Volume 2 - Issue 18 - Circulation 3,500 Week of 4.30.09 to 5.07.09

Madison Region - May 1 2009 One of the additional challenges of a recovering economy will be creating new jobs in the region. As existing National companies downsize and reduce their production capacity, our hopes of their building new facilities or expanding current ones is limited at best. Of course we are seeing some companies take advantage of sparkling new facilities available at very competitive rates - but they are most often relocating from down the road, not other states or regions. To add to the employment base and see new brick and mortar we will have to start from seed....

Ken Notes: From Cirex Real Estate Digest...

MADISON - May 8, 2009- A newspaper article once referred to George Gialamas as the Pied Piper of Madison's far west side for his role in encouraging development to move west past the Beltline Highway. Today his 30-year-old company embraces its Pied Piper identity once again to lead Madison's business community in a greener direction...

Ken Notes: Great Projects!

Middleton - 5/06/2009 - PDQ Food Stores, a Middleton-based convenience store chain, has been sold to its employees under an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). With 550 employees and 46 stores in Wisconsin, Minnesota and California, the company became 100 percent employee-owned as of last Thursday, PDQ spokesman Phil Troia said Tuesday....

Ken Notes: ESOP is a tool we should explore more. Wisconsin could become a home for many great companies by offering tax incentives for these programs. Think what might have been if Lands' End had been sold to the employees rather than Sears...

Madison - 5/05/2009 - A three-story, 83-unit apartment project aimed at working people and families will move forward despite requiring demolition of 11 older homes on the 600 block of East Johnson Street. The Madison Plan Commission Monday night unanimously approved the "City Row" project from landlord Michael Matty and Stone House Development...

Madison - May 5, 2009 - Given a sluggish housing market, Madison may give the Alexander Co. 21/2 more years to meet condo sales goals and avoid repaying a $4.27 million subsidy given to the massive Capital West project Downtown. No developer in the city has ever been so close to having to repay so much tax incremental financing (TIF) money. Alexander, which got $4.27 million in TIF for its mixed-use project on the 300 block of West Washington Avenue, needs to sell 29 owner-occupied condos in the next six weeks or start repaying money...

Ken Notes: Thumbs up to the Madison Council. Way up! This is good for the community not just the developer.

Dane County - MAY 7, 2009 - Dane County is considering layoffs as it faces up to a $6 million budget shortfall this year if sales tax and other revenues continue to fall short of predictions. The city of Madison is also projecting revenues could come in about $3.5 million short this year...

Ken Notes: I still contend that communities are far more responsible when it comes to spending than other units of government. Communities do need to work together more, but cuts are not the answer. Why not make shared revenue a regional revenue source with a fixed asset like X% of sate income tax. Allow local governments to create or merge into regional projects to spend it. Fire Protection, Storm Water, Trail Systems, Transportation...

WASHINGTON - 5/05/2009 - Evidence that housing is poised to improve and optimism about the results of banking "stress tests" raised hopes Monday that the recession is easing in the U.S. and helped lift a key stock market measure into the black for the year. Construction spending and pending home sales both fared better than expected in March, and private economists saw the reports as further evidence that the overall economy is stabilizing...

Ken Notes: Let's cross our fingers. Layoffs may continue to ripple through the area, so we will still have major challenges ahead. If there are any employee callbacks on the development or construction side please email or call me. I will do my best to call attention to successful development ventures in the State.

Jack Kemp

Madison - 5/05/2009 - Madison-based indoor waterpark resort operator Great Wolf Resorts Inc. posted a narrower-than-expected first-quarter loss, but forecast a second-quarter loss wider than analysts' estimates. Great Wolf reported a first-quarter loss of $5.6 million, or 18 cents a share, compared with a loss of $2.3 million, or 8 cents a share, a year ago....

Madison - 5/05/2009 - Approved a general development plan from Meriter Health Services to construction several new buildings and expand others at its Park Street area campus over the next 10 years. The plan includes a new high-rise office and parking structure at Braxton Place, across Park Street from the main hospital.Approved a new Steinhafels furniture store at 2100 East Springs Drive between the Interstate 39/90/94 and East Towne Mall. The project includes 274 surface parking spaces and two additional retail sites...

