Volume 2 - Issue 26 - Circulation 3,500 Week of 06.25.09 to 07.02.09

Madison - June 28, 2009 - A Massive $107 Mmilion Plan To Restore And Expand The Historic Edgewater Hotel Inspires Applause But Also Deep Concerns. A Madison developer is proposing a massive redevelopment of the Edgewater Hotel, offering to turn the venerable but faded landmark on Lake Mendota into a destination that would "reshape the city" as the Overture Center and Monona Terrace did. The $107 million project, which developer Robert Dunn said aims to reinvent the Edgewater as "Madison's living room," has put a twinkle in some people's eyes - and is raising the eyebrows of others...

Madison - June 28, 2009 - Where were you raised and educated? I was born and raised in Madison. After graduating from Edgewood High School in 1984, I attended the University of Colorado-Boulder and came back to Madison after two years to complete my undergraduate degree at UW-Madison. I went to Georgia State University for a master's in real estate development and again returned to Madison to finish....

Ken Notes: Kohl Center, Fluno, Lambeau, I'm guessing this is a developer that can get things done. A project of this magnitude could create a destination for Madison tourists. Lets sit down and work with him to get a great project.

Madison - 7/01/2009 - Back in the heady days at the turn of the century, it all seemed so possible: a grand 35-acre park rolling down the rusting East Rail Corridor on Madison's isthmus that would not only offer recreation, but spur economic development. The idea, floated by a nonprofit group with the then-exotic focus of "urban open space," captured the public imagination. People musing about the possibilities started to call it "Central Park," and the notion began to collect some of the luster of New York City's landmark park of the same name...

Ken Notes: No project of this magnitude is easy but may well be worth planning and waiting for. Like the Library, saying no today may be very shortsighted.

Wisconsin - June 28, 2009 - Nowhere in the United States is manufacturing a stronger industry than in Wisconsin. That's why Wisconsin should invest in education, research and technology. The conclusion may appear odd. After all, if the state is to capitalize on manufacturing, why make investments usually associated with ivory towers and computers? The answer is clear: It's not your father's manufacturing anymore. Wisconsin took over the top spot in state manufacturing rankings last month, when measured by the percentage of nonfarm employment in manufacturing jobs....

Ken Notes: Well said! We need to shout our abilities from the rooftops and fix our problems in the backrooms of the capitol!

Madison - 6/30/2009 - For those who are familiar with the city of Madison's rocky relationship with the business community, the invitation to attend an event in April for new economic development director Tim Cooley was probably more than a little unusual. "The Madison Business Community and City of Madison invite you to a special welcome reception for Tim Cooley, the New Economic Development Director for the City of Madison," the invitation read...

Madison - June 27, 2009 - A $5 million residential and retail development would make over a highly visible East Side Madison corner if a plan now nearing the end of a city approval process becomes a reality. Developer Koua Vang's Emerson Place would include 26 apartments, retail space and nearly 60 parking spaces on the northeast corner of First Street and East Washington Avenue. It would replace three residential properties and a two-tenant commercial building. Vang's intention is to convert the units to condominiums once that market improves....

Ken Notes: Not sure how long it will be here but Alder Rhodes-Conway has a nice overview of the project HERE.

Wisconsin - JUN 29, 2009 - Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle has signed the state budget bill for the 2009-2011 biennium, vetoing a 0.65 percent sales tax in Milwaukee County and killing the proposed transit authority for the county. Overall, the new state budget cuts overall spending by $3 billion, doing so while cutting 1,000 state employees, imposing across-the-board budget cuts for state agencies and the rolling back of 2 percent pay raises for state employees that were to take effect this month. State agencies also are directed to review all service contracts to reduce personnel costs...

Ken Notes: I am very worried about the national press the budget has been getting. These articles are clearly sending the wrong message to companies looking to do business or bring jobs to the state. If anyone knows of pro business provisions let me know and I will include articles in WDN and use my editorial to highlight them. We are a better place for business that this recent press suggests. Articles from non-Wisconsin media include...
Chicago Tribune
Forbes

NEW YORK - 6/30/2009 - General Motors Corp., hoping for a quick exit from Chapter 11, on Tuesday will ask a bankruptcy judge to approve its plan to refashion itself as a leaner automaker owned mostly by the government. The nation's largest automaker still faces hundreds of objections from bondholders, state officials, unions and individual retirees and shareholders, but could enjoy an easier trip through the bankruptcy process thanks to the legal trail blazed just weeks ago by rival Chrysler LLC...

