$80 Million Air Cargo Center Takes Off At Mitchell Airport

Ribbon cutting for new Air Cargo Center at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

Construction on a massive $80 million air cargo facility at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport is wrapping up.

The 337,000 square-foot-facility was developed by Crow Holdings, a Dallas-based commercial real estate firm, and the airport. It was built in the MKE Regional Business Park on the site of the former U.S. Air Force Reserve 440th Airlift Wing base, which closed in 2008. Construction was led by ARCO/Murray.

Milwaukee Mitchell provided the land and Crow Holdings provided the financing. The 102-acre property was previously marketed to Foxconn executives as a secondary site in 2017, before the Taiwanese corporation landed on a site in Mount Pleasant for a massive manufacturing facility that never materialized as fully planned.

“It’s an investment in Milwaukee County’s future in Wisconsin businesses, and the continued growth of MKE Airport,” Airport Brian Dranzik said at a ribbon-cutting Wednesday 

The airport is calling the new facility the Air Cargo Center. It can accommodate up to five Boeing 747-400 aircraft, which each can carry the same amount of freight as 11 semitrailer trucks. Airport officials believe it has the potential to quadruple the air cargo traffic coming in and out of Milwaukee. The airport is also constructing $10.5 million in new taxiways to accommodate the large cargo planes moving in and out of the facility.

The airport, which is owned by Milwaukee County, expects to collect $1.3 million annually in airport fees and $1 million annually through a ground lease. The airport funds its operations and infrastructure projects through fees paid by air carriers.

The Air Cargo Center will provide a new, direct connection between southeastern Wisconsin and the international shipping industry, said Jack Rabenn, managing director with Crow Holdings. It will not replace the air freight infrastructure at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, but will instead act as a “relief valve” for international shippers and supply chains, Rabenn said.

“So the state with the highest concentration of manufacturing businesses and jobs will no longer need to leak goods, revenues, and services outside of the state just to facilitate the supply chain,” he said.

Completing the facility this fall will allow Crow to bid on 2027 freight contracts. The firm plans to contract with an operator to manage the facility, which could support up to 300 jobs, Rabenn previously said.

Air Cargo Center

Construction

12►

Renderings and Pre-Development Site Photo

Existing members must be signed in to see the interactive map. Sign in.