Volume 2 - Issue 29 - Circulation 3,500 Week of 07.16.09 to 07.23.09
Always Online at WisconsinDevelopment.com

Madison JUL 20, 2009 - After a year of fine-tuning, a developer has new plans for a $100 million mixed-use project on Lake Monona with a hotel that could directly serve Monona Terrace. Apex Enterprises, one of the city's largest owners and managers of rental property, is proposing a 14-story, 450,000-square-foot building with a 300-room full-service hotel, fitness center and pool, meeting space, up to 60 housing units, two restaurants, a 10,000-square-foot grocery store and 550 mostly underground parking spaces...

Ken Notes: Another opportunity for conventions and attracting major businesses to downtown. We need to put several of these projects in the dirt.

There was a lot of interest in this publication creating a tracking data base of major proposed projects and their current status! I have started a data base of projects, will create an advisory committee to review them and will link the project my web and this email soon. If you would like to be involved send a note to Ken@Wisconsindevelopment.com.

Madison Area - JUL 21, 2009 - Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz marveled this week at his city's embarrassment of riches with hotel projects. What would really be embarrassing, though, is if nothing is built. Amid the worst recession in a generation, private developers want to invest hundreds of millions of dollars Downtown. Some of the plans also would include public perks, such as a scenic terrace over Lake Mendota and a wharf on Lake Monona....

Ken Notes: The real challenge will be a coordinated effort to get them built and working together for the betterment of downtown. We need to address transit, conventions, entertainment, and a host of other issues to put this puzzle together.

Madison Area - 7/21/2009 - New residential and non-residential construction in the Madison area is improving but is still lagging behind the numbers posted a year ago, according to the June future construction contract report from McGraw-Hill. The total value of building construction in the three-county metro area of Dane, Columbia and Iowa Counties was down six percent in June when compared to June of 2008, with $49 million in contracts issued this June compared to $52.4 million in June of 2008...

Madison - July 16, 2009 - After more than three hours of discussion, Madison's Alcohol License Review Committee late Wednesday delayed for a month a recommendation on whether to issue a liquor license to a controversial proposal for a 900-capacity restaurant and banquet facility in the heart of Downtown. The move to delay a vote on the development at 702 W. Johnson St. in University Square came after committee members raised questions about whether police could handle such a large project in an area already beset by alcohol-related problems and governed by a city alcohol density plan that strictly limits the number of bar liquor licenses...

Ken Notes: Dumping 450 onto the streets? This logic suggests we need to immediately pull the liquor license from the Kohl and Overture Centers.

Madison - 7/23/2009 - File it under "The Thanks We Get." This spring the city of Madison notified the Art Gecko store on Monroe Street that a citizen had complained about a stone carving in the garden it built to beautify the neighborhood. The carving, mostly obscured by foliage, bears the words "Art Gecko." According to the notice, "No permit can be obtained for this signage as displayed."...

Ken Notes: So let me get this straight build a garden and identify it with a carving and get fined by the city, yet McDonald's can hang a six foot high burger poster in their window and that's cool??? A photo of the sign is HERE.

Cross Plains - July 17, 2009 - An effort to preserve a natural resource area in the town of Cross Plains was dealt a severe setback Thursday night when the Dane County Board delayed paying more than twice what the owner paid for the land in 2005. Despite an ultimatum from the developer's attorney that it must approve the deal or lose it, the board voted 22-9 with six members absent to refer back to committee the controversial $3.2 million purchase of 133 acres that would have been part of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail...

Ken Notes: The board did still purchase a lot of land this year including a wetlands near Mazomainie from a person who was being sued by the DNR for attempting to drain the land. We should be able to control truly environmentally valuable land with permitting as opposed to outright purchase. This is a prime example of where the 35 acre rule may do far more harm that good. Wouldn't the best solution here be a high density planned development on a small portion of the land and a conservancy for the trail.

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 - 7/22/2009 - The potential Edgewater Hotel redevelopment is quickly becoming Madison's most talked-about project that has not yet yielded official plans for city review. The scale of the $107 million project, which includes adding an 11-story tower to the historic Lake Mendota hotel at 666 Wisconsin Ave., is attention-getting by itself. Critics also are charging that the developer, the Hammes Co., has already engaged in much lobbying with city officials before a proposal is even on the table...

Ken Notes: What is plan B here? The new project revitalizes the area, and doing nothing is not good for the hotel, business, tourism, conventions or the economy.

