EXCERPTS FROM THE SHEPHERD EXPRESS–In 2008, when the Water Council was forming as a loose consortium of legacy business and community leaders in Milwaukee, it was big news when Vandewalle & Associates, a consulting firm researching the business climate in Milwaukee, “discovered” that there was a cluster of water businesses in Milwaukee. “It’s not that we created a cluster; we found a cluster,” says Amhaus. “So, when people talk about us ‘becoming’ a freshwater hub or capital, we already were that because of the long history of companies which were already here. Some of them have been in operation for 120-130 years.”
The reality of the “water cluster” in Milwaukee helped the Water Council forge an identity and a mission. In 2009, it formally established itself as a non-profit, and in 2013, it opened the GWC in a fully renovated building, which had once been a box factory. The building immediately attracted tenants and became a hub for legacy and start-up water technology companies, as well as a few non-profits.
Since 2013, delegations from 74 countries have visited the Global Water Center (GWC) at 247 W. Freshwater Way (formerly West Pittsburgh Avenue). The Water Council’s Global Water Center has been instrumental in bringing together regional companies old and new that are producing 21st-century water technologies. It also is encouraging cutting-edge water research that Marquette University and UW-Milwaukee are conducting, as well as supporting an incubator program for start-ups. Read the full article here.