Ken Notes: I wrote an op-ed on this Once you break it, you are going to own it...

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 - June 29, 2009 - State contractors say it will cost almost $6.5 million to renovate a run-down, historic hospital building on the Mendota Mental Health Institute campus - twice as much as what a Madison affordable housing developer projected. But the contractors, hired May 27 by the Department of Administration for $2,730, didn't talk to Madison developer Gary Gorman or Catholic Charities of Madison, the ultimate tenant...

Ken Notes: Why not allow Gary and Catholic Charities of Madison to put a firm proposal on the table.

Madison - July 1, 2009 - Despite the recent closing of Cafe Montmartre, a popular downtown establishment, due to the economy, downtown businesses said the high level of foot traffic shows that the downtown remains a vital place for businesses...

Ken Notes: Downtown is a great destination. I am surprised we can't make it even more so. I think we forget how special State Street, farmers market, concerts, the terraces, the capitol, the food, and the rest of downtown is because, for us, it is just downtown. We share it with our friends and visitors as our own little secret.

FITCHBURG - July 2, 2009 - The city of Fitchburg is trying to fill a $300,000 budget hole and city leaders are hoping week-long furloughs will cover half of the deficit. "As of March, we realized that some of the revenues that we had budgeted for were not going to occur as we had thought they would, particularly in the areas of building permits and interest income," said Tony Roach, city of Fitchburg administrator,...

Ken Notes: I still like the four day workweek in the summer. Good for the budget not to mention the states tourism economy.

Wisconsin - 6/26/2009 - Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle says Wisconsin offered a "very strong" incentive package to get General Motors to locate subcompact production in Janesville, and he says he's "deeply disappointed" the automaker picked its Orion, Mich., plant for the work...

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

Madison - June 26, 2009 - Spectrum Brands' long effort to get out from under its mountain of debt crossed a major hurdle Thursday. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ronald King, in San Antonio, gave his verbal approval to the company's reorganization plan. A written order is expected in the next week or two, and Spectrum Brands expects to come out of bankruptcy in August after it meets closing conditions, including $242 million in exit financing promised by General Electric Capital Corp...

Madison - JUN 30, 2009 - Help people get to where they want to go on Picnic Point so they don't go where they shouldn't. That's the smart strategy UW-Madison is proposing for the cherished peninsula that curves nearly a mile into Lake Mendota...

Ken Notes: Once again a do nothing approach may do more harm than the planned approach. No should not be an option here, if you don't like the plan improve it.

Madison - June 29, 2009 - When plans were unveiled in 2004, the $100 million Union Corners project was supposed to revitalize Madison's east side with some 450 housing units, a full-service grocery, a pharmacy, a hardware store and a restaurant. But five years later, the 15-acre site at the corner of East Washington Avenue and Milwaukee Street is marked mainly by broken concrete and piles of gravel. It has been one of the most visible victims of the economic downturn in Madison. In fact, the only redevelopment that's actually taken place was the creation of the Malt House at 2609 E. Washington Ave., the former Union House Tavern which has been transformed into a craft beer connoisseur's paradise....

Dane County - 7/02/2009 - Dane County is scaring people. Its Lakes and Watershed Commission has been developing the Dane County Waterbody Classification Project, which some fear will bring draconian regulations. Phil Salkin, a former county supervisor and Verona mayor who represents real estate interests, is fighting the project. ...

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!...

Fitchburg - 6/27/2009 - It's time to stop pretending someone else will solve the city's problems. That's the assessment of Mayor Jay Allen, who has proposed several major capital projects, which he said have been unnecessarily delayed, resulting in a backlog. "We've known about them for a long time, but no one has been willing to take leadership for them," Allen said...

Madison Area - June 27, 2009 - TomoTherapy has a new vehicle designed to make it faster and less expensive for clinics and hospitals to use its unique radiation treatment system. Called TomoMobile, it is a TomoTherapy unit installed in a custom-built semitrailer. The vehicle includes an area where therapists can plan cancer treatment, two changing areas for patients and a standard TomoTherapy machine whose radiation unit spirals around a patient delivering narrow, focused beams....

