Northwestern Mutual kicks off tower construction

Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. hosted a celebration this morning to mark the end of demolition work and the start of construction work for the $450 million, 32-story, 1.1 million-square-foot Northwestern Mutual Tower and Commons office building on its downtown Milwaukee campus.

The new building will replace a 16-story, 452,000-square-foot office building on the campus that has been demolished. The demolition work began in December.

Planning for the new building began about four years ago.

Im so glad this day is finally here, said Northwestern Mutual Chief Executive Officer John Schlifske. All of the years of planning and demolition work is over. This is not a groundbreaking, because we broke ground long ago. But now were going to see something rise out of the ground.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett thanked Schlifske and the companys board for investing in the city.

(Schlifske) could have made the decision to build this anywhere, Barrett said. I believe that they decided to build here because they believe in this city. You have to have people that believe.

Northwestern Mutual has committed to have at least 40 percent of the workers on the project be city residents and is supporting worker training efforts for construction workers for this and other future construction projects in the area. The project will employ about 1,000 construction workers.

A lot of the work is going to be done by people that live in this city, Barrett said. A lot of people are critical of people in this city, but I have to tell you, they want to work.

The city is providing $54 million in tax incremental financing for the project.

We decided this partnership is critical to the future of the city of Milwaukee, Barrett said.

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Northwestern Mutual kicks off tower construction