FRI AM News: WisBusiness: the Podcast with Coleman Peiffer, Alliant Energy; Purina planning $195M expansion in Jefferson

April 26, 2024

— This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Coleman Peiffer, senior manager of economic and community development at Alliant Energy.

He discusses the Madison-based utility’s efforts to advance a tax credit for data centers in Wisconsin, which began early in the COVID-19 pandemic after neighboring states announced large data center projects.

“Ultimately, we were successful in getting new legislation passed as part of the governor’s budget last July, so a long journey of studying and understanding, but ultimately became fruitful,” he said.

Peiffer explains Alliant is interested in data centers because these facilities are major consumers of power, with the largest of these using more energy than 200 gas stations combined.

“It really helps us strengthen our infrastructure from a transmission standpoint, which really allows all of our industry — our residents, commercial, industrial — to have a more reliable service, so their power stays on longer,” he said. “And it really helps spread cost of upgrading that infrastructure, so they’re not all being charged right up front. You have a large user utilizing a lot of it.”

He said the “key component” of the law change is that data centers are exempt from sales and use tax on their personal property.

“Over a 20-year lifespan, you’re talking about significant savings from a tax standpoint,” he said. “And from a competitive playing field, if I’m siting a project and I’m looking at Wisconsin, or let’s say Iowa who already had one, I’m going to pick the state where I’m going to save roughly $100 million over my lifecycle.”

Peiffer also discusses Microsoft’s data center plans for Racine County and notes “you’re going to start seeing announcements probably in the next two to three years” for new data center projects in Wisconsin.

Listen to the podcast and see the full list of WisBusiness.com podcasts.

— Nestlé Purina PetCare Company is planning a $195 million expansion of its operations in Jefferson that’s expected to add about 100 jobs, state officials announced.

WEDC has authorized up to $1.7 million in performance-based tax credits, which the company can earn over the next five years through job creation and capital investment, according to a release from Gov. Tony Evers. Purina is a U.S.-based subsidiary of Swiss corporation Nestle.

“Nestlé Purina has a more than 100-year history in our state, and we are excited to celebrate this world-class brand’s commitment to seeing many more years of continued success and local economic development in Wisconsin,” Evers said in a statement.

The project aims to boost production of the company’s wet pet food brands by about 50% while adding 35,000 square feet to the existing facility. The production site currently employs more than 250 people.

Jefferson has created a tax increment financing district for the project, providing up to $2 million to the company for project costs over 20 years, the release shows.

See the release.

— State home sales in March rose 3.2% over the year even as median home prices jumped more than 10%, according to the latest Wisconsin Realtors Association report.

The group yesterday reported 4,666 homes were sold last month, compared to 4,521 in March 2023. Over the same period, statewide listings rose 10.6% to 15,880 and the median home price increased 10.1% to reach $299,900.

Mary Jo Bowe, this year’s chair of the WRA Board of Directors, notes the higher listings total has helped drive sales in the early months of 2024.

“Total listings have been improving since October, and they’ve been up by double-digit margins on a year-over-year basis for the last two months,” she said in the report. “This has helped push first quarter sales up for the first time since 2021. Hopefully this trend continues as we move into the all-important summer sales period.”

Report authors note housing supply “remains very tight” with just 2.9 months of available inventory in March. That’s less than half of the six-month benchmark the WRA says indicates a balanced market.

“Still, months of inventory improved in every region of the state due in part to more listings,” report authors wrote.

But WRA President and CEO Tom Larson points to high mortgage rates as a challenge for housing affordability in the state. He notes the 30-year fixed mortgage rate remains around 7%.

“Strong demand from millennials is driving up sales but also putting pressure on prices,” he said. “We really need to see rates come down if affordability is to improve.”

See the report.

— Residents of Portage County have filed a lawsuit challenging a settlement between DNR and a large dairy farm over nitrate contamination, arguing the agreement wrongly weakened groundwater monitoring requirements.

The lawsuit, filed by Midwest Environmental Advocates on behalf of the residents, also alleges the agreement unlawfully excluded public input on the terms of Gordondale Farms’ wastewater permit.

MEA staff attorney Adam Voskuil in a statement said state law gives members of the public the right to participate in permit decisions.

“These rights are essential for holding agricultural operations accountable to our environmental laws. Shutting our clients out of the process not only deprives them of their rights, it also perpetuates the ongoing drinking water crisis in their community,” Voskuil said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Natural Resources declined to comment, saying the agency does not comment on pending litigation.