Madison Area - 5/06/2009 - For some people, nothing beats a visit to the beer tent to top off a day at one of Madison's many popular summer festivals. Beating the heat is not the only reason to quaff a cold one. Chances are, the beer you buy helps fund local nonprofit organizations -- from museums to advocacy groups to neighborhood centers...

Ken Notes: So of course we should tax beer more? As an organizer of dozens of festivals, I should point out the important role of the LOCAL brewers and distributors. They really make it happen. Note to legislators - lets keep Wisconsin's brewing industry strong and in the State by not taxing product "Made in Wisconsin".

UW-Madison - May 4, 2009 - At his flu institute at UW-Madison, researcher Yoshihiro Kawaoka is already studying the swine flu virus, prodding its genes for signs of weakness. At his nearby company, FluGen, Kawaoka is developing vaccines for swine flu, bird flu and regular flu. "I work on anything about the flu," said the renown scientist, who received a sample of the swine flu virus last week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...

Ken Notes: A bit of development perspective for those keeping score. The UW invested 12.5 million on the flu institute while Mexico City alone is loosing 57 Million a day due to the flu. Thus if UW research can reduce the impact to one community bu just six hours our investment is positive...

WISCONSIN - This is a comprehensive data base of all business professionals in development, planning, government, commercial real estate, architecture, construction, and service providers to business. Any professional may enter his or her own business card for free. FutureWisconsin is Wisconsin's own social networking data base to promote new business in the state...

Ken Notes: Network with professionals doing business in the state...

Madison - May 1, 2009 - Some Downtown hoteliers are organizing to fight any subsidy for Marcus Corp.'s proposed hotel to serve Monona Terrace and are questioning a study that supports it. "This hotel is not going to have the economic impact that justifies the amount of money the city will spend," said Stephen Zanoni, general manager of the Madison Concourse Hotel - the city's largest with 356 rooms. "It will put other hotels at such a disadvantage. You will have other issues in the future."...

Ken Notes: For what it is worth, I believe all boats will rise with the tide. If we can make Downtown Madison a business meeting and convention destination we should see enough business for everyone. The project should also help fund improvements to City Hall, parking, and transit.

Madison - 5/06/2009 - More national kudos for Madison's evolving food -- and drink -- scene: Food and Wine magazine's recently released "Cocktails 2009" guide places two Madison night spots on its list of 100 top bars in the country...

Ken Notes: Again locally developed product gains national attention! I have not been to Natt Spil yet so I obviously have economic development work yet to do!

WASHINGTON - 5/05/2009 - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Tuesday that the economy should pull out of a recession and start growing again later this year. But in testimony to Congress' Joint Economic Committee, Bernanke warned that even after a recovery gets under way, economic activity is likely to be subpar. That means businesses will stay cautious about hiring, driving up the nation's unemployment rate and causing "further sizable job losses" in the coming months, he said....

Middleton - 5/1/2009 - Plans to establish a community garden in Middleton blossomed seemingly overnight after a local developer offered to let the city's sustainability committee use five acres of land this summer free of charge. Shortly after plans to set up a garden where residents could cultivate organic food at Lakeview Park East fizzled, community garden proponents on the city's ad hoc sustainability committee received the offer from The Blettner Group, a developer with a parcel of unused land on Forsythia Street....

Verona - 5/7/2009 - The Common Council can vote Monday on a "pre-development agreement" with David Reinke, a step toward growth in the southeast side of the city that has been a long time coming. Reinke and his partners at one time had offered a 100-acre shopping center proposal at the corner of County Highways PB and M in direct competition with the 62-acre West End development on the opposite end of the city. After battling for months for the right to build that project, they eventually agreed to diminish the retail portion to 40 acres and bring in industrial developers to promote the rest of Reinke's 240-acre land holdings in that area....

Fitchburg - 4/30/2009 - The Plan Commission approved the McGaw Park Neighborhood Plan when it met April 21. Brian Pleva, a member of the city's Community and Economic Development Authority, said many of the requirements of the plan, such as underground parking, would not be economically feasible and would deter businesses from locating here unless the city provided financial assistance....

Stoughton - 5/6/2009 - At the time it was constructed, Yahara Elementary cost $375,000 to build. Fifty years later, more than $2 million in mechanical and electrical upgrades needed at the school are one of several reasons the Stoughton Board of Education voted last summer to close the school after the end of this school year. In addition to costly upgrades, the 50-year-old facility is the casualty of a projected $1 million operational budget in the district. Combined with declining student enrollment to the tune of 50-100 students per year - and a state funding formula that hurts low-spending districts such as Stoughton, the board felt closing Yahara was a fiscally responsible alternative....