Verona - JUL 22, 2009 - A 200-acre commercial and industrial park is planned on Verona's southeast side. Liberty Business Park will be developed east of Highway 18-151, roughly between Highway M and Whalen Road, on property annexed to the city on July 13. About 20 acres of the park are north of Whalen Road...

Ken Notes: Ruedebusch Commercial has done some great projects in the Region. I am pushing for this to be one of the best. Like EPIC before it Verona wants to raise the bar a little when in comes to commercial development. Full disclosure, I am an alderman in the fourth district in Verona.

Madison Area - July 20, 2009 - Q What's going on with the lone gray house on Rimrock Road in the middle of the construction at the Alexander Co.'s Novation Campus? The houses on both sides were torn down while this house still stands. A Clarence Schwengel, 89, who lives in the gray house, said he is not battling the Alexander Co. for the right to stay in his home. In fact, he described his relationship with the development firm as very amicable....

Ken Notes: I am so glad someone asked, every time I go by I wonder. This development has been great for the area and I love the omelet analogy.

Madison Area - 7/22/2009 - For Susan Schmitz, the biggest issues with commuting via bicycle were her hair, shoes and makeup. "Once I got all that figured out, the rest was pretty easy," says Schmitz, 60, president of the business-boosting group Downtown Madison Inc. Schmitz regularly bikes the six miles from her home near Hilldale to her office off the Capitol Square. She's been doing it for the past five years and even owns studded snow tires for better winter traction...

Ken Notes: I sit on the MPO and I would hardly say flat. We still poor huge dollars into the system. I think the next phase has to come from the private sector. Incentives and opportunity in the workplace like showers, loaner vehicles for meetings, bike parking, and health credits have worked well for some companies. You can lead a horse to water...

Madison - July 17, 2009 - Seven months after it opened, the Athletic Club of Madison at Weston Place, 625 N. Segoe Road, has closed, leaving at least $100,000 in unpaid construction and remodeling bills. Weston Place developer Peter Frautschi said he wants to find another tenant to run the health club. He said he evicted club owner Mario Chmiel for unpaid rent. Frautschi said he invested $500,000 in tenant improvements for development of the health club and the unpaid bills were cost overruns by Chmiel...

Ken Notes: There is such great potential for this area. I hope Weston Place, Hilldale and the surrounding area develops into the neighborhood it can and should be. A user friendly transit link to downtown would help and a lifestyle health care clinic for us 50 somethings.

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 Area - JUL 22, 2009 - In what proponents see as a sign of growing strength in the local tech sector, nine companies focused on biotechnology and information technology recently became new tenants of University Research Park or its Near East Side offshoot, the Metro Innovation Center. They include two finalists in this year's Governor's Business Plan Contest and three companies relocating to Madison from other states...

Ken Notes: We have an opportunity to bring some of the Chicago technology and pharmaceutical companies to the region if we play our cards right. Again a tip of the hat to Mark and the UW for the work that they do.

Wisconsin - With foreclosure rates high, the Wisconsin Realtors Association this week kicked off an online public education project aimed at keeping people in their homes - or at least easing them out in a less destructive way. "Homeownership is what we're all about," said Erik Sjowall, a Madison-area real estate agent helping with the campaign locally. "Our goal is to get people in homes, but we want them to stay in their homes, too. There is plenty of business out there without foreclosures."...

Ken Notes: The website is HERE.

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 - JUL 22, 2009 - Nearly 2,000 tractors, trucks and pieces of vintage farm machinery are coming Thursday to the Alliant Energy Center. The 20th annual Red Power Roundup, hosted by Wisconsin Chapter No. 4 of the International Harvester Collectors Club, will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. About 25,000 people are expected to attend...

Ken Notes: OK not development per say, but 2,000 tractors and a parade, I'll be there!

Dane County - 07/16/2009 - Moo-ve over, polluting energy sources of the past, there's a new powerhouse in town. Cow power. Environmentalists and scientists have searched high (wind power) and low (hydropower) for alternative sources of energy, but in Wisconsin, the answer may be lying in the fields. That's right, in cow manure...

Ken Notes: I love this in principal, but the business person in me has to ask what else the state could do with 18 million dollars to promote agriculture and new jobs in the state. I hope this lead to cost effective solutions in the future.

