Foxconn Selling Two Empty Wisconsin Buildings After Failed Promises to Bring Jobs to the State – By Nikki Main (Gizmodo) / Aug 28, 2023
The manufacturing project became infamous when former President Trump broke ground at the site and red flags became immediately apparent.
Foxconn is selling off two of its large facilities in Wisconsin after years of neglected promises to bring thousands of jobs to Eau Claire and Green Bay. The Taiwanese manufacturing company has pivoted from one potential production idea to the next since it broke ground in 2017 and gave then-President Donald Trump an opportunity to take photos and claim he’s bringing jobs back to the United States.
The company said it was building “innovation centers” around Wisconsin including an LCD factory that never came to fruition. In 2019 and 2020, The Verge reported that little progress had been made on the project and two buildings were sitting empty. Now those two buildings are being sold off along with any hope of a Foxconn employment boom.
Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich said in a Twitter post that he is optimistic that the sale of the Green Bay facility, known as the Watermark building, will “lead to better utilization of a fantastic waterfront building.” The Green Bay Press-Gazette reported that only three of the six floors in the Watermark building are in use, adding that two of its first-floor retail spaces are vacant, leaving only the other two in use.
Jeff Mirkes, executive director of Downtown Green Bay, told Wisconsin Public Radio that the Foxconn building could have positively impacted the city’s downtown area, but is looking toward future possibilities for the building.
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