UW-Madison - May. 1, 2009 - The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health has received a $6.9 million grant to create an Alzheimer's disease research center, Gov. Jim Doyle announced Friday. UW is the 17th institution in the United States to be designated by the National Institutes of Health as an Alzheimer's research center. The five-year grant is funded by the NIH's National Institute on Aging...

Recent commercial property listings from PropertyDrive.

Wisconsin - More than $336 million in federal stimulus money has been allocated to counties, cities, towns and villages in Wisconsin. Of that total, about $124 million has been allocated through the state Department of Transportation for road, bridge and transit projects. And more than $48 million in Housing and Urban Development funds has been allocated...

Ken Notes: Great Resource

Sun Prairie - 5/07/2009 - Kraus Real Estate and Builders of Sun Prairie, which owes more than $800,000 in back property taxes to Dane County, was able to unload 60 properties for $5.4 million in an auction sale. An auction held May 2 at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Madison attracted an estimated 300 attendees, including 148 registered bidders from Wisconsin, Florida and Iowa, according to J. P. King Auction Company of Gadsden, Ala., which conducted the sale...

Madison Region - April 30, 2009 - Dear Editor: Keeping with its progressive history, Wisconsin has set an ambitious goal for clean electricity generation with the "25 by 25" target for obtaining 25 percent of our electricity from renewable sources by 2025. Renewables currently supply only 5 percent of the state's generation; thus, meeting the "25 by 25" goal will require significant additions of renewable generation in Wisconsin and neighboring states. Although increased local renewable generation...

Dane County - May 1, 2009 - The Legislature's budget committee on Friday approved a plan to use a mixture of higher sales taxes and car rental fees to pay for commuter rail and other transit projects in the two most populated parts of the state. The measures, part of the two-year state budget, must pass the full Legislature and be approved by Doyle before it becomes law. In Dane County, a half-cent sales tax could be imposed to pay for commuter rail and other transit projects...

Madison - May 6, 2009 - Overture Center describes its new 2009-10 season as "streamlined." That's a roundabout way of saying it's shorter, with about 20 percent fewer acts. It's a dance-heavy season, with lots of children's shows and a full month of Disney's "The Lion King" coming in late April and May...

Ken Notes: Just an FYI piece.

The seller of real estate is required to file a Real Estate Transfer Return (RETR) with the County Register of Deeds when recording deeds of property conveyances. State statutes require those returns to be filed electronically beginning July 1, 2009. Below is a link to the electronically filed Real Estate Transfer data as of July 1st 2009 and forward. The data will be updated on a weekly basis...

Ken Notes: This link is a regular feature of WDN...

Treasury Department Debt to the Penny Link
CNN Money Scorecard
Government Recovery Website
Wisconsin State Budget Google News

Create a vibrant, innovative and prosperous entrepreneurial business climate, nurturing, connecting and celebrating entrepreneurs and their companies...

Ken Notes: A valuable resource worth visiting for all businesses in the state. A special thanks for BizStarts for compiling and sharing the resource!...

Madison - MAY 6, 2009- Local skateboarders put in about $300 worth of concrete ramps, cleared away trash and built themselves a tidy little skate park on city land near the Yahara River recently. They just didn't tell the city. The boarders have now run afoul of the City Parks Division, which Tuesday confiscated the boarders tools, including a trash can, trowel and brooms, and chipped away at the concrete ramps....

Ken Notes: This one is tough. I suggest the city needs a plan for the property before they say no.

Wisconsin Dells area - May 2, 2009 - The largest owner of waterpark resorts in the country will no longer own its resort in the Wisconsin Dells area, although the property will retain the Great Wolf Lodge name. In a $6 million proposed deal with CNL Income Partners of Delaware, Great Wolf Resorts of Madison is selling its approximately 30 percent ownership in the Great Wolf Lodges in Lake Delton and Sandusky, Ohio....

Madison Region - May 1, 2009- Great Wolf opens new lodge Great Wolf Lodge-Concord has opened in North Carolina. The 475,000-square-foot indoor waterpark resort cost more than $100 million and features geysers, a funnel tube ride and water slide racing. As part of the Madison resort company's environmental program, called Project Green Wolf, "nearly every drop of water" in the waterpark will be recycled every day, and 70 percent of the water used for laundry will be recycled, chief executive Kim Schaefer said....

