Business View Magazine | October 2020

267 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2020 FRANKL IN, WI SCONS IN in the United States, and access to 160k-plus students from 18 colleges and universities within a two-hour radius, businesses have a range of options for building their workforce there. Franklin experienced success with its first Industrial and Business Park spanning 650-plus acres, employing more than 2,000 in more than 80 businesses such as Quad Graphics, Carma Labs (Carmex), Strauss Brands, Carlisle IT, and Lubrizol, and is now known as one of the most successful parks in the history of Wisconsin with $160M invested in public infrastructure. Since then, Franklin has attracted hundreds of additional businesses, including large private campus developments like Ascension SE Wisconsin Hospital-Franklin Campus and Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance. To capitalize on new development opportunities, Franklin continues to designate areas for business development and works closely with developers and property owners by creating tax increment financing districts (TIDs). Three large, high-profile development areas in the City, each with their own identity are: The Corporate Park, ideal for corporations, office buildings, and light industrial; The Loomis Business Park, ideal for light and heavy industrial; and Ballpark Commons, ideal for sports, recreation, and tourism-based businesses. “The Corporate Park is a 580-acre development that has visibility to I-94 and a full interchange on Elm Road” says Calli Berg, Director of Economic Development for the City of Franklin. “We are investing $20M-plus in tax increment financing in public infrastructure to create multiple large-acre sites for individual development.” Since the interchange opened in 2020, the City has seen increased construction interest, and Berg says that developers are investing now as they look beyond the pandemic. As a result, Franklin is supporting planned projects totaling 1.1M square feet of construction by adding a monument entrance