$50 Million a Year Electrical Firm Moves to Madison

Janesville electrical firm to move to Madison
MON., JUL 31, 2006 - 11:52 PM
JUDY NEWMAN jdnewman@madison.com
A Janesville electrical contracting firm with 300 employees is moving its headquarters to Madison.

Westphal & Co. will build a $3 million, 25,000-square-foot building on Marsh Court, just down the road from a small office it's had in the World Dairy Center on the Southeast Side.

Established in 1931, 75 years ago, the family-owned Westphal & Co. operates in Wisconsin and Iowa, said John Westphal, president and grandson of company founder Fred H. Westphal.

"The majority of our work in the state of Wisconsin is in the Madison area, not the Janesville area," Westphal said. By locating in Madison, "we can be a lot closer to our customers, to our work."

The firm's projects include the new Verona campus for medical records technology developer Epic Systems and the recent renovation at Camp Randall stadium.

About 40 employees will work at the headquarters building. Most will come from Westphal's current locations in Madison and Janesville; only one or two will be new hires.

The bulk of the company's workers are electricians who are members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Westphal said it's easier to recruit professional staff to work in Madison than in Janesville. He also said the Dane County economy is relatively strong and stable.

"It isn't bulletproof but it does have some things that are built into it that are not built into Stoughton or Janesville or Edgerton or DeForest," Westphal said. "Those are things that we can rely a little bit more on than if General Motors is going to stay open in Janesville."

But the Madison area is also more costly than Janesville; Westphal said a $130,000 tax incremental financing loan from the city of Madison was a critical factor in his decision to move.

"We would not have done this had the city not provided us with the TIF funds," he said. "We looked at properties from Janesville on up along the I-90 corridor, including Edgerton and Stoughton, and Madison is significantly more expensive. We would not have been able to afford this."

The no-interest loan will be paid back to the city in the form of higher property taxes resulting from the improvements.

Westphal & Co. has annual revenues "in the $50 million range," Westphal said, but revenues have been flat for the past couple of years. He said construction has been slow in the Janesville and Dubuque, Iowa, areas, where the company will retain offices.