Volume 2 - Issue 27 - Circulation 3,500 Week of 07.02.09 to 07.09.09
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Madison - July 7, 2009 - The front stairs are crumbling. A weed trimmer is used to clear the grass and weeds sprouting from cracks in the vast leaky roof. The weather stripping on windows is so deteriorated that, added together, it's like leaving a set of double doors permanently open....
Madison - July 7, 2009 - Mayor Says He'll Take Summer To Weigh Options For Central Library. A new Madison central library will boost use, be a civic symbol and inspire economic development - like other new libraries rising across the nation, supporters say. And the developer proposing the new library says it can be done for $1.25 million annually for 20 years - just $5 per city resident a year added to their current $50 per capita cost of running the library system...
Ken Notes: The Mayor is correct on this one. The worst thing to do is make the wrong choice now and regret it ten years from now. We may need to raise some money for the project first and in this market that may take a while, but good things truly are worth waiting for. Mayor, the summer may not be long enough...
Madison - July 7, 2009 - The Madison Central Library's facility problems...
MADISON - July 8, 2009 - Habitat for Humanity of Dane County on Wednesday announced plans to transform a West Side apartment building in an effort to bring stability to the area. The project is a big step forward for the Meadowood neighborhood, which has seen an increase in crime problems....
Ken Notes: Cograts to channel 3000 on their very nice new website!
Wisconsin - JUN 10, 2009 - By the time you read this, it is likely the state of Wisconsin will have passed a budget ostensibly dealing with a more than $6 billion deficit over the next
biennium. Unfortunately, much of the balancing act is tied to onetime stimulus
money, new taxes and deferral of debt, rather than repayment.
Ken Notes: My take on the state budget as published in Capitol Region Business Journal.
Wisconsin - July 3, 2009 - Anchor BanCorp Wisconsin, parent company of AnchorBank, wants to unload out-of-state real estate holdings that have been a drag on the company's bottom line. Losses totaled $18.4 million for the fiscal year ending March 31 from real estate operations in California and Texas through Investment Directions Inc. (IDI), a subsidiary, according to Anchor BanCorp's annual report, filed this week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission....
SAN FRANCISCO - 7/06/2009 - Having built and sold two technology startups for a combined $11.7 billion, Wisconsin native Marc Andreessen is ready to take a stab at, well, finding the next Marc Andreessen.
The co-founder of Web browsing pioneer Netscape Communications Corp. and software maker Opsware Inc. is starting a new career as a venture capitalist with his longtime business partner, Ben Horowitz.
Their venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, opens Monday with a $300 million fund earmarked primarily for startups involved in the Internet, software, consumer gadgets and data storage....
Ken Notes: Attention old drinking buddies of Marc, Call him and mention that Madison is the new hot bed of tech. Oh, and while you are recalling the old days mention Wisconsindevelopment.com. and FutureWisconsin.com. as potential benefactors. I'll buy the next round...
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 - July 5, 2009- Robert Wangard is the founder and chief executive officer of Cartridge Savers, a company that remanufactures toner cartridges for resale, among other things. Government contracts make up the bulk of his business. The company was named the U.S. Small Business Administration's Minority Business of the Year for Wisconsin in 2006...
Wisconsin - July 2, 2009 - We know that some people think this newspaper is perhaps a bit tough on the state Department of Commerce. But it is hard to take seriously an agency that consistently responds to the deindustrialization of Wisconsin by saying, "Uh, well, um, er, ah -- what happened?" Such was the case Wednesday, when Briggs & Stratton Corp...
Ken Notes: I do believe that commerce could and should be more of a cheerleader for the state, BUT we, the business community, are the team players. If we fail to run the court and take the shots all the cheerleading in the world will not help. We need to open China to our products, we need to build the next Google, we need to find the next great idea - all so commerce has something to cheer about. This is a great state for business we just want to keep that a secret.
Madison - 7/08/2009 - Malt House owner Bill Rogers has failed to get relief from city ordinances effectively blocking him from putting three picnic tables outside to serve customers of the popular east side bar focused on craft beers...
