Milwaukee 7 Finds Success in Brookfield

Milwaukee 7 is a regional, cooperative economic development organization for the seven counties in Southeastern Wisconsin. Recently, I attended a Milwaukee 7 meeting in Racine. During the meeting, six “wins” for the organization in the preceding four months were highlighted. I was very pleased that two of the six “wins” for the seven-county area were in the City of Brookfield.

The first win was the decision of Thomas Magnete USA LLC, a subsidiary of Thomas Magnete GmbH in Herdorf, Germany, to locate their production facility for North America in Brookfield. Thomas Magnete USA is a manufacturer of hydraulic equipment for the automotive and other machinery markets. In the next few years, the company will create 27 new jobs here. These will be highly skilled, family supporting jobs. We’re very pleased that the Milwaukee area, and particularly Brookfield, was chosen as the location for this new facility after a search which included a number of cities in both the United States and Canada.

The second win was the decision of Milwaukee Electric Tool Corporation to expand its research and development operations in Brookfield. This company, which is headquartered in Brookfield, manufactures heavy-duty, portable electric power tools and “Milwaukee” is the brand of choice for professional users. In the next few years, Milwaukee Electric Tool plans to add over 100 jobs including project engineers, research and development personnel and marketing managers. These will also be highly skilled, family supporting jobs.

With each of these wins, the City of Brookfield worked with Milwaukee 7, the new Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (the “WEDC” which has replaced the state Department of Commerce), and the Waukesha County Economic Development Corporation. The WEDC used state economic development tax credits to encourage each of these decisions. Within the City government, I worked closely with Tim Casey, Brookfield’s Economic Development Coordinator, and Dan Ertl, the Director of Community Development.  

The City of Brookfield is committed to working cooperatively with Milwaukee 7 as well as with other levels of government to promote economic development in this region. More initiatives are underway. The bottom line is that we want Brookfield to be a key part of an economically strong metropolitan area. Further, we want to assure that Brookfield continues to have the diversified economic base necessary to maintain and enhance its position as a premier city.