Tom Rave’s Take 5 Q & A in the Business Journal
The following Q and A session features Executive Director Tom Rave answering Sean Ryan's questions on the Aerotropolis Milwaukee effort. A version of this interview will appear in the "Take 5" column of the December 30, 2011 issue of the Business Journal serving Greater Milwaukee. See the online version here:
Business Journal Serving Greater Milwaukee - CRE Guide: Take 5 - Tom Rave interview
1. What is the progress on your efforts to educate the region on the aerotropolis concept?
We’ve established “Aerotropolis Milwaukee” as the brand name for our effort and have been making presentations about the concept, its rationale and potential benefits for southeastern Wisconsin. Members of our boards of directors have been educating their contacts as well, there has been more media coverage, elected officials and M7 are talking about it plus the aerotropolis section of www.gatewaytomilwaukee.com is open to the public.
Progress is evidenced by CARW’s members in a recent survey ranking Aerotropolis Milwaukee as #7 on a list of real estate projects that would generate the greatest ROI in the community. Yet Aerotropolis Milwaukee is more of an economic development effort than a real estate one. So the name and effort are becoming known but the concept and its potential needs to be more effectively explained and understood.
For southeastern Wisconsin to be competitive in a global economy, we will need to stimulate many business and public players to see the benefits and agree to significantly change the transportation environment, operations and governance that we currently have. Aerotropolis Milwaukee will be a significant part of the regional economic development plan now being worked on by SEWRPC at M7’s direction.
2. What are some of the high points for the Gateway to Milwaukee’s economic development initiatives in 2011?
Three parts of State government plus WHEDA have formally become public members of Milwaukee Gateway Aerotropolis Corporation (MGAC), which is a 501(c)3 public private nonprofit corporation that will develop and implement Aerotropolis Milwaukee. Those participants are the Departments of Natural Resources and Transportation and the new Economic Development Corporation. When added to the eight municipalities surrounding the Airport, Milwaukee County, SEWRPC, The Port of Milwaukee and the Airport itself, we now have major participants working to “be on the same page” as we develop Aerotropolis Milwaukee.
This summer we received the final strategic roadmap report for Aerotropolis Milwaukee from Dr. John Kasarda of the Kenan-Flagler Business Institute at the U. of North Carolina. He is the “world guru” of this urban development concept and chairs an annual conference that in 2011 attracted 600 participants from 40 countries. A sense of competitive urgency develops when one sees what economic developments are happening elsewhere, including in the U.S. and the Midwest. The roadmap provided eight broad summary findings for us along with 25 recommended actions that are guiding us as we begin tasks to achieve the five goals that we have for Aerotropolis Milwaukee.
Two presentations were made in July by Dr. Kasarda about the roadmap to leaders in the area, interested parties and were open to the public.
This fall we’ve had continuing education about transportation modes in the area and have now begun research about supply chain logistics capabilities, shortcomings and opportunities in southeastern Wisconsin. We will talk with freight forwarders, import export service firms, transportation providers and ultimately with their customers, who are companies who need the flexible, timely services and who pay the bills.
3. Beyond fostering real estate development, how is the organization trying to promote overall economic growth around the airport?
While the Aerotropolis Milwaukee economic development effort is centered at the Airport, its reach is much broader and bigger than the Airport.
Real estate development in and of itself is not economic development. For real estate development to be successful, there needs to be demand to fill the projects. That demand can come only from businesses needing locations to provide jobs, products and services, along with the supporting businesses, governments , education sources and people wanting to locate to fill the jobs. So the key question is how to create a regional environment that will attract business activity and locations.
Once a business gets beyond being a start-up and providing a living, then its objectives become more revenue produced more efficiently. An EFFICIENT, interconnected multimodal – air, rail, road and water - passenger and freight transportation system will help the businesses in the cluster industries in southeastern Wisconsin become more profitable and grow. An efficient system plus growing businesses will then create increasing demand for real estate investments for upgrades or new development. At the same time, those real estate investments will likewise energize the Aerotropolis Milwaukee effort. All of this will allow businesses to increase jobs for people living here and the economy to grow.
For southeastern Wisconsin to be competitive - and this is serious competition - in a global economy, we will need to convince many business and public players to see the benefits of and agree to significantly changing the transportation environment and operations that we currently have. And Aerotropolis Milwaukee will need to be a significant part of the regional economic development plan now being worked on by SEWRPC at M7’s direction.
4. How has the organization tried to encourage improvement to multiple modes of transportation?
At this point we have only been talking about the aerotropolis approach as a reasonable change and solution to help southeastern Wisconsin. Once people hear our presentations and understand the concepts, they say that Aerotropolis Milwaukee really makes good sense. The process of the supply chain logistics study should generate more awareness of the potential benefits among the businesses with whom we visit.
Because of increasing awareness of Aerotropolis Milwaukee and the importance of connecting to the Airport, we have seen more discussion about multimodal interconnections such as the new GreenLine or Bayshore-Airport-Express bus route being introduced by MCTS on January 29th, which will also stop at UWM. The time-savings will be 20-25% faster than a normal bus route. While this is a positive step from where we are now, we will keep asking the questions: “Is this the best that we can offer in Aerotropolis Milwaukee?” “What will make the most efficient sense from a transit master planning standpoint for southeastern Wisconsin for people getting to and from work, schools, shopping, services and for traveling?”
5. What are some of your goals for 2012?
With this being a collaborative effort, various interested parties will be invited to participate in achieving these goals. We welcome the involvement of universities in this region as well.
Create a visual portrait of what Aerotropolis Milwaukee could look like with improved transportation capabilities and the resulting real estate developments that could occur.
Complete our supply chain logistics study and establish a focus group to design applications that would integrate and leverage regional resources for fast-cycle logistics.
Compile available land in the aerotropolis area and develop criteria for establishing aerotropolis-like parcels.
Introduce and promote some landscaping, streetscaping and placemaking themes to begin having consistent welcoming aesthetics in the areas surrounding GMIA.
Continue educating people about Aerotropolis Milwaukee, especially businesses who will help lead its development. .
Begin reaching out to other municipalities in the Milwaukee Seven counties, and to the county governments themselves. Again, this will be a collaborative regional economic development effort.
There are additional tasks that will be ongoing, such as marketing and promotion locally, regionally and further outward.