Ken Notes: I believe the commission was correct in their interpretation and the council may need to wrestle with the specific ordinance. Sometimes policy gets in the way of progress.
Madison - 7/09/2009 - More than $800,000 in federal money has been awarded to Madison to combat homelessness. The grant, announced Thursday, is from the new Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program, a program operated by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)...
Ken Notes: God Bless us everyone...
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
Wisconsin - 7/09/2009 - Wisconsin regulators plan to vote today on a utility's plans to build a massive wind farm in southern Minnesota.
Wisconsin Power & Light Co., a subsidiary of Madison-based Alliant Energy, wants permission to start the first phase of the farm on 32,500 acres just north of Albert Lea in Freeborn County. Plans call for scores of turbines that would generate about 200 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 50,000 homes....
Ken Notes: There is more to this story than the text reveals. This technology should be far more cost effective than Alliant suggests. There is an agenda here that may go well beyond wind power.
Wisconsin - July 3, 2009 - Breaking up is hard to do, but Wisconsin should say goodbye to GM forever. This is a bankrupt company that's been cutting jobs in Janesville for years with little regard for either the impact on working families or the state's dwindling tax base. Sure, General Motors has ties in Janesville dating to 1923 and had employed more than 7,800 workers there as recently as the 1980s...
Ken Notes: I wish that the state would invest the 195 million in economic development in the private sector. Tie the money to measurable outcomes so we can see actual new jobs and growth.
Mark Henrichs' home on South Midvale Boulevard is filled with one-of a-kind furniture worthy of space in an art gallery. He's an architect who designs and builds furniture on commission, and this is where his clients come first to see his work and watch him sketch ideas for them...
Madison Region - July 2, 2009 - The following property transfers were recorded in Madison in May...
Ken Notes: Attention, attention please today's list is a good deal longer than those of the past. Lets hope...
- July 2, 2009 - The listing of area building permits is gathered from records filed with planning officials in Madison, Fitchburg, Middleton and Sun Prairie...
Ken Notes: A few more that the last reports...
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!...
WASHINGTON - 7/09/2009 - More than half of potential homebuyers say they're still not prepared to jump into the market, and fear of losing their jobs is the No. 1 reason, a new poll shows.
With unemployment at a 26-year-high and rising, nearly 53 percent of consumers who said they were planning to buy a home in the future cautioned they're not ready to take such a large financial step right now, according to the survey released Thursday by Realtor.com....
BEIJING - 7/09/2009 - China surpassed the United States as the world's biggest auto market for the first half of 2009 after June sales soared 36.5 percent from a year earlier, according to data reported Thursday. China's vehicle sales in June rose to 1.14 million, the second-highest month to date after April's 1.15 million units, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said. Passenger car sales hit a monthly record of 872,900 units....
Ken Notes: Think about this. 1.3 billion people spending for the first time. This is real stimulus...
Madison Area - July 6, 2009 - Transport 2020 project manager David Trowbridge needs the fingers on both hands to count all of the mass transit and rail studies completed in Dane County in the past 30 years. Like clockwork, a study seemed to crop up every few years, with paperwork accelerating in the late 1990s as Trowbridge's work on the Transport 2020 project began. On June 29, however, the Madison area saw arguably the biggest single step toward getting a regional transit system when Gov. Jim Doyle signed a state budget that included approval for Dane County to form a regional transit authority (RTA). It would have taxing authority within federally set boundaries, and discussion so far has centered around the idea of the RTA enacting a half-cent sales tax that would raise some $38 million annually....
Ken Notes: I sit on the MPO and will keep an open mind on the issue, but will suggest that to move any major project forward the city and the county must work much more closely with the surrounding communities. We need a comprehensive long range sustainable plan that has the support of the entire region before we give an RTA taxing and spending authority.
Middleton - 7/2/2009 - Tax increment financing district (TID) 4 is no more. In fact, it never technically existed. Last September the Middleton City Council approved the district as part of an initiative to use public assistance to transform parts of the municipality. The city planned to pay off the debt and close out TID 4 within 27 years...
