Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said today that Menomonee Falls-based Kohl's. Corp. told city officials that the company will not build its new corporate headquarters in downtown Milwaukee.

A spokesperson for Kohl's could not be reached for comment. The company was also considering plans to build a new headquarters in Menomonee Falls, according to sources. Menomonee Falls village manager Mark Fitzgerald could not be reached for comment.

The company considered building a new headquarters complex with more than 1 million square feet of space, for 4,500 to 5,000 employees, in the Park East corridor in downtown Milwaukee, according to sources. The complex would have covered more than four blocks between Old World Third Street, Juneau Avenue, McKinley Avenue and Winnebago Street, said Development of City Development Commissioner Richard "Rocky" Marcoux. In addition, the city had options to acquire four properties north of McKinley Avenue to build a pair of parking structures for the complex, he said.

City officials worked on the project for months and made an aggressive offer to Kohl's, Barrett said, including tax incremental financing of more than $100 million and a new markets tax credit package of about $170 million (the benefit of that to the company would have been worth about $25 million).

"I could not be prouder of the effort that Rocky Marcoux and his team at DCD did on this," Barrett said. "I couldn't be prouder of the effort we made. We were willing to put everything on the table to make it happen. I did not want to have to go through a woulda, coulda, shoulda analysis. We were all in."

"The mayor said, ‘We're going to give it our best shot,'" Marcoux said. "We put our best foot forward. The one thing we won't spend any time on is second guessing. When you put everything on the table, there's nothing to second quess."

Barrett and Marcoux both praised Kohl's for the professionalism shown by company executives and representatives throughout the process.

"They were first class, up front, honest in their dealings with us," Barrett said. "There was never a time we felt we were being played or they were not being sincere."

"It's an incredible company," Marcoux said. "Just incredibly impressive. It was a real pleasure working with them. There was never at any point any posturing."

Barrett and Marcoux declined to provide details about what Kohl's site plans were for the project.

The city originally presented 10 sites to Kohl's as possible headquarters locations including the former Northridge Mall site, a site near Mitchell International Airport, and several downtown sites. Kohl's executives selected its preferred site in the Park East corridor and had numerous discussions with city officials about the project at that site.

The decision by Kohl's is the latest blow to efforts to attract development to the Park East corridor since the freeway spur was torn down about seven years ago. Most of the land where the freeway spur once stood is owned by Milwaukee County. So far no development has occurred on any of the county-owned land in the corridor.

However, Barrett and Marcoux praised collaborative efforts with Milwaukee County to attract the Kohl's headquarters project to the Park East site. The city's improved relationship with the county will help future efforts to attract development to the Park East, they said.

Barrett and Marcoux also said that the city's efforts to attract the Kohl's headquarters demonstrates that the city is willing and able to put together an aggressive package to attract major catalytic developments.

"We are capable and willing to do it if it's the right deal," Marcoux said.

Barrett acknowledged being disappointed by Kohl's decision, but pledged to keep working to attract businesses and development to the city.

 "We'll come back swinging again," Barrett said.