What's happening at the Foxconn site in Wisconsin five years after the company announced its plans

In 2017 when the Foxconn Technology Group announced it was considering coming to Wisconsin, it sent a shockwave through the state, the country and the world. The business and technology industries suddenly had the state on their radars.  

Local politicians hustled to put a tax incentive contract together to lure the company to the state.  

The deal required buying out the landowners in Mount Pleasant and tearing down dozens of homes.  

Foxconn agreed to the deal in 2018 and then-President Donald Trump came to Wisconsin for the groundbreaking.  

Now five years later, the homes are gone and several buildings have been erected including an eye-catching dome and a large industrial building. But the vast majority of the site remains undeveloped.

Initial promise: $10 billion investment, 13,000 jobs, $3 billion incentives

Initially, Foxconn was to build a Generation 10.5 facility that would manufacture large LCD screens. The project was to be an investment of up to $10 billion that would deliver up to 13,000 jobs.   

The state legislature passed a $2.85 billion tax incentive package that required Foxconn to meet certain hiring and capital investment benchmarks during the next 10 years in order to receive the tax credits.  

The company also received a $150 million break in sales taxes, bringing the total state package to $3 billion.  

The village of Mount Pleasant and Racine County were put in charge of paying property owners for the land and upgrading the infrastructure.  

Where is Foxconn located in Wisconsin?

The Foxconn property is in the southwest part of the Village of Mount Pleasant in Racine County. Most of the facilities are located in "Area I" which is south of Braun Road, north of Highway KR, west of County Highway H and east of Interstate 94.

The property is roughly 1,200 acres with only a few buildings on it. With so much vacant land, local officials are hoping to attract another technology company that could pair well with Foxconn.

In 2021, local officials failed to lure Intel to the area and instead Intel chose Ohio.

What’s happening at the site now? 

Quite a bit has changed in five years. Employment is a fraction of the initial promise and its unclear what is being manufactured at the site.  

The facility has changed from a Generation 10.5 to a Generation 6 which normally makes screens for phones, tablets and TVs. But so far, no screens have been made.  

The incentive package has also changed. It’s been estimated that more than a billion dollars of taxpayer money has gone toward supporting the deal but in 2021, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. approved a much smaller package.  

The tax credits went down from $2.85 billion to $80 million.  

The job goal number is also down from 13,000 statewide to 1,454.  

The capital investment has also gone down from $10 billion to $672.8 million. 

But the tax credits are still performance based. In order for Foxconn to receive tax credits it must meet certain hiring and capital investment measures.

Has Foxconn received ANY tax credits? 

Short answer: Yes. 

Long answer: It’s not as much as in the original deal but the company has received more than $37 million in the last two years. 

But the first two years the company could have received tax credits, it missed out and didn't receive any because the company did not meet the hiring and capital investments required to receive tax credits.

Foxconn has stated it has invested more than $1 billion in the project.  

Has Foxconn paid anything? Or hired anyone?

Aside from it's own investments in the property, Foxconn has paid millions of dollars in property taxes and has become the largest tax payer in Mount Pleasant, according to village officials.

Foxconn has stated it employs more than 1,000 people.

Has Foxconn been sued since coming to Wisconsin?

Short answer: Yes, multiple times for different reasons.

Long answer: Foxconn has been involved in several lawsuits since coming to Wisconsin. The first dealt with the land acquisition.

Before the Foxconn deal became official, some larger property owners received up to $50,000 per acre. Some property owners became millionaires as a result.

After the deal with Foxconn was signed by the village, county and state, property owners were offered 40% above the fair market value including relocation costs. 

Many property owners were upset with the offer and sued the village in federal court alleging wrongdoing by the village to obtain their properties.

One by one the plaintiffs dropped off the lawsuit as they made deals with the village until only one family remained − the Jenson's. In 2022 the Jenson's settled with the village and sold their 2.92 acre property for $569,300.

In January 2021, a lawsuit was filed against Foxconn by a real estate company claiming the company was in breach of their contract.

Because of the changes from the original contract the lawsuit claimed the citizens and taxpayers of Racine County were damaged.

Then February 2021, the lawsuit was dismissed.

Most recently in February, an employee of Foxconn Industrial Internet, a subsidiary of Foxconn which is also located on the property, sued the company in the U.S. Eastern District of Wisconsin, allegedly for failing to pay overtime and altering the employee timecard.

That lawsuit is still working its way in the system.

Deal with UW and 'innovation centers'

From the beginning, Foxconn has worked to create a presence in other parts of Wisconsin.

It signed an $100 million agreement with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and several local agreements to build "innovation centers" in Racine, Green Bay and Eau Claire. 

However outside of signing the agreements, not much else has been done. 

The $100 million agreement with UW-Madison is to create the Foxconn Institute for Research in Science and Technology and a new interdisciplinary program in the College of Engineering.  

The company has given $700,000 to UW-Madison for a “sponsored research project in the College of Engineering.” 

It's unclear if this is connected to the $100 million. It may simply be sponsored research of the sort UW-Madison often does with companies.  

What is actually going on at the site?

Foxconn has been quiet about the work the company is doing.  

About 100,000 masks were manufactured at their facility in Mount Pleasant in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic.  

There have been rumors that the company is developing servers for Google but that has not been confirmed by either company.  

On a call with analysts in March, Foxconn chairman Young Liu said the company is planning on making electric vehicle batteries and energy storage components to support its EV facilities in Ohio.  

Also in March, Foxconn and We Energies announced a partnership on a solar farm on the property in Mount Pleasant.

But there have been multiple deals that the company thought would be built at the facility including robotic coffee kiosks and ventilators, but many of those deals fell apart.  

What's the partnership with Lordstown in Ohio?

In 2021, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. was talking with Fisker Inc., a California car maker which had a partnership with Foxconn, about possibly developing a product in Mount Pleasant. However no deal was ever signed.

In September 2021, Foxconn announced it was purchasing the Lordstown Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio for $230 million.

Foxconn has invested $170 million in Lordstown Motors as of the end of 2022. Of that, $52 million invested by Foxconn in the auto company last November, according to Lordstown Motors fourth quarter report.

Has there been any political fallout? 

There’s been a huge amount of political turnover in the last five years.  

Almost all the politicians that were vocal about the project at the beginning are now no longer in office.  

Republican Gov. Scott Walker was defeated in 2018 by Democrat Tony Evers.  

Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan decided not to run for re-election in 2018.  

Trump was defeated by Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.  

Even Democrats saw some major changes.  

In 2017, Kenosha Democrat Peter Barca was the minority leader in the Assembly. He, along with other Racine and Kenosha County Democrats voted in favor of the original tax incentive package. Barca stepped down from his leadership position which was encouraged by his fellow Democrats and is now Wisconsin secretary of revenue.  

Racine Democrat Cory Mason was in the Assembly during the original tax incentive debate and voted with Barca. Mason then decided to step down from his position in the Assembly and became mayor of Racine.  

Even former Foxconn chairman Terry Gou left his position with the company to run for president of Taiwan. But his run for president was unsuccessful.

The political fallout continues as Mount Pleasant Village Board members receive challenges from Foxconn critics in the upcoming spring election.