Mueller Communications (Mueller) was engaged by the Village of Greendale (Greendale) to announce their new partnership with Simon Property Group (Simon) including a formal, public review process to create a Tax Incremental Financing District (TID). Additionally, we set out to illustrate the Village’s commitment to the “spirit” of Greendale, as well as a revitalization of Southridge, the Village’s mall, and the corridor in which it resides.

 

Mueller worked with both Greendale and Simon to determine key messages that each entity wanted integrated into all outreach materials.

 

After researching options for the public announcement, we determined that the best approach would be to embargo the news release as well as an interview with Village President John Hermes and a representative of Simon with the Milwaukee Business Journal in advance of a public announcement. This allowed the Milwaukee Business Journal to meet its deadline and ensure the story appeared in Friday’s print edition. 

 

Following Thursday’s publication of the notice, we distributed the news release to our full media list, giving all media outlets the opportunity to post stories online on Thursday. We also coordinated media availability, including on-camera interviews at both the Village Hall and Southridge Mall with Village President John Hermes as well as phone interviews with a Simon representative.

 

Mueller was able to secure more than 50 positive print and broadcast hits regarding the announcement. We ensured each target audience was made aware of the partnership with Greendale and Simon, the Village Board’s role in making the partnership happen and the Board’s ongoing commitment to economic development in Greendale. We also used this opportunity to highlight additional initiatives being considered by the Village Board including a potential grocery and retail development as well as a new anchor store for Southridge.