Strauss Brands Ends Plans To Bring Slaughterhouse To Milwaukee’s Century City

Milwaukee’s Century City will no longer be home to a slaughterhouse.

Strauss Brands announced Monday they will not be relocating from Franklin to Milwaukee — taking with them up to 500 potential jobs.

In a statement, Strauss Brands said their decision was based on community concern.

“It was our hope that Strauss Brands’ move to Milwaukee’s Century City neighborhood would have created jobs, provided an economic boost and inspired other businesses to follow suit,” their statement read. “We honor and respect the opinions of the community and don’t want to make our home in a place where our presence would not be seen as a benefit. We are no longer pursuing relocation to Century City.”

In a press conference Monday, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said he’s optimistic that more companies may have an interest in Century City now that they know about its potential.

“In order for this to happen we need to have support from the common council and the community,” he said. “Century City is a great location to start and grow a company. It’s near a work force, it’s near an interstate, it has great transportation. And we are going to continue to work with company’s like Talgo and Good City to try to do what we can to create more employment there.”

“I’m looking for jobs up and down the economic ladder,” Barrett continued. “There’s a place for everyone on those economic ladder runs where we need to have jobs and this was one of them. I think it’s unfortunate.”

In September, the city announced Strauss Brands would be moving its headquarters — and meat processing facility — to the city’s northwest side. The company was planning to build a 170,000-square-foot building on 20 acres, and planned to slaughter 500 cows every day starting in 2021.

Milwaukee city officials celebrated the ability to get a large production facility to move into the struggling business park.

Alderman Khalif Rainey, who represents the district where Century City is located, was in support of Strauss Brands moving into the area. He said those jobs were needed.

But after intense criticsm over the slaughterhouse, the common council decided to revisit the proposal, planning to do so Tuesday, Oct. 29.

Century City was acquired by the Redevelopment Authority of the city of Milwaukee in 2009. Since then, progress to redevelop the 86-acre site has been slow.