Commission recommends creation of Tax Incremental District 19 to support Milwaukee Tool expansion

The Menomonee Falls Planning Commission unanimously recommended on March 4 that the village board create Tax Incremental District No. 19 and adopt the district’s project plan, a financing mechanism presented to support Milwaukee Tool’s planned expansion and rehabilitation of an existing building in the Heritage Reserve area.

Harry Allen of Ehlers, the district’s financial consultant, presented the project plan and explained tax increment financing (TIF). Allen said the proposed TID is a mixed-use district intended primarily to support Milwaukee Tool’s planned conversion of an existing building at 100 Heritage Reserve into an electric lab and R&D facility, with potential future construction of up to four additional buildings totaling about 750,000 square feet in several phases. He said the mixed-use designation requires that at least 50% of the TID’s developable area be usable for at least two types of uses; Ehlers’ analysis found about 71% of the district is…