Rick Romell

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Months after Foxconn said it planned to start turning a downtown Milwaukee office building into a state-of-the-art headquarters displaying its “continuing innovation in leading-edge technologies,” city records indicate that little work has been done.

Announcing last July that it was seeking architects and engineers for the project, the firm said its headquarters would “showcase the vibrant AI 8K+5G ecosystem that Foxconn is building.”

And because the headquarters would play a vital role in recruiting “the best and brightest talent” to Foxconn, the company said it would need “a state-of-the-art facility.”

The work was slated to begin in September, Foxconn said.

FULL COVERAGE:Foxconn in Wisconsin

But permit applications filed with the City of Milwaukee since the announcement indicate that Foxconn has undertaken only modest remodeling on the building, a seven-story, 145,000-square-foot structure at 611 E. Wisconsin Ave.

The permit applications indicate a total estimated cost, for all the work, of about $31,000.

That’s less than the $47,000 the average homeowner spends to add a 48-square-foot bathroom or the $65,000 average for a major but non-luxury kitchen upgrade, according to Remodeling Magazine.

The great bulk of the work at 611 E. Wisconsin, meanwhile, has been done not for Foxconn but to accommodate a tenant to whom the company is temporarily leasing much of the building.

RELATED:Baird to temporarily expand into Foxconn headquarters in downtown Milwaukee

Asked late Monday afternoon about the status of the announced upgrade and modernization of the building, Foxconn did not respond.

Foxconn has drawn intense scrutiny because of the shifting plans for what the company first described as an immense, $10 billion manufacturing complex in Racine County, supported by 13,000 Wisconsin employees.

Since striking a deal in 2017 that could provide more than $4 billion in public subsidies, Foxconn has radically changed the expected makeup of its Wisconsin workforce and backed away from plans to build the largest and most expensive type of liquid crystal display factory.

The company has said it was responding to changing market conditions.

Then, in late January, a news report from Reuters quoted a top Foxconn executive as saying the company was thinking about scaling back its plans to make display panels in Wisconsin, or even dropping manufacturing completely in favor of a focus on research, assembly and packaging.

Two days later, Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou himself, during a speech in Taiwan, said the company’s Wisconsin plans had shifted from mass production to focus more on research and development.

But within hours of Gou’s speech — and following a conversation between Gou and President Donald Trump, who has staked political capital on Foxconn’s Wisconsin project — major manufacturing was back in the plans.

RELATED:After discussions with Trump, Foxconn says it will build factory in Racine County

The company said it now would move forward with construction of a factory to make display panels. The plant would produce small screens such as those used in smartphones and tablets rather than the giant panels Foxconn originally proposed and which are specified in the company’s contracts with state and local government.

Foxconn bought the building at 611 E. Wisconsin Ave. last June from Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., paying $14.95 million.

Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. said four months ago that it would lease space from Foxconn until early 2020 to house some employees while renovations are being done at the nearby U.S. Bank Center, where Baird has its headquarters.