Signicast Opens New Plant in Menomonee Valley
Hartford company opening plant in city to combat labor shortage.
Canal Street Commerce Center. Photo from Colliers International.
A labor shortage is causing companies to re-evaluate the decades-long trend of building new factories in suburban greenfields.
Hartford-based Signicast chose to open a new plant in the Menomonee Valley to access the thousands of workers in the city. The new investment casting facility has 60 employees today with hopes to add 20 more by the end of the year.
The company is leasing 12,000 square feet of space in the multi-tenant Canal Street Commerce Center at 1241 W. Canal St. It opened the operation in December 2021 and plans to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony later this month.
Part of Charlotte-based Form Technologies, Signicast manufactures precision cast parts for customers in a range of industries, including aerospace, firearms, fluid technologies, firearms and mining. The new facility is designed to specialize in secondary operations and finishing processes.
“The expansion to the Menomonee Valley has been a success. The area is thriving with new business, and we are proud to be a part of the continued
growth,” said Brown Deer and Hutchins, TX facility general manager Ted Kraus.
The company’s website lists U.S. locations in Hartford, Brown Deer, Milwaukee and Hutchens and additional plants in the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Hartford complex includes a number of buildings. The company was founded in 1959 and became part of Form in 2018. Form reports having more than 8,800 employees.
The space now occupied by Signicast was previously home to Nova Technology International, according to Signicast’s press release.
The commerce center property, 1207-1325 W. Canal St., was acquired in May by a Delaware-based company with a California mailing address for $17.2 million. The property was most recently assessed at $11.8 million.
Other tenants in the building, according to the Menomonee Valley Partners website, include Automation Arts, Bence Build, Brew City Brand, Fastenal, Industrial Controls, Milsco Manufacturing, PGW Auto Glass, Rexnord and Stamm Technologies.
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I think you have to be a certain age and grown up near the Menomonee Valley to appreciate the scale of the achievement there. As a kid growing up nearby, we took for granted the industrial powerhouse that the Valley was. For example, at night, in Mitchell Park, you could see the flames pouring out of the Harvester plant’s smokestacks, the constant train traffic, and the giant Red Star Yeast sign. And, most important, all of those jobs. There was also the environmental price that was paid in dirty air and a river that was an open sewer.
Deindustrialization ended all that, leaving a toxic wasteland behind. What has been accomplished by Milwaukee City government in the years since is extraordinary. And, for those whose default position is to trash government, all they have to do is look at some before and after photos of the Valley to see government at its best. And an urban economic redevelopment and environmental accomplishment that is the equal of almost any in the country.