Now Foxconn brings their Potemkin "Place" to Madison

Right on cue, a few days after that Verge story hits the Internet that basically implied that Foxconn was still a black box of unfulfilled promises and barely-occupied buildings (here it is again. Read it. Read ALL of it), look what happened in my town.

In an expansion of its presence around the Badger state, Foxconn Technology Group (Foxconn) today announced the acquisition of a landmark property at 1 West Main Street (One West Main) in downtown Madison and continued the growth of its network of Wisconn Valley Innovation Centers. Purchased from BMO Harris Bank, One West Main will be renamed Foxconn Place Madison and will serve to connect the University of Wisconsin-Madison and regional suppliers and partners with the Wisconn Valley Science and Technology Park and other Foxconn facilities in Wisconsin.

BMO and their approximately 100 employees in downtown Madison will continue to reside in the building, leasing space from Foxconn. Furthermore, a BMO Harris Bank branch will maintain its presence at the base of the building.

Nice deal for BMO Harris Bank, as they get several million dollars for their asset, and get to keep a key location on the Capitol Square.

But wait, if the bank and its jobs stay in the building, where does Foxconn come in? Ah, here we go.

"The Foxconn Institute of Research in Science and Technology (FIRST), part of which will be housed in Foxconn Place Madison, is an important part of that partnership. Through it, we hope to drive advances across a number of scientific fields over many years to come. These advances will not only create new technologies, they will also benefit human health and well-being.”

Under the signed Foxconn/UW-Madison Collaboration Declaration, Foxconn Place Madison will serve as a hub for technological innovation and provide an environment for students, staff, faculty and researchers to collaborate between Foxconn Place Madison and the UW-Madison campus. This off-campus building in downtown Madison will support research and development initiatives including advances in medical, material, computer and data sciences.

Riiight. Because when you want to collaborate with UW-Madison, you locate well off campus, and particularly far away from where the Engineering, Medical, and Computer Sciences are located.

This is a different tune than the one Foxconn was playing last August, when it had its original PR event with UW-Madison and claimed it was going to put up a $100 million grant to the UW (if Madison raised $100 million itself).

The agreement spells out that a Foxconn-sponsored building will be located on the campus’ engineering quad and a facility located close to campus will be owned by Foxconn…

UW-Madison and Foxconn also declined last month to answer questions about the status of their partnership, including an update on the status of the campus building and how much UW-Madison has raised in matching funds to date.

In fact, that article last month from the Wisconsin State Journal indicated that no one knows if a steering committee on the Foxconn-UW partnership has even met, because UW-Madison officials claim that the committee isn’t subject to the state’s open meetings laws.

Another reason your BS detector should be going off is because Foxconn bought a building that seems to be nothing but offices and apartments, with no real on-site lab to be found. But there is one thing in Madison is very convenient to get to from this building, as shown from the front door of “Foxconn Place”.

That makes it pretty easy for Foxconn-hired lobbyists and other employees to meet up with GOP legislators to make deals/promise donations to keep this scam afloat. It also reminds me of this clause in the contract Foxconn signed with WEDC.

“Full Time Job” means an employee position in the [Foxconn Enterprise] Zone [in Racine County] or outside the Zone, but within the State of Wisconsin, and for the benefit of the Recipient’s operations within the Zone, filled by a Full-Time Employee whose entire Wages are treated as paid in Wisconsin under Wis. Stat 71.25(8)(b).

All that’s needed for Foxconn to hit the 17% kickbacks on salaries and 15% kickback on capital expenditures is for them to reach 520 jobs “within the State of Wisconsin”, since Foxconn will likely claim that the Potemkin Villages innovation centers are part of the Racine County manufacturing project.

If 520 full-time employees are in place at Foxconn locations by the end of 2019, then Wisconsin taxpayers could be on the hook for up to $221.5 million next year. And that figure is on top of the hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure and land that has already been gifted for the benefit of Foxconn, including another $31 million that We Energies ratepayers will pony up for, after the Wisconsin PSC approved of a natural gas pipeline this week to handle “additional growth” in and around the Racine County Foxconn site.

When you look at the contract, it becomes clear that Foxconn’s purchase of the BMO Bank building is a short-term PR move to be able to add just enough employees to grab those hundreds of millions of dollars in tax credits. Then, much like what the Village of Mount Pleasant is doing with acres of farmland that was supposed to be used for Foxconn, the property can be leased back to the former tenants. Except that Foxconn will likely flips its real estate for more money at some later point.

What a disgusting scam. Given that the contract specifically mentions that Foxconn is to be building large-scale Gen 10.5 panels that they won’t build any more, it’s time to drop the hammer and take these guys to court. Hopefully, they’ll settle for less than what we’re going to be on the hook for if they end up sticking around for a few more years, and we can get them out of here before they rip us off even further.