Milwaukee strengthens corridor redevelopment.

Byline: Sean Ryan

The flood of resources into Milwaukee's 30th Street Industrial Corridor continued this week.

The city's redevelopment plans for the former industrial center cover all aspects of development: job training, housing redevelopment, crime-prevention efforts, and acquiring and redeveloping blighted properties. On Tuesday, city aldermen endorsed a $100,000 job-training initiative, $141,790 to set up a business incubator and $350,000 for infrastructure and property acquisitions.

"We've made huge strides along those lines," Alderman Willie Wade,who represents part of the district, said. "I look at it ... as our last frontier of industrial land."

The city's already marked certain properties for acquisition, including the 86-acre former Tower Automotive parcel. The Milwaukee Industrial Trade Center owns the land and hired The Dickman Co. to find tenants to lease the site's 2.1 million square feet.

The Milwaukee Industrial Trade Center did not respond to calls forcomment and how the search is progressing.

Mayor Tom Barrett in his proposed 2008 budget included $3 million tabbed for property acquisitions and infrastructure improvements for the Tower site.

"Tower is the obvious one out there, but we are looking at other properties, too," said Benji Timm, project manager for the 30th StreetCorridor for the Department of City Development. "We have certain properties in mind and because of the sensitivity of the negotiations, we can't show all of our cards right now."

Tower is going to take years to revitalize, Timm said, so the city's hoping to pick up smaller sites in the area and redevelop them in ways, including new housing, to spur other projects.

Brenna Holly, executive director of the 30th Street Industrial Corridor Corp., presented the corridor's business improvement district'sannual plan at Tuesday's meeting. Much of that plan focused on safety, including setting up block watches and grants for companies to install security cameras.

"A lot if it is perception, really, so we're trying to improve that," Holly said.