National JUL 22, 2009 - A new national survey of manufacturing executives found that most believe the U.S. economy would improve over the next six months, even as nearly half expected their own firms' performance to decline. Overall, the survey found medium and large manufacturers were much more optimistic than small ones, which disproportionately made up the 12 percent of survey respondents who said their firm was in danger of failing...

Ken Notes: It is the 12% number that scares me. We need to shift our focus to small businesses in this economy and we need to do it now.

Madison - July 21, 2009 - Hilldale Shopping Center is the first mall in Wisconsin, and one of the first in the nation, with anti-idling rules for trucks. Tim Metcalfe, co-owner of Metcalfe's Sentry at Hilldale, heard about the amount of waste diesel trucks emit while idling, and decided to do something about it. He led a campaign to prevent idling trucks from spewing smog...

Ken Notes: Tim gets it.

Madison - July 21, 2009 - Belgium's technology attaché is visiting Madison Tuesday to meet economic development groups and attend a High-Tech Hot Dogger event at University Research Park. Jan Wauters, who is with the Belgian Consulate in New York City, is attempting to forge research and development partnerships between Belgian and U.S. research centers and industries. His areas of interest include nanotechnology and biotechnology...

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...

Madison - July 21, 2009 - It's the newness -- the idea of living in a place where no one else ever has lived -- that seems to attract people in the Allied Drive neighborhood to the new apartment complex built by the city of Madison. It may be what makes it seem out of reach for many of them, too. Kimi Waller, 20, the first tenant to move into the Revival Ridge Apartments last week, says it was the fact that everything inside and out was new that got her to apply early for an apartment. "You knew nothing was damaged, you knew everything was fresh. I'm so pumped!" Waller says. She ticks off the "extras" included in the two-bedroom apartment she will share with her 1-year-old daughter -- new washer and dryer, microwave oven, dishwasher, garbage disposal -- with the crisp assurance of a rental agent....

Verona - 7/21/2009 - Though economic activity has been slow in Verona, much like it is everywhere else, the Plan Commission got a chance last week to think long and hard about the city's post-recession future. It spent more than two hours July 3 discussing its most likely expansion areas over the next decade or so, land in the southwest, the southeast and the north. And while each of the three items had its own potential to be significant, put together, they offered a glimpse of what the city might look like in 10 years....

Fitchburg - 7/22/2009 - Some local business leaders are questioning the city's selection of a Minnesota firm as construction manager for the new library instead of Fitchburg-based Tri-North Builders. The Fitchburg Chamber of Commerce has recommended the Common Council reconsider the matter, and asked that future evaluations include criteria that "measure the value of keeping these jobs local."...

Fitchburg - 7/22/2009 - Pack up that gym bag, and break out the workout shoes because there is a new fitness facility in Fitchburg with the opening of a Gold's Gym on July 20. The 45,000-square-foot, $9 million facility at 2920 Hard Rock Road already employs nearly 60. General manager Michael Benso said there could be a total of 80 employees by the start of August....

Oregon - 7/18/2009 - The Oregon Village Board Monday took initial steps to adopt a new ordinance creating a room tax that could generate funds for economic development and to promote tourism. The tax would apply to hotels, motels or bed and breakfast businesses in Oregon. The ordinance is being created in anticipation of a new hotel being built on Park Street. Commercial developer Paul Lynch's plan to build a Holiday Inn Express was approved by village officials in April...

Wisconsin - July 20, 2009 - We argued Sunday that the state needs a coherent strategic plan for economic development. While the state Department of Commerce has many good programs, it lacks an overarching strategy. A 2006 audit found evidence of this. Although the state has since attempted to address the problem, there remains an overall lack of strategic thinking at the top....

Ken Notes: Could someone mention to the Journal Staff that I have been writing about this for several years.

Wisconsin - JUL 22, 2009 - Spanish train manufacturer Talgo plans to establish a new train assembly and maintenance facilities in the state, and has already scouted locations in Janesville and Milwaukee. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett wants Talgo to establish operations in Milwaukee. "We have prime sites near major transportation and in walking distance of a ready-to-go workforce," Barrett said. "We say to Talgo, 'Ven aqui a Milwaukee!' Our Port of Milwaukee and our Department of City Development and our citizens are ready to work with Talgo."...

Ken Notes: Trains, planes and ...

