Brennan’s business expanding

La Crosse company Brennan announced plans Wednesday to build a new office building at its French Island headquarters to support its rapidly growing marine construction business.

The 93-year-old family business is actually two companies: Brennan Marine provides harbor services like barge transfer; the larger J.F. Brennan does marine construction, building harbors and dredging channels throughout the eastern United States.

Brennan’s workforce has nearly doubled to about 250 since moving into the field of remediation 10 years ago, said marketing director Glenn Green.

Industrial cleanup now accounts for up to 70 percent of the company’s business, Green said.

Brennan recently secured a 7-year contract with the federal Environmental Protection Agency that will allow it to be one of a select group of bidders on $150 million worth of cleanup in the Great Lakes.

The new three-story, 30,000-square-foot office building will allow Brennan to put about 75 local employees under one roof, eliminate several trailers providing temporary office space and accommodate anticipated growth.

River Architects and Fowler and Hammer, both local companies, are handling the design and construction.

“This will support well-paid union construction jobs,” said Matt Binnsfeld, chief operating officer for J.F. Brennan.

Gov. Scott Walker was on hand Wednesday to celebrate the expansion and promote his job-creation record.

It was the Republican governor’s third visit to the Coulee Region this year. Wisconsin has added fewer than 20,000 jobs since Walker took office — and has lost jobs for the past six months — not the growth needed to deliver on his campaign promise of 250,000 new jobs.

Walker instead focused on job losses in the year before he took office and credited the Republican-controlled Legislature with quick action to bring the ship around.

“We are turning things around,” he said. “We’ve got a ways to go.”

Walker took a brief tour of the company’s service bay, where he inspected a precision GPS-guided dredge like four that are now removing PCB-contaminated soils from the Fox River — a project jointly funded by paper mills there.

Walker cited the fourth-generation family business — and its relationship with employees — as an example of the kind of businesses that could fuel Wisconsin’s growth.

“This is where our progress is,” Walker said. “It’s going to come from businesses like Brennan.”

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Brennan’s business expanding