Insight on Business

February 2015

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30 | I NSIGH T • F e b r u a r y 2 0 15 w w w . i n s i g h t o n b u s i n e s s . c o m I N S I G H T O N COMMERCIAL CONSTRUCTION B y S e a n P. J o h n s o n T he tidal wave has been building. For the past two years, as the economy of the New North region has slowly pulled itself out of the Great Recession, area manufacturers have ramped up filling orders and putting folks back to work. Uncertain if the recovery was real, many chose to squeeze every last square inch out of their existing space rather than commit to new buildings. ey can wait no more. With work orders continuing to pile up and existing space exhausted, a figurative tsunami of building projects has washed over Northeast Wisconsin, as manufacturers have discovered they need more people, more equipment and more space to meet customer orders. e surge of demand is welcome news to the region's builders. "e past few years, there has really been a pent-up demand for these Bursting at the seams Manufacturing growth driving building boom in Northeast Wisconsin expansion projects," says Dean Hunt, director of commercial development at Bayland Buildings, Inc. "ey have been at capacity and waiting to see if that business would continue. Aer a couple of solid years, they finally feel confident." An upward trend of demand for expansions and new construction in the manufacturing and industrial sectors began to show itself a couple of years ago, those in the construction industry say. e wave reached an apex in late 2014, when two-thirds of manufacturers responding to the Northeast Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance's Manufacturing Vitality Index said they planned a modernization in 2015, and 30 percent planned an expansion. "It's been about two years since we have seen the turnaround," says Pat Nate, vice president for industrial operations at Miron Construction Co., Inc. "e segment leading the way has been food manufacturing and the demand for cheese." Since the trend began, Miron has completed expansion and renovation projects for food producers such as Agropur in Luxemburg, Galloway Company in Neenah and Sara Lee in New London. e company has seen the trend working nationally as well. "What we have seen both nationally and in Wisconsin is that 2014 was a profitable year with these types of projects," says Dan Voss, vice president of food and beverage for Miron. "e capital projects really took off as these companies expanded their brands. C O U R T E S Y O F H O F F M A N P L A N N I N G , D E S I G N & C O N S T R U C T I O N Hoffman Planning, Design & Construction is working on a $25 million, 162,000- square-foot expansion to Bemis Co.'s medical packaging facility in Oshkosh, one of the major projects the company will pursue in 2015.

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