Stockton water-technology start up moves to Milwaukee

From the inbox.  It is rare that an obscure article in the Milwaukee Business Journal touches so many different issues important to my job and this blog.  Check it out while I scream in frustration.

Water technology company plans Milwaukee plant

A California water-technology company is planning to establish a manufacturing facility and offices in Milwaukee that could create up to 300 jobs.

American Micro Detection Systems Inc., Stockton, Calif., is looking for a Milwaukee site for a $7.5-million, 2,000-square-foot manufacturing, testing, assembly and shipping facility, said Robert Keville, chairman, president and CEO...

The company, established in 2003, manufactures equipment that tests water, oil and other fluids for impurities and heavy metals...

Keville said he has not chosen a site. He said he wants the building to be near one of the two places where the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is establishing its School of Freshwater Sciences...

Keville said the city of Milwaukee has offered forgivable loans to the project and the state of Wisconsin is offering tax credits...

Keville said Milwaukee is attractive because its local companies can supply the services AMDS needs and because of the efforts to brand that area as a worldwide hub of companies whose products involve water.

“It’s in its infancy,” Keville said, “but it is only going to grow. Lake Michigan isn’t going to get any cleaner by itself.”

Meeusen said AMDS’s planned move to Milwaukee is further proof for skeptics that Milwaukee can become a international seat of water technology companies.

“If we were located on Lake Superior, we would call it Lake Pretty Good,” he said. “We just never believe that we are anything, and I find that very frustrating. The fact of the matter is Milwaukee is a water hub.”