STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAU) -- Skyward broke ground on their new 32-million dollar world headquarters building in Stevens Point Friday. Company founder Jim King is optimistic they will grow to fill the new four-story 180,000-square-foot building in the next decade. They already have 453 employees in their existing two Stevens Point buildings.
Governor Scott Walker says Skyward is in a position to grow to over 1,000 total employees within a decade. "This 34-million million dollar investment, 184,000 square feet that's going to go up on this site, I think that alone will be a great catalyst for people going by on the Interstate, but obviously, it's all of the jobs that are part of this, both the jobs that are retained that are great, high-paying quality family-supporting jobs, and over the next several years, their commitment to grow up to 510 jobs over the next decade."
Walker says the high-tech jobs are the kind of jobs families need. "On average, those new jobs are paying almost 20-dollars an hour. Those are great, family supporting jobs, and we're thrilled to be a part of it. We put 2.9 million dollars into this project, both for the capital investment and the jobs that are coming in."
Founder Jim King started Skyward at his home 32-years ago. The Skyward school information software is now used in several states and nearly a dozen foreign countries. King says there's plenty of room to grow in the market. "It's doing better than ever, and we're in 20 states, so obviously that leaves us what? Another 30 states that we can get into. Even though we have 390 schools in Wisconsin that use our software, there's 430, so there's another 42 schools here in Wisconsin that could invest in this company, so we have plenty of opportunity. Plenty of opportunity.”
King says Skyward has seen technology change drastically since 1980, but says the reason for their success is they keep up with the changes. “What's made us successful for these past 34 years is our software is not 34 years old as much as it's brand new after 34 years. We keep up with new technology."
Construction will begin within two weeks. It's anticipated completion date is December of 2015.
David Voss is President and CEO of Miron Construction. He said they want to get concrete footings poured before the ground freezes, and continue from there.
There is enough space on the 43-acre site to build an identical building later, if needed. King is optimistic, telling the crowd he plans to still be around for that groundbreaking ceremony, too.