Viroqua - July 7, 2009 - Three longtime friends broke ground Monday on a nearly $2 million meat processing and retail business near Viroqua that is expected to employ 12 to 20 people.
Premier Meats is scheduled to open in Vernon County this fall. The startup project will offer meat processing services to farmers, as well as locally grown organic and non-organic meats for retail sale.
Products from the area such as cheeses and wines also will be sold, said Terry Hoyum, a partner with Dan and Sue Jacobson....
Madison - July 3, 2009 - A fixture of Madison's nightclub scene for 35 years, the Cardinal Bar is a weekend away from its last dance - a victim, a co-owner said, of bad city policies, a bad economy and bad weather.
Corey Rogers, who started as a manager at the dance club in 1996, said that barring 11th-hour help from outside investors, the Cardinal will close for good Sunday...
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...
Wisconsin - July 5, 2009 - Mired in the worst recession in decades, Wisconsin's 269,000 unemployed residents are probably wondering if the end of the economic downturn is in sight.
"Everything I'm reading and the things that I'm seeing indicate a very slow recovery," said David J. Ward, president of NorthStar Economics in Madison. "Right now, the most positive indicator is a slowing down in the economic decline."...
Wisconsin - July 5, 2009 - Wisconsin had the lowest capital gains tax rate of all states with an income tax. That low rate was due to the 60 percent capital gain exclusion that goes back to the days of Gov. Tony Earl. With the 60 percent exclusion, Wisconsin investors enjoyed a 2.7 percent income tax rate on long-term capital gains. With the state budget change to a 30 percent exclusion, the Wisconsin income tax rate increases to 4.725 percent (a 75 percent increase). For certain investors who fall into the new, higher marginal tax bracket of 7.75 percent, the increase will be 101 percent! What a great "reward" investors receive for investing in Wisconsin...
Ken Notes: I an surprised the above opinion was penned by an accountant, the usually profit from finding the shelters that protect investors from the taxes in the first place. I do agree that we have found a number of new taxes and revenue sources that will not encourage job growth or development.
Oshkosh - July 2, 2009 - Oshkosh Corp. said Wednesday that it's too early to know how many jobs its new billion-dollar military contract will create but stressed that the number will be "significant."
The contract awarded Tuesday to the Oshkosh-based company calls for 2,244 mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles, or MRAPs. The Defense Department said it urgently needs strong protective trucks that are also light and can maneuver Afghanistan's rocky terrain.
Oshkosh, which has about 12,000 employees worldwide, is evaluating how many new hires will be needed, said Robert Bohn, chairman and chief executive....
Janesville - July 7, 2009 - Wisconsin offered incentives totaling $195 million in its unsuccessful bid to persuade General Motors Corp. to put a small-car production line at the closed Janesville plant, the state Commerce Department confirmed Tuesday.
The package included a state offer valued at $115 million, plus a variety of incentives from local governments and the private sector....
Milwaukee - July 8, 2009 - The developer for the long delayed Rivianna development has made some minor changes to the project and is now seeking final approval of a detailed plan development. The project will be reviewed by the City Plan Commission during its Monday, July 13 meeting. .
The project consists of three 15-story towers that would be built on top of a four-story base on a vacant three-quarters of an acre lot at 236 S. Water St. along the Milwaukee River in the Fifth Ward...
Cudahy - July 8, 2009- A top executive at Smithfield Foods, the parent company of Patrick Cudahy, gave the first indication Wednesday that the plant would rebuild and resume normal operations after a devastating fire damaged the meatpacking plant.
"We appreciate what this plant means to the community and the generations of workers who have made Patrick Cudahy what it is today and look forward to the day when the plant can resume major production operations," Dennis H. Treacy...
Milwaukee - July 8, 2009 - The City of Milwaukee has negotiated an agreement to buy 84 acres of the former Tower Automotive Inc. site, and will eventually redevelop it into a business park, Mayor Tom Barrett announced Wednesday. The proposed $3.5 million purchase offer will be considered at the July 14 meeting of the Redevelopment Authority. Those funds have already been budgeted...
