n April, just as the entire state of Wisconsin – including Gov. Jim Doyle in an official statement – was mourning the retirement of the Green Bay Packers' marquee quarterback, Minneapolis-based Genmar Holdings' Carver Boat Corp. division announced a 450-job, multiple-site investment in its Marquis Yacht operations in the Green Bay area, where the company has been making high-class boats for decades. And the governor was a key player.
      "Frankly, dealing with Governor Doyle made it very easy," says Irwin Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Genmar, from his office in Minneapolis. "When I called him and asked about coming to see him, he said, 'No, when can I come see you?' He was here within two days with his whole entourage. Without him, this would not have happened. He took complete control and made sure there was no slippage."
      Doyle, from his office in Madison, recounts that when it came time for a plant visit in Pulaski, the temperature was at least 15 degrees below zero – about what it was in Brett Favre's final game for the Packers. But that wasn't keeping Jacobs, a born-and-bred Minnesotan, from making the trip.
      "I thought, 'There's no way he's going up to Brown County, Wisconsin, on a day like this," recounts Doyle. "But he was going, and we had a good tour of the facility."
      The company plans to expand its plants in Pulaski, and open new facilities in Oconto County and within the city of Green Bay, adjacent to the South Bay Marina.
      While his conversations with Jacobs were important, Doyle gives more credit to the state Department of Commerce team, headed by Jack Fisher, in coming up with an attractive incentive package for the US$27-million investment. The package included a $2.7-million loan and a $600,000 training grant from the Department of Commerce, and a $960,000 grant from the Department of Transportation through its Harbor Assistance Program.
      "Their statement was, 'We're not letting you go,'" says Jacobs of the state's team and their generous offer. But he points out that it was not the best deal from a financial point of view.
      "We looked at sites in the south," says Jacobs. "I could have gotten three to four times the amount of money in loans and grants, but I would have had to move more of my existing operation there. The learning curve would have been much too dangerous for us."
      Instead, it was all about people and talent, whether it be glasswork, high-end cabinetry or welding. More than a fifth of Carver's work force has more than 20 years of tenure.
      "We know what we have," says Jacobs of his valuable work force and the facilities they already occupy. "It was only natural we find a way of using that same infrastructure."
      Doyle says it's just one example of high-end manufacturing in a state that boasts similar best-of-class operations from companies such as Harley-Davidson, Johnson Controls, Kohler and Rockwell Automation.       The germination of the Carver project appears to rise from the age-old wish of every boat owner to have a new craft that's just a little bigger.
      "Absolutely right," says Jacobs. "These customers are looking for the newest and best thing."
      Carver Boat Corp. manufactures luxury motor yachts under the Marquis and Carver brands that range in size from 36 feet to 70 feet. Marquis and Carver are both under the umbrella of the Carver Yacht Group, a division of Genmar. The company launched its Marquis line six years ago with a plant in Fano, Italy, building 64-ft. boats and learning a lot about European designs and finishes. Genmar then brought the operation back to the Carver factory in Pulaski, and launched the Marquis 65-ft. line three years ago to great success.
      "We're on Hull 89 or 90 right now, so we're putting out 30 a year," says Jacobs, "and we just launched the 70-foot line this year."
      At more than 1 million sq. ft. (92,900 sq. m.), the Pulaski operation is the largest boat builder of craft of 50 feet or more in length. With the expansion, the company plans to produce mega-yachts up to 100 feet in length, to sell to a limited but potent worldwide market.
      "We've been looking at mega-yachts for several years," says Jacobs, mentioning the design connections his firm made in Italy. "We have several customers here and around the world asking us. The first one will be a 92-footer, then an 88-footer for Europe. We'll end up at somewhere around 100 feet, max."
      Given Jacobs' history as a corporate takeover artist, it comes as no surprise that he, along with Carver President Bob Van led the site evaluation process, which Jacobs says was not complex.
      "We looked basically at anything close to water," he says, noting the company's product evolution from trailer-friendly craft to the mega-yacht. Both domestic and foreign sites were under consideration. Up to now, the company's three facilities in Pulaski, Michigan and Minnesota have been moving boats by land to water sites for loading and export. "Now, with the mega-yacht, we'll be able to load full vessels," he explains. "We'll haul them a short distance and load them out of Green Bay onto oceangoing vessels that will ship to over 100 countries around the world. We'll be able to consolidate shipments overseas in a way we've never been able to do before. We're right next to the St. Lawrence Seaway. So we can't move the boats 12 months a year, just for eight or nine months. But that's okay, because we can plan our manufacturing cycles around that."
      The Green Bay part of the new project in Wisconsin will incorporate approximately 70,000 sq. ft. (6,503 sq. m.) of assembly space in an existing building now being outfitted with frames and hoists.
      "That will be up and running in August," says Jacobs, "with the first boat in spring of 2010. We hope to have one every quarter, then work up at some point to turning one every month or month and a half."
      Jacobs says the mega-yacht will have a purchase price in the $8.5 million range, and says the market for them worldwide probably tops out at between $2 billion and $3 billion a year worldwide. He aims for Carver to get its share by being the best. And he does not hide his enthusiasm for bringing the company's capital and more manufacturing to U.S. shores.
      "The dollar situation is very favorable for us," he says. "It feels good after 32 years in this business to see America exporting our technology. We are competitive."