Gordondale Farms is a concentrated animal feeding operation in Nelsonville. Each of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit either lived or currently live near the site and had their water contaminated with nitrate, which they attribute to the farm’s landspreading of manure.

DNR incorporated groundwater monitoring requirements into Gordondale Farms’ wastewater permit after a state Supreme Court ruling found the agency has the authority to implement permit restrictions on CAFOs requiring groundwater monitoring and limiting the number of livestock.

But the farm challenged the restrictions and reached a settlement with DNR last fall which weakened monitoring requirements, and plaintiffs in the latest lawsuit say the agreement undermines efforts to prevent nitrate contamination.

The lawsuit asks the court to invalidate the agreement, arguing DNR failed to transmit a petition to hold a contested case hearing as required by law. Contested case hearings allow stakeholders to provide input on the terms of a given wastewater permit. But the filing notes the settlement did not allow DNR to consider stakeholder comments before issuing a final permit.

— Milwaukee is one of four Workforce Hubs announced by the White House, supporting the city’s plans for replacing lead pipes.

Milwaukee Water Works has a program in place to replace about 65,000 residential lead service lines, and aims to “rapidly expand the pace” of that process to meet a 10-year proposed timeline from the EPA, according to the city’s website.

In a fact sheet released yesterday, the White House said the EPA and U.S. Department of Transportation will “stand up a Workforce Hub to ensure the city has the skilled workers needed to accomplish this ambitious lead pipes replacement project and invest in clean water infrastructure in Milwaukee.”

The announcement doesn’t include any details about financial elements of this support.

Other Workforce Hub sites announced yesterday include upstate New York, Michigan and Philadelphia, bringing the total number to nine. Five hubs in Phoenix, Columbus, Baltimore, Augusta and Pittsburgh were announced last year.

The White House is touting the impact of those initial designations, including a new initiative to train 10,000 construction workers in Ohio and a registered apprenticeship program in semiconductor manufacturing in Arizona. The fact sheet says “the Administration will expand the successful models” developed through the first round of hubs.

— Organizers for the 2024 Republican National Convention have opened up applications for vendors to participate in Convention Fest, a daytime street festival that will operate during the convention.

The Committee on Arrangements and the 2024 Milwaukee Host Committee yesterday announced they’re seeking applications from local food, beverage, retail, and experience-related businesses.

Described as a “street fair experience,” Convention Fest will include pop-up booths and live entertainment, according to the email. It will be open from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. July 15-18.

See more details and find the application here.

— Researchers at UW-Madison and Northwestern University are exploring the potential of a newly created “nanomaterial” for treating Alzheimer’s disease and other conditions.

This miniscule synthetic material is called a protein-like polymer, or PLP. Because it can bind to specific target proteins that are involved with the development of neurodegenerative diseases, it could be used as part of potential treatments, according to the release from the university.

It was designed by a team led by Nathan Gianneschi, a professor of chemistry at Northwestern University in Illinois, and tested using mouse model brain cells at UW-Madison. The Wisconsin-based authors of the study include Jeffrey Johnson, a professor in the School of Pharmacy and his wife Delinda Johnson, a senior scientist with the school. Their results were published recently in the journal Advanced Materials.

The Johnsons had previously conducted research into the proteins the PLP interacts with, showing that increasing the activity of a specific protein in the brain reduced memory loss by protecting the neurons of mice.

The more recent collaborative study came after Jeffrey Johnson was initially skeptical about using the unfamiliar nanomaterial, according to the university.

“But then one of Nathan’s students came up here with it and put it on our cells, and I’ll be damned if it didn’t work really well,” he said in the release. “We really dove into it then.”

They found the PLP was “very effective” at binding to the target protein in cultured cells, the release shows. To build on these results, the researchers will be applying this approach in mouse models of neurodegenerative diseases.

See the release.

For more of the most relevant health care news, reports on groundbreaking research in Wisconsin, links to top stories and more, sign up today for the free daily Health Care Report from WisPolitics and WisBusiness.com.

Sign up here.

Epic Systems is starting sixth campus, and it’s from ‘Other Worlds’

Eaton awarded $26.6 million in tax credits following investments made at three plants, including Waukesha facility

TOPICS

CONSTRUCTION

– Parking garage becomes first in Wisconsin to earn Parksmart certification

– City dumps contractor after learning of debris left in north side neighborhood, plans to install cameras

ECONOMY

– Dane County project helps Latinas in Wisconsin save for retirement despite low wages

EDUCATION

– Amid falling public confidence, forum speakers defend value of a college degree

– Godlewski stops in Eau Claire, presents check for $800K to school district