They have been less than forthcoming with information," she said. "They said they didn't have information about the site.

The coalition is interested in the property contamination both in terms of its long-term job creation and because residents in the neighborhood raised the idea of getting employed in any clean-up efforts for the property, Fendt said.

Before telling the authority and MITC on Tuesday to return to the negotiation table, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Charles Kahn said the inspections could serve several purposes. They could help the authority estimate the property's price before making an offer to purchase, or they could let the city condemn and acquire the site, he said. He said he isn't sure those two reasons are enough for the authority to invoke its right to inspect the property.

The third possibility, Kahn said, comes in to play if there is enough reason to think the contamination on site presents a risk to public health, in which case the authority needs to get involved to clean it.

The parties are scheduled to return to court in mid-August. Kahn could tour the property Aug. 13.

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