      As further proof, he says Genmar has just expanded at four other factories besides Pulaski, with a cumulative investment of more than $27 million in Cadillac, Mich.; Little Falls, Minn.; Flippen, Ark.; and Murfreesboro, Tenn., where the company relocated its saltwater group from a now closed Florida location. "The environment there was terrible – ungodly costly and uncompetitive," says Jacobs of Florida's business conditions for his industry in particular. "One person said to me, 'If you were a company coming down here, I could do more for you than as a company that is already here.' "
      Ultimately, Carver already has been in Wisconsin since its birth in a Milwaukee garage in 1953 and subsequent move to Pulaski two years later. Its products may be globetrotters, but its ethos remains downright Midwestern.
      "It's the same culture," says Jacobs, a lifelong Minnesotan, of the cultural connections shared with Wisconsin. "We've done business there a lot of years. From my experience only, it's one of the best atmospheres I've ever been to."       Jacobs is quick to add that he's not being told to say those words. Gov. Jim Doyle, meanwhile, is glad to hear them.
      "I really want to thank Mr. Jacobs," he says. "He was the person who made the decision and moved on this."
      Where Wisconsin is moving in job creation is toward services, but Doyle points out that even though manufacturing, because of its tremendous productivity levels, does not create the jobs it once did, it's still a major lever for the state's economy because of the sector's incremental capital investment.
      "That capital investment means they're going to be there for a long time to come," he says, citing recent expansions by food companies Kerry Americas and Affiliated Foods, as well as a headquarters move to Pleasant Prairie from Waukegan, Ill., by industrial packing and shipping materials distributor Uline Corp. "Our manufacturing sector has done well compared to most other states. We consider our best position to be advanced manufacturing."
      Pleasant Prairie is also the site of a possible large expansion by Illinois-based Abbott Laboratories. Asked about the status of that project, Doyle says, "They were never planning to move. We've always understood that this was a long-term investment we were making. It was a major effort to make sure that as Abbott Labs grew, we hope this is the campus where they would be doing that expansion. We really worked hard, and I was very much personally involved. Kenosha did a great job. There were complex transactions to put the land together, and there were water issues in that area."       Water has been on a lot of minds in the Great Lakes states over the past year, as multiple governors and provincial premiers have signed onto the Great Lakes Compact, designed to protect the lakes' water from being siphoned by distant regions ensconced in drought and water-rights battles. In late May, Doyle became the latest to sign the accord.
      Asked if there was concern from the existing and prospective business community about continuing access to water resources post-signing, he says, "Yes, they were concerned. Our in-basin water users – companies who draw and use and return water to the Great Lakes – represent a fair number of industries. We're the number one paper-making state thanks to Georgia Pacific and others, and there's the Miller brewery site on Lake Michigan. They were legitimately concerned as we went into this that in-basin users could continue to take advantage of and use Great Lakes water, and do it responsibly.
      "We worked very hard with our business community and particularly the manufacturers – they all in the end came out supporting the compact. In many ways it was the business community that really got this done. In political terms, we had some trouble getting some Republicans to go along with this."
      The focus on water has brought to economic developers' attention the existence of a robust water technology business cluster in the state, which they hope to see grow in part around the Great Lakes water research center at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
      Doyle has called for an Energy Independence Fund, and has convened a renewable energy task force that is considering, among other things, the possibility of new nuclear power.
      "We have had on the books for 30 years a so-called moratorium on nuclear power," says Doyle. "For a company to apply to our public utility commission, if it's nuclear, they have to meet all kinds of hurdles that are basically un-meetable. With the huge concern on carbon emissions – and we're looking to be a good green state – I think we're going to see a recommendation that we should really be re-examining this 30-year old policy."       Asked what he sees emerging from the coming legislative session, Doyle says he wants to see support for private research match the state's renowned public-sector research base centered around the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
      "The proposal I'm pushing for is if a company increases its R&D commitment by 25 percent over its average for the last three years, we provide a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for that research," he says. He also wants to expand the level of investments covered by the state's seed-stage investment tax credit programs, increase incentives for manufacturers and provide grants to coalitions of colleges and businesses that want to design skills-upgrade training programs in areas such as welding, where Wisconsin already has a significant upper hand.
      The state also proposes to put a fair amount – $150 million over 10 years – into renewable energy. The University of Wisconsin was one of three recipients of $125-million grants from the U.S. Dept. of Energy for cellulosic ethanol research. Doyle says the machinery and equipment companies in northeast Wisconsin, such as Manitowoc Crane, are already well on their way to building a wind energy cluster.
      Getting that word out has been part of the reason behind his numerous trade missions, including trips to China (twice) Ireland, Eastern Europe and Japan, as well as a recent trip to Wisconsin's No. 1 export destination – Canada.
      "I met with a couple companies there that have moved into Wisconsin in a big way, in papermaking and cheese," he says with a laugh. "Now that's the heart of Wisconsin.
      But even when at home, Doyle and his fellow Wisconsinites know their products do the speaking for them.
      "When people get on a Harley, or on a Trek bicycle [headquartered in Waterloo, Wis., since 1976], they know they're getting on the best-made bike in the world," says Doyle.
      "This is how we're going to make it in this state," he explains. "We're going to make really great products and sell them all over the world. It's basic, but it really is that simple."