Menomonee Valley - July 6, 2009 - A Boston company wants to build a data center in the Menomonee Valley that developers say will use less energy, offer lower costs and help spur area economic growth. Source IT Energy LLC has been negotiating with land owners on two sides of We Energies' Menomonee Valley power plant near 10th and Canal streets, said Herb Zien, the company's Milwaukee-based senior vice president and chief development officer....
- July 8, 2009 - A partnership of Madison-based Gorman & Company Inc. and the Northwest Side Community Development Corp. plans to build a four-story senior housing and library building on a mostly vacant lot at 3401-31 W. Villard Ave., in the central city of Milwaukee...
Wisconsin - July 7, 2009 - The average terms of office and industrial leases signed during the second quarter were the shortest since 2000, according to a new report from Grubb & Ellis Co.
The average office lease was 52.3 months, while the average industrial lease was 43.4 months, said Grubb & Ellis, a commercial real estate services provider. According to the firm, weak corporate profits are prompting tenants to choose short-term extensions as their leases expire instead of new, five-year leases...
Kewaunee - July 6, 2009 - Coast Guard no longer has use for building; public tours a possibility.Like a string of pearls circling Lake Michigan, lighthouses have been shining beacons of safety to untold Great Lakes mariners.
Situated on the edge of Wisconsin's thumb, Kewaunee's lighthouse has guided boaters and ship captains for more than a century.
Now, it's for sale...
Milwaukee - July 2, 2009 - Ghazi Co.'s proposal to develop a mixed-use, entertainment-oriented development dubbed the Catalyst on a parking lot at W. Wisconsin Ave. and N. 4th St., near the Midwest Airlines Center, is officially dead. The city Redevelopment Authority has notified Charlotte, N.C.-based Ghazi Co. that it was terminating the agreement to sell the city-owned parcel. The deal was dropped because Ghazi was unable to meet a city deadline...
Menomonee Falls - July 8, 2009 - Actuant Corp. is planning to move its corporate headquarters from Butler to Menomonee Falls, and would also shift a manufacturing operation to the Falls from Glendale, a real estate source tells me. Actuant, which makes automotive parts and other industrial equipment, would use a vacant, 175,480-square-foot building at 12545 W. Westbrook Crossing, in the Westbrook Corporate Center. The building, which is vacant and formerly housed Kelch Corp., would be expanded....
Brookfield - July 9, 2009 - The Hooters restaurant planned for V. Richard's Plaza, in Brookfield, could open by October or November, according to a story in Brookfield Now, a sister publication.
Hooters is taking space formerly used by Pedro's Mexican restaurant.
But plans for a new CVS Pharmacy, which would replace V. Richard's Market, have been...
Milwaukee - July 7, 2009 - Plans for a $14 million parking structure for the U.S. Bank Center, Milwaukee's tallest office tower, are moving forward after a compromise was reached over its lack of commercial space.
The city's zoning code requires parking structures to include street-level retail or office space, The idea is to encourage street and sidewalk activity...
Milwaukee - July 7, 2009 - Some 109 years ago, a group of Catholic nuns carved "a little pioneer home hidden under mighty trees" on a beautiful wooded hill on the Milwaukee's east side.
In the years that followed, the School Sisters of Notre Dame would grow in their mission of teaching and helping the poor and continue to build and expand on the land bounded by E. Ogden Ave. and N. Milwaukee, N. Jefferson and E. Knapp streets....
Milwaukee - July 4, 2009- The cylindrical, 11-story Becher Court tower, built as a residence for the elderly in the 1960s by the Housing Authority - along with similar buildings throughout the city - will be demolished this year to make way for a new generation of housing.
Plans call for replacing it with a new six-story complex at 1800 W. Becher St. with 80 units, a dining facility...
A single source for all economic development news for Greater Madison and beyond. Wisconsin Development News, (WDN) is published weekly by Ken Harwood.
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Kenneth Harwood
WisconsinDevelopment.com LLC
P.O. Box 930234
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