- May 1, 2009 - The turmoil at Great Wolf Resorts continues. Less than a year after one of the company's largest stockholders won two seats on the board of directors following a proxy fight, those two seats for Hovde Capital Advisors are now empty. Steven Hovde and Richard Murray III have resigned from the board after not being nominated for re-election and the board voting to reduce its size to six members from eight. In a letter dated April 23, Hovde and Murray say their resignation comes "with a sense of frustration and profound regret for what we consider a missed opportunity to improve" the company....

Wisconsin - May 4, 2009 - The city of Madison and other local taxing bodies have been ordered to pay about $248,000 in property taxes and interest to Walgreen Drug Stores and could be on the hook for hundreds of thousands more pending the outcome of an ongoing property assessment dispute. The dispute over how much two East Side Madison Walgreens were worth when calculating local property taxes went all the way to the state Supreme Court last July...

Wisconsin - This section allows you to access any of our current space needs and acquire some brief detail regarding each. You'll notice that in addition to posting our current RFPs and RFIS, we are listing other significant needs for which we are seeking space....

Ken Notes: Brokers should check this often...

May 3, 2009 - People call Philip Streich brilliant. Philip Streich calls himself lucky. Either way, he plans to save the world. Streich is the 18-year-old scientist who two years ago won the $50,000 Intel Foundation Young Scientist award, and this year placed third in what's known as "the baby Nobels," garnering a half-page congratulatory ad in the Wall Street Journal. He dropped out of formal schooling after sixth grade, studied at home for two years, then dove into courses at UW-Platteville at an age most kids enter high school....

Ken Notes: If you missed this, it is worth a read...

Madison - May 4, 2009 - When it comes to restorations that impress, fancy buildings or miraculous rehabilitations often do the trick. But sometimes it's something as familiar as a gas station. Parman's Service Station on Monroe Street will be playing with the architectural big boys this week when the Madison Trust for Historic Preservation hosts its annual awards ceremony Thursday at the Orpheum Theatre. The station, built in 1941, retains most of its original look and will be recognized by the organization for stewardship of the property....

Madison - May. 5, 2009 - State Commerce Secretary Richard Leinenkugel received a response to his letter to business lobbyists Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, but it wasn't quite what he was looking for. Leinenkugel in recent days has been defending his boss, Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, from attacks by WMC and Republicans over the loss of 280 jobs at Thomas Industries in Sheboygan. He asked WMC President Jim Haney to offer a "public clarification" of his group's past comments about the situation....

Ken Notes: I still suggest that publicly pointing out all our flaws does little to improve our position as a pro business state. Both commerce and WMC need to be cheerleaders for the state in the public and press and discuss their concerns in private. As for this publications and FutureWisconsin's position - Wisconsin is a great place to grow your business because of the, people, education, resources and value we bring to the table. Period!

Kenosha - May 3, 2009 - The news that the Kenosha engine factory, which traces its roots as a mainstay of Wisconsin manufacturing back to 1902, is unlikely to survive the Chrysler bankruptcy and bailout has shaken state and national officials who had thought the plant would make it through the industry shakeup. More than 800 workers face the prospect of losing their jobs with the closing of the Kenosha plant, which would be a significant aftershock to the state economy after last winter's shuttering of the General Motors plant in Janesville, which eliminated more than 2,500 jobs...

Milwaukee - May 7, 2009 - University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee should put its planned School of Freshwater Sciences in the Downtown Transit Center, and not on the former Pieces of Eight lakefront site, says Milwaukee County Supervisor Gerry Broderick, chairman of the County Board's Committee on Parks, Energy & Environment. Broderick supports UWM's proposal to create the new school, which would train water scientists and engineers. But he agrees with those who say the former restaurant site should be converted into green space....

Ken Notes: I like the Pieces of Eight location myself. Great connection to the lake, Discovery Center and Museum. Create a public display of ongoing student research projects for the curious.

Third Ward - May 6, 2009 - Construction began recently for Jackson Square. The project, which is being developed by Robert Joseph, is an 81-unit apartment building with 9,000 square feet of retail space, which is being built at the northwest corner of East Menomonee and North Jackson streets. The five-story building is expected to be completed in about one year, Joseph said...

