There is no doubt Franklin is a booming city, possessing great potential to successfully rocket itself in the right direction. It wasn’t always this way.
As a young child, I recall Franklin was merely a blink of the eye as my dad drove the family from our south side Milwaukee home to Wind Lake. Odds are if you went to Franklin and actually stopped your car, it was to go to the drive-in theater. Thoughts of six-story, 500-thousand square foot office buildings, upscale retail shops and martini lounges were unimaginable. Today, the sky’s the limit for Franklin.
Fueling my optimism is the recent news that Sendik’s plans to open not one, but two supermarkets in the city. This is a major coup considering Sendik’s currently has several grocery stores in the Milwaukee area, but none are located in the southern portion of metropolitan Milwaukee. One of the new locations will be at the ultra-promising Fountains of Franklin near 56th and Rawson. The other will be at the Shops of Wyndham Village at Highway 100 and Drexel Avenue.
Some residents near the Highway 100 site may not be thrilled about an increase in traffic, but I submit it’s not 1957 anymore, and that increased traffic means singing and ringing cash registers welcoming in new revenue, not to mention more jobs.
My friend Doug Wheaton, Economic Development Director for the city of Franklin told the Small Business Times last September that the question has to be asked if the re-zoning of the Highway 100 and Drexel site to accommodate an upscale shopping center that might include Sendik’s, restaurants, retail shops, banks, and a spa is the “highest and best use of the site.” The answer, of course, is yes.
The citizenry of Franklin, one that is growing by leaps and bounds, is crying out for high-quality destination places to dine and shop. I’m not talking Applebee’s and Family Dollar. I’m talking the kinds of places that have people excited about getting in their cars and driving to Mayfair or the new Bayshore Town Center. The point is, wouldn’t it be nice to have those opportunities here so a trip to Brookfield or Wauwatosa wouldn’t be necessary?
I must admit, I am a bit impatient. I want to see these developments sooner rather than later. Construction on both the Shops of Wyndham Village and the Fountains of Franklin is set to begin this spring. And yet a huge gas station is being built right now at a furious pace at the corner of 51st and Rawson. Yes we need places to fill up our tanks. Let’s not wait too long to get going on these other projects.
I had the opportunity to meet David Hintzman, President of Equitable Development LLC, one of the developers of the Fountains of Franklin. He impresses me as being fully dedicated to making the project work, complete with much sought after amenities and attractive architecture and landscaping. My advice to Hintzman: crank up the public relations/marketing campaign. I would venture to guess a great deal of Franklin has no idea how ambitious or enticing the Fountains of Franklin is. Heck, I bet a lot of people have never heard about it, period. Get the word out, pitch your project, and make people aware of what you’re planning in your office where I see the lights on late quite frequently. Get the media to do stories, and update your web site ASAP.
The expansion of Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.'s corporate campus on S. 27th St. and the construction of Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare's outpatient medical center at S. 27th St. and W. Oakwood Road are exactly the types of development Franklin needs to pursue. Maintaining a strong business and fiscal climate is critical to attracting such desirable employers and the jobs they create. That means holding the line on taxes and spending.
The citizens of Franklin are blessed to have devoted representatives working on their behalf. Mayor Tom Taylor and the entire Common Council are to be commended for their efforts. More municipalities in the tax hell we call Wisconsin should follow the lead of Franklin in exercising fiscal responsibility.
However, we can do even better. A spending increase next year of 9% with a tax levy increase of over 5%, I feel, is a bit unfortunate. The counter argument of, “Franklin: Our tax increase could have been higher,” just wouldn’t look good on a bumper sticker or a Chamber of Commerce ad. I challenge my friends at City Hall to use their talents to tighten the reins even further. Doing so will help retain and recruit more jobs, and prevent more gifted taxpayers from putting up the For Sale signs. I would issue the same challenge to members of the Franklin School Board. Wisconsin has the highest property taxes in the nation. The people who pay the bills deserve a break.
Franklin has a great workforce, terrific schools, wonderful neighborhoods, and tremendous civic pride evidenced by the outpouring of residents opposed to the construction of a halfway house to place sexually violent persons.
The potential is incredible. In the world of sports, when the term potential is used to describe an athlete, it is usually in the past tense, in that, “he/ she had great potential, but never quite lived up to it.” Franklin has a ton of momentum working in its favor. Let’s keep our energy and focus headed in the right direction by thinking big, by being visionary, by insisting on the high quality Franklin citizens are thirsting for.
