Verona Technology Park set to grow again, impacting local economy
VERONA, Wis. (WMTV) - In a one-on-one interview, Verona’s mayor talks about how the community is developing as new construction dominates a part of the city.
This week Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced it will be the latest addition to the Verona Technology Park. Plans are to create a 13-acre campus costing up to $250 million for 250 jobs.
“I think we are becoming a technology hub,” Mayor Luke Diaz said. “I mean, nobody can really beat Silicon Valley, but maybe of the Midwest.”
Signs of growth scatter throughout the Technology Park. Arrowhead’s future home sits across an expansion project for life sciences company MilliporeSigma. Around the corner, construction workers are making headway for big-box retailer Costco.
Diaz said, “We want to have a variety of employers with a variety of different jobs that they can hire a variety of different people because ultimately that makes the community more resilient and that makes the whole community stronger.”
The mayor said being a “highly desirable community” comes with two sides. “One, we’ve got tons of people who want to build here, tons of people who want to relocate here, and it’s really good,” he said. “Some of the downsides are that property values are high. We don’t want to say ‘yes’ to everything.”
Considering other impacts to local economy, Diaz pointed to an example set by an established employer in town.
“With Epic, for example, we didn’t really see effects in the city, other than [to] home property values, until 10 years later,” he said. “More mixed use, more businesses coming in, different kinds of businesses coming in— You didn’t see that right away.”
A spokesperson with Arrowhead declined an interview at this time. The company has planned groundbreaking for early next year
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