Development Director of the Year

Stibal directs resurgence in West Allis

John Stibal Director of the West Allis Department of Development

John Stibal took over as director of the West Allis Department of Development 18 years ago when it wasn’t trendy to develop urban centers.

The big projects were heading to the suburbs, while hollowed-out, industrial centers were left with empty buildings, polluted land and few prospects to draw people. Stibal helped change that, not only in West Allis, but throughout Wisconsin.

“He saw a lot of opportunities before a lot of people did,” said Tom McElligott, an environmental attorney for Quarles & Brady LLP in Milwaukee. “In that way, he was kind of a visionary.”

What Stibal saw was the possibility of using the abandoned buildings in West Allis to attract new development. Legal concerns prevented this sort of development until the state passed the Wisconsin Land Recycling Act in the early 1990s making it feasible to redevelop former industrial sites, or brownfields.

Stibal and others in West Allis were the first to put the new laws to work, converting a former Giddings & Lewis machine factory into a home for Quad/Graphics. After a complicated legal fight, West Allis prevailed, and the development was completed in 1994. Today, more than 1,000 people work for Quad/Graphics at the site.

From an environmental law perspective, McElligott said, it was a watershed project.

“It proved to the rest of Wisconsin that these brownfields programs can work,” he said. “John was integral and instrumental in seeing that project through.”

Stibal's success developing brownfields is part of a highly regarded career in urban development spanning the past three decades. It’s his role as a driving force behind the city’s resurgence that led Wisconsin Builder and The Daily Reporter to name him Development Director of the Year.

He’s won numerous state and national awards and speaks nationally on redeveloping older industrial cities. Stibal was honored by the Metropolitan Milwaukee Public Policy Forum and the League of Wisconsin Municipalities. He won the International Economic Development Association Award for Public/Private Partnerships and 2006 American Planning Association Economic Development Award.

In West Allis, his efforts led to a major overhaul of what was once considered a declining city. Along with the Quad/Graphics building, the city redeveloped the 126-acre former Allis-Chalmers tractor plant complex into 650,000 square feet of office space, and BlueCross BlueShield moved its headquarters and 750 employees to the new building.

The city is redeveloping its final major brownfields site — the former Pressed Steel Tank building — into residential and commercial sites in the Six Points/Farmers Market area.

It's a big turnaround for the community of 62,000 people near Milwaukee. What was once a predominantly working-class, industrial town is now selling penthouse townhouses for $400,000.

More important, whenever land comes up for development, construction isn't far behind. West Allis is even planning a new housing subdivision, the first for the city in 15 years.

Helmut Toldt, president of Toldt Development Corp., Brookfield, gave Stibal credit for bringing numerous projects to West Allis.

“Alderman come and go, mayors come and go, and he’s kept the ball rolling,” Toldt said. “I’ve dealt with a lot of people in a lot of municipalities. John has a unique personality in that he understands what a municipality needs in the short and long run and understands what a developer needs.”

He said Stibal’s legacy will be to leave behind a visibly better community than what was there when he started — not that Stibal will be done working any time soon.

“He has a vision,” Toldt said, “and he hasn't seen the end of it yet.”

By Dustin Block