But I do find it very interesting that the City of Milwaukee is soliciting Chinese investors for the Pabst Farms redevelopment project.
It appears as though our civic leaders are actually thinking outside the box about getting something done to revitalize downtown.
The shuttered 21-acre Pabst Brewing Co. complex, perhaps the most conspicuous symbol of Milwaukee's urban decay, could receive a share of its redevelopment funding from an unexpected source: the Chinese.
Milwaukee-area foreign-investment zone that business leaders created last year under an obscure federal program has shown signs in recent weeks that it gradually could start to bear fruit.
Pabst is one of three projects to date that is soliciting international investment within the zone, which encompasses the seven counties of southeastern Wisconsin. Investors who win security clearance from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are granted legal residency rights in the United States in exchange for a $500,000 investment in distressed or rural areas within the zone.
"This is one way to revitalize the greater Milwaukee area," said Stephen Yale-Loehr, who teaches immigration law at Cornell University and is an authority on the sort of EB-5 Immigrant Investment Zones that metro Milwaukee has created.
Planners at the Pabst want to create a Milwaukee International Trade Center. The proposed Pabst trade center, which is still in the planning stages, will lease exhibition space to foreign firms that want an import-export presence in the investment zone.
It aims to get its funding from a private equity fund that Milwaukee entrepreneur Robert Kraft is launching in order to bring funds into the EB-5 zone. Kraft said he's been traveling regularly to China and expects a formal announcement of the funds creation within weeks. Many Chinese aspire to U.S. residency rights, Kraft noted, even if they lack an immediate investment objective.
I have to believe that if they can be successful with this project through foreign, especially Chinese investments, that there is hope for other downtown projects
The tie in with Yi and the Milwaukee Bucks and the looming arena issue is not lost on me.
If Herb really, really wanted to leave a legacy for the Bucks it should be this.
Find a way for the Bucks to build a new stadium, their own stadium, and ensure the Bucks are in Milwaukee forever.
Fans would love him for it and he would realize his dream of keeping the Bucks in Milwaukee, long after he is gone.