Area
business leaders working on Foxconn discussed the
project Tuesday during a panel discussion held by the
Waukesha County Business Alliance at the Embassy Suites
Hotel in Brookfield. Speakers seen here from left are
Todd Taves, senior municipal adviser with Ehlers &
Associates; Sarah Justus, director of construction for
American Transmission Co.; Tim Sheehy, president of the
Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce; and Bill
Mielke, CEO of Waukesha-based Ruekert & Mielke.Cara Spoto/Freeman Staff

BROOKFIELD — As site preparation begins on the $10
billion Foxconn manufacturing complex in Mount Pleasant,
companies across southeastern Wisconsin are wondering
how the sprawling display-screen factory might impact
their industries.

On
Tuesday the Waukesha County Business Alliance strove to
answer that question with a panel discussion featuring
business leaders already working on the project.

During the roughly one-hour discussion at Embassy
Suites, two messages emerged. The first was that the project —
the single largest foreign investment in United State
history — is changing the way business is being done
across the state. The second was there are plenty of
opportunities for local companies interested in doing
business with Foxconn or having a role in the
construction of the 22-million-square-foot manufacturing
complex.

“Foxconn is anticipated to have a $1.4 billion annual
spend in Wisconsin. That is not the total spend. That is
what we anticipate will happen in Wisconsin,” said Tim
Sheehy, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee
Association of Commerce. “There is going to be
tremendous opportunities on the construction side, and
we are just beginning to talk about the plant
operations.”

Becoming a supplier

As a
first step, Sheehy urged area companies eager to work
with Foxconn to get on a state-managed list of
interested suppliers by registering at
Wisupplychainmarketplace.com. As the project progresses,
he also suggested that businessmen and women reach out
to contacts who may already be doing business with the
Taiwanese-based technology giant.

“Foxconn does not have a supply base in the United
States. Their supply base is in China and Taiwan. They
are going to bring a big chunk of those suppliers here,
but they are going to start to learn that there are
companies in southeastern Wisconsin that are somewhere
in their supply chain,” Sheehy said.

“Don’t get discouraged. Their business model is
changing. Their industry is changing.”

For
those interested in being part of the plant
construction, the opportunities already abound, he
added.

“Someone told me the other day that there are 1,000
trucks a day delivering gravel to that site. So if
you’ve got a truck with four wheels you are in the
game,” he said.

Tim
Casey, director of economic development for the Waukesha
County Center for Growth, was the moderator for the
discussion. Mark Hogan, secretary & CEO for the
Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, also spoke,
as did Waukesha County Executive Paul Farrow and Suzanne
Kelley, president & CEO of the Waukesha County Business
Alliance.

Impact

Speaking to the Foxconn project’s impact, Sarah Justus,
director of construction for American Transmission
Company, which is constructing a electrical substation
for the plant, said the speed at which the project is
progressing has resulted in ATC having to take what
would normally be a four-to-seven year timeframe for
such a project and cut it half.

“(We
have) been doing things concurrently that we are used to
sequentially,” Justus said of the Pewaukee-based ATC.
“That is the only way that we are able to do this. Not
only are we working weekends, but we are working
Taiwan-time.”

Todd
Taves, senior municipal advisor with Ehlers & Associates
in Waukesha, talked about his work helping to establish
the 6.5-square-mile tax increment finance district that
will help pay the debt on the project.

“Everything about this project, as you can imagine, is
big,” Taves said. “Something changes on this project
literally every day, sometimes every couple of hours,
and I think for a professional services firm the biggest
challenge is that you really have to have a team of
people that you can allocate, and make this their focus
and priority.”

Bill
Mielke, CEO of Waukesha-based Ruekert & Mielke, which
has been contracted by the Racine Water Utility to plan,
design and manage the construction of the $130 million
in water mains needed to supply the plant with Lake
Michigan water, said his firm has been focusing on
breaking the job up into smaller projects so that it can
be bid out to area companies.

“It
is going to keep the underground contractors very, very
busy for the next five years,” Mielke said.

Companies seeking more information on the Foxconn
project can visit
www.wisconnvalley.wi.gov, where they can also sign
up to get updates.