Ground broken for Harley-Davidson museum

MILWAUKEE, June 2 (UPI) -- A dirt bike racer tore up the ground in Milwaukee for a $95 million museum honoring Harley-Davidson motorcycles and the company that made them famous.

Harley-Davidson executives originally proposed a museum in 1999, but dropped the idea three years later because of the high cost, then revived the plan for a different site in 2004, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said.

When completed in the summer of 2008, the three-building complex on 20 acres south of downtown formally used by the city's Public Works department is expected to draw 350,000 visitors annually and create 70 permanent jobs.

"This will be Wisconsin's Louvre, right here in Milwaukee," said Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle at Thursday's groundbreaking.

Some $7 million in city funds for the project will be repaid through property taxes, the newspaper said.