The long-anticipated announcement by GE Healthcare to keep its IT division's 2,000 employees in the Milwaukee area is both an indicator of current business climate conditions and a precursor of more to come.
      The division will build a new 475,000-sq.-ft. (44,128-sq.-m.) building in Wauwatosa's Milwaukee County Research Park, after considering sites in Milwaukee proper and in Menomonee Falls. Wauwatosa Mayor Theresa

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Estness told Small Business Times in May 2004 that another company is working on plans to put a technical training school in the same park. And the vacating of two adjacent distribution properties in Wauwatosa has opened up a 70-acre (28-hectare) parcel primed for higher-use redevelopment.
      The Research Park includes 17 total sites encompassing 175 acres (71 hectares) of land at the southern edge of Wauwatosa, with easy access to freeways and major universities. Tenants benefit not only from the Technology Innovation Center incubator on the property, but from connecting to MCRP's four university partners: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Medical College of Wisconsin, and Marquette University.
      But there continues to be renewed interest in the City of Milwaukee, where not only has the aforementioned Roundy's located its headquarters at the lakefront, but Harley-Davidson has established a new $95-million campus.
      Now that's HQ muscle.