Milwaukee - May. 6, 2009 - A $400,000 grant announced Wednesday by one of the nation's largest charitable organizations will help a Milwaukee urban farm promote workforce development through the green movement, including jobs in intensive agriculture, renewable energy and environmental education...

Waukesha - May 7, 2009 - Indoor sports enthusiasts could see a major new venue under construction by summer, with a $10 million project revived by a development group that recently built a similar facility near Chicago. The 130,000-square-foot Engage Sportsplex has been designed to attract fans of soccer, volleyball and other indoor recreational sports from throughout southeastern Wisconsin...

Milwaukee - May. 5, 2009- An 88-room hotel planned for the former Chancery build ling on Downer Ave. is on hold, but a smaller hotel might instead be built at the southeast corner of Downer Ave. and Park Place, developer Joel Lee tells me. Lee and New Land Enterprises initially had plans to develop a hotel with extended-stay rooms at the building that once housed the Chancery Pub & Restaurant and Einstein Bros. Bagels. That building would be remodeled and expanded...

Bay View neighborhood - May. 7, 2009 - The former Army Reserve site at 2372 S. Logan Ave., in the Bay View neighborhood, would host 20 single-family homes and townhomes, 75 to 80 independent senior apartments, and 35 to 40 assisted living senior apartments, under a new proposal. The $40 million planned project, dubbed Eco Bay, would be a showcase for sustainable development, the Department of City Development said Thursday...

Okauchee - May 6, 2009 - In recent years, many banks have sold commercial properties that enter foreclosure for less-than-market value prices. Many of these sales have turned into net losses for banks, where they are able to recover only a portion of their commercial real estate development loans. Wauwatosa-based The Equitable Bank is taking a different approach with Mission Lakes, a luxury senior condominium community built on Florence Lake in Okauchee. The bank took control of the development on April 20...

Ken Notes: We should all send this bank a note of thanks.

West Bend - May. 7, 2009 - The municipal airport's longest runway will be resurfaced this year and an automated weather observation system will be upgraded now that Gov. Jim Doyle has approved a $67,947 state grant to help pay for the work. Craig Butler, an airport engineering specialist with the state Department of Transportation, said Thursday that the total cost of the two projects is $237,895. ...

May. 6, 2009 - A 33,443-square-foot office building near the former Northridge Mall has been sold for $1.75 million, according to Siegel-Gallagher commercial real estate brokerage...

Town of Vernon - May. 6, 2009 - The 56,460-square-foot former Waynz World indoor sports facility, in the Town of Vernon, has been sold for $2.45 million, according to broker Jeff Hoffman, of Judson & Associates...

Waukesha - May. 5, 2009 - The Common Council will act tonight on closing a special tax district that helped finance LifeCare Hospital, an acute care medical facility for seriously injured and acutely ill patients. The city created a tax incremental financing district in June 2006 to pay for improving a booster pump station to bring an adequate water supply to the for-profit medical facility, 2400 Golf Road...

Ken Notes: The two best day in a TIF's life the day it opens and the day it closes...

A single source for all economic development news for Greater Madison and beyond. Wisconsin Development News, (WDN) is published weekly by Ken Harwood.

Available to commercial brokers, developers, financial professionals, community planners, public officials, the press and others who have expressed an interest in Wisconsin development. All stories should link to their original source in the original context. These pages may contain advertising, and I encourage patronage of both our sponsors and the related advertisers and publications I link too.

We link to Editorial and Opinion articles each week, this does not suggest we agree with the stance of the author. The "Ken Notes" items are the opinion of our editor. We will include any comments or feedback sent to WDN. Ken also writes a monthly column for Capitol Region Business Journal and other state publications.

The focus for WDN is to create a positive view of economic development for the Greater Madison Region. The publication will also feature news from around the state, nation, and world that offers insight to policy, trends, and projects that may be of interest to the reader.

Please forward any information you would like included for consideration. We do our best to include any non advertising stories, press releases, or articles from other sources that you feel would be of interest to the reader. WDN can also host your news stories and press releases online. Please feel free to forward WDN.

We continue to develop this newsletter because of the positive feedback we have received in the past and strong encouragement to continue. As always let us know what you think.

Ken

Kenneth Harwood
WisconsinDevelopment.com LLC
P.O. Box 930234
Verona, WI 53593-0234
608.334.2174
ken@wisconsindevelopment.com