7/1/2009 - Finally, you can have a house that's really green, sustainable and energy efficient. Cheaper? Probably not, but it's likely to be around for several hundred years. It's a long way from becoming a standard - or even a trend. But Lou Host-Jablonski, an architect with a Madison firm, the Design Coalition...

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...

National - 7/02/2009 - Out-of-work with no place to land, the legions of America's unemployed are growing. The Labor Department is scheduled to release a report Thursday expected to show the nation's unemployment rate edging closer to double digits. Wall Street economists predict the jobless rate will rise to 9.6 percent in June from 9.4 percent in May. That would mark a 26-year high...

JUL 2, 2009 - JUL 2, 2009 - Briggs & Stratton plans to end production at two area factories, in Jefferson and Watertown, by early 2010 and close them entirely by next June, eliminating 530 jobs at those locations...

Wisconsin - July 1, 2009 - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded $35.6 million aimed at reviving stalled projects for affordable housing in Wisconsin. The money, part of $2.25 billion Tax Credit Assistance Program...

Waukesha - July 1, 2009 - The Clarke Hotel and Black Trumpet Restaurant, an ambitious venture that offers luxury to a working-class downtown, has undergone a major personnel shakeup with the loss of partner Andy Ruggeri, a news release from a Milwaukee public relations firm said Wednesday. The hotel and restaurant will continue to operate with no expected interruption in service. All restaurant and hotel reservations, gift cards and scheduled events will be honored, the release says....

Wisconsin - June 29, 2009 - A new law requiring Wisconsin developers to pay prevailing wage on projects that receive $1 million or more of public cash includes an expanded exception for affordable housing projects, under a line item veto Monday by Gov. Jim Doyle. The legislation previously contained more restricted language...

Ken Notes: I'm confused if prevailing wage laws are good and have no cost why are there any exemptions?

Milwaukee - July 1, 2009 - The city will drop plans to take land from one owner and sell it to a neighboring landowner who planned to expand a local market. The decision announced Wednesday by Milwaukee Ald. Jim Witkowiak means that the owner of the land on S. Muskego Ave. can continue to pursue his own development on the site....

Milwaukee - July 1, 2009 - Ald. Robert Bauman wants the Common Council to order Mayor Tom Barrett's Department of City Development to help finance a downtown apartment high-rise. Bauman has introduced a resolution that would direct the department "to provide financing assistance" for the proposed 224-unit building....

Washington County - July 1, 2009 - Economic Development/Washington County Executive Director John V. Caldwell Jr. is no longer with the organization, EDWC said Wednesday...

Franklin - June 30, 2009 - Some readers have asked whether Roundy's Supermarkets Inc. plans to close any Franklin Pick 'n Save stores once it converts the Sendik's supermarket, at Highway 100 and Drexel Ave., into a Pick 'n Save. The answer is no, according to Roundy's spokeswoman Vivian King....

Milwaukee - June 30, 2009 - A receiver has been appointed on a temporary basis to operate the partially completed Staybridge hotel development in downtown Milwaukee, under an order signed Tuesday by Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Mel Flanagan. The receivership could become permanent by July 8, when a second hearing is set to occur. The receivership is being sought by project investor SJ Properties...

Franklin - June 30, 2009 - A sinking economy, combined with heavy competition, is leading one of two Sendik's supermarkets in Franklin to shut down after just one year of business, the store's co-owner said Tuesday. "Over the last year, we've struggled to gain market share in Franklin," said Lori Balistreri Barczak, whose family owns the Sendik's Fine Foods at The Shoppes of Wyndham Village at the southeast corner of Highway 100 and Drexel Ave...

Wauwatosa - June 30, 2009 - Wauwatosa-based Grede Foundries Inc. has filed to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and said it has an offer for financing until the company could be sold. Grede's assets total nearly $144 million and its debts are just more than $148 million, the company says in documents filed Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Madiso...

MILWAUKEE - June 29, 2009 - The investment group that bought the former Goldmann's Department Store building on Milwaukee's south side is seeking a $500,000 loan to help finance a $4 million renovation plan. DK USA Property Management LLC bought the building in 2007 for $625,000,...

Dodge County - July 1, 2009 - Governor Jim Doyle today announced that Silverstone Partners, Inc. will receive a $280,000 Blight Elimination and Brownfield Redevelopment grant from the Department of Commerce to help redevelop a contaminated and underutilized property in Dodge County....

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.

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Ken

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