Sheboygan County - July 22, 2009 - Sheboygan County Memorial Airport would become the manufacturing site for a proposed new jet - a project officials say could create more than 2,000 local jobs within 10 years - under a long-term agreement the county is preparing with Oostburg's Morgan Aircraft, the county administrator said Wednesday. Sheboygan County is committed to more than $3 million in infrastructure and site improvements at the airport to facilitate a proposed 600,000-square-foot plant, and the Wisconsin Department of Commerce is offering $30 million in economic incentives, Sheboygan County Administrator Adam Payne said...

Ken Notes: I hope this on fly's. Sorry it's been a long morning.

Milwaukee - July 21, 2009 - The controversial Rivianna hotel and apartment development, proposed for the Walker's Point area, and the Villard Square apartment project, planned for Milwaukee's northwest side, both won approval Tuesday from the Common Council's Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee. Rivianna would overlook the Milwaukee River at 236 S. Water St. It would have three 15-story towers, with around 200 apartments, a hotel with up to 128 rooms, and retail space. It also would have a parking deck with up to four stories below the towers....

Milwaukee - JUL 20, 2009 - Armed with enthusiasm and the belief that the recession won't last forever, Deanna Inniss is aiming to restart retail development downtown, a difficult task even in a good economy. "I see it can come back again," said Inniss, in a lunchtime chat at the Milwaukee Public Market. "You need visionaries and you need pioneers to start it."...

Ken Notes: I have often wondered how something as impressive as Grand Avenue could fall so far. I love the unique retailers approach but think anchors are still the key.

Milwaukee - JUL 22, 2009 - Milwaukee-based development firm Mandel Group Inc. recently hired CB Richard Ellis to help market several sites that Mandel is planning to develop. "We have entered into an agreement with CB Richard Ellis to have them assist in marketing real estate that we have that would allow us to proceed with the developments," said Mandel chief operating officer Robert Monnat. "We want to have them assist us with finding new opportunities."...

Milwalkee - JUL 22, 2009 - A proposal to construct a commercial building on Garden Park in Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood is being met with a bit of resentment from some wary residents. What the city sees as a potential boon to the intersection of E. Locust and N. Bremen streets is viewed as a takeover by people who've nurtured the city parcel and former brownfield for the last 14 years...

Cudahy - JUL 22, 2009 - The city is close to giving final approval to a $1.73 million movie theater project that would fill a property that has been vacant for more than 15 years and is viewed as the keystone for a new entertainment district. On Tuesday, the Community Development Authority approved a development agreement for Rosebud Cinema Cudahy...

Franklin - July 23, 2009 - MLG Development Inc. plans to build a 13,200-square-foot building in Franklin Business Park that will be sold to an industrial adhesives maker now located in Muskego. BC Adhesives LLC plans to buy the building because it's running out of space at its leased Muskego building, said John Mahoney, co-owner. The firm, founded in 2004, has just under 10 employees, he said....

Franklin - July 22, 2009 - The Common Council on Tuesday night gave an initial blessing to Sacred Heart at Monastery Lake, a proposed 180-unit apartment building that would house active and former priests as well as members of the public age 55 and older. The council approved the concept for the development, meaning a more detailed proposal can be submitted for city officials to consider...

Oconomowoc - July 22, 2009 - Businesses involved in a flood-prone residential development in the Town of Oconomowoc have filed a $1.5 million claim against the city because of a moratorium on new sewer hookups. Aldermen voted Tuesday night to deny the claim filed June 17 by Westshore LLC and Lake Drive LLC...

Franklin - July 21, 2009 - Needing space for retired priests, a religious order is proposing to build a four-story apartment building that would house 180 people, including active and retired priests as well as members of the public older than 55...

Milwaukee - July 20, 2009 - Milwaukee apartment and condominium developer James C. "Cass" Stephens has filed to reorganize his finances under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Stephens' filing estimates he has both assets and liabilities of $10 million to $50 million. Stephens will eventually file more specific information with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court....

Milwaukee - JUL 20, 2009 - Former Milwaukee condominium developer Scott Fergus, whose First Place on the River project ended up in receivership, is now a regional senior vice president at Chicago-based Mercy Housing Lakefront. Fergus is mentioned in this recent article from The Chronicle, a suburban Chicago newspaper, about Mercy's proposal to buy and remodel foreclosed homes in Kane County, Ill....

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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Ken

Kenneth Harwood
WisconsinDevelopment.com LLC
P.O. Box 930234
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