BizNews FEATURE
Mark Obradovich, right, greets state and federal officials. Obradovich is managing director of Ingeteam’s Milwaukee facility.
Ingeteam sees path to finally surpassing original job goal Ashley Smart, staff writer
SPANISH COMPANY Ingeteam, a manufacturer specializing in energy conversion, could soon surpass its original goal of having 275 employees at its Milwaukee facility. Ingeteam opened its $15 million Milwaukee facility, located in the Menomonee Valley at 3550 W. Canal St., in 2011. Generators and converters for wind turbines and solar power inverters are manufactured there. While the company was slow to add jobs in the years following the opening of the facility, the addition of two new production lines within the next year could double Ingeteam’s current Milwaukee workforce of approximately 150 people. When it was first opening the facility, the company received $1.6 million in federal stimulus tax credits, a $500,000 loan from the state and $4.5 million in state tax
credits to locate in Wisconsin. Ingeteam also received a $2 million forgivable loan from Milwaukee’s Redevelopment Authority in June 2010 to finance the construction of its Milwaukee facility. A condition of that loan was that the company reach 275 employees by 2015, a date that was later pushed back to 2020. Ingeteam only reached 164 employees by 2020 and had to repay part of its forgivable loan, according to Department of City Development officials. “There’s this hunger right now to make Milwaukee the capital of the renewable energy revolution,” said Garan Chivinski, human resources manager at Ingeteam, during an interview with BizTimes Milwaukee. During a meet and greet in late October, Mayor Cavalier Johnson, County Executive David Crowley, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, U.S.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin examines a part on Ingeteam’s shop floor.
Rep. Gwen Moore and Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh visited Ingeteam’s Milwaukee campus to learn more about the company’s plans to use Inflation Reduction Act tax credits to expand its operations. “At the end of the day, this is the largest investment in clean energy that we’ve ever had in this country,” said Walsh. “It’s really significant what this bill’s going to do for this country.” Walsh said the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS and Science Act, were all aimed at lowering everyday costs and supporting local governments. “What you’re seeing here in Milwaukee is what we want to see around the rest of the country,” said Walsh. “We want to see these kinds of opportunities and this type of growth happen.” INCREASED PRODUCTION IN MILWAUKEE Chivinski said Ingeteam plans to return one of its production lines to the U.S. as well as one other new production line. “We have 50% of the facility that is used to build the wind
turbines. In the past, we had built small numbers of converters and inverters for solar fields. We will be bringing production back from Spain for that in the coming year,” said Chivinski. “We’ll be able to also bring our production of the EV charging stations here as well.” Ingeteam has also signed a long-term contract with Fincantieri Marinette Marine to build a special kind of turbine that will be installed within naval ships. The company will start building those turbines for Navy ships next year. “If you put all those (production lines) together, we could theoretically double our headcount (in Milwaukee),” said Chivinksi. “We have a lot of really new, exciting energy here.” Mark Obradovich, managing director at Ingeteam’s Milwaukee facility, believes funding from the Inflation Reduction Act will allow Ingeteam to become more competitive. “It will allow our customers to consider purchasing locally, and it will make us more cost competitive when they’re looking at things that are purchased elsewhere,” said Obradovich. n biztimes.com / 13
