$10 Billion Wisconsin Project on Hold?

Wisconsin project, Foxconn, plans for a $10 billion plant in Wisconsin may or may not be a go, according to conflicting reports. Some recent reports indicate that the officials in charge of Foxconn might be abandoning the plans for the manufacturing plant and switching the project to a knowledge hub. But, others in charge of the project allege that the original $10 billion project will continue as originally planned.

Reuters reports that more than $200 million has already been invested in the project. Foxconn is a firm based in Taiwan, which originally announced it would make LCD technology products at the new manufacturing facility. However, some officials have said since the original announcement that making the products in the U.S. isn’t economically feasible. The assessment was made based on how much would be needed for the creation of 13,000 manufacturing jobs, which would be in return for promised tax incentives.

The Latest Updates

Foxconn Technology Group CEO Terry Gou notified the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation that Foxconn wouldn’t tap into the hiring incentives for its $10 billion LCD manufacturing facility to be in Mount Pleasant because it hasn’t met the goals that were agreed upon in order to obtain those incentives.

Gou indicated that the company created 1.032 direct jobs during 2018, which included 854 positions in construction, but only 178 of them qualified for the agreed-upon incentive program. The company would have been eligible for as much as $9.5 million in tax credits, according to a report in the Milwaukee Business Journal, if only 260 jobs had been created by Foxconn. The company could potentially get as much as $3 billion in incentives if at least 13,000 full-time positions are created by the manufacturing facility.

Where it Stands

While there has been a setback, Foxconn did report that the construction for the Wisconsin project is progressing on schedule and more than $200 million has been invested in the project. The hired teams thus far have been 95% based in Wisconsin. The crews have moved more than 4 million cubic yards of dirt and they have finished building a 120,000-square-foot building that is multi-purpose. The building construction involved 37 contractors.

During the construction phase, contractors will share space with the company development and research teams in the multipurpose building. Total contract awards were about $14 million. The general contractor is a joint venture of Gilbane Building Co. and M+W Group.