Park Towne : News & Notes, Development and Government News for Madison & Wisconsin

To continue receiving News&Notes, please add our ‘From’ address (editor@parktowne.com) to your address book. This will help ensure against overzealous spam filters. If you no longer want to receive News & Notes send us an email at optout@parktowne.com. If you have questions or comments about News & Notes or if you would like to be added to the mailing list please email Joe Ring, at editor@parktowne.com. Thanks!

Neighbors are nervous about a proposed office-retail development that could start within the next year with construction of a six- to seven-story hotel, a restaurant and a five-story medical clinic on 15 acres at University Avenue and Whitney Way. But land owner Erdman Holdings Inc. says the ideas are very preliminary and that as they evolve they will take into account neighborhood concerns about traffic and Lake Mendota water quality. "I don't know how anybody with a conscience could do this project without having those as primary concerns," Jon Snowden, a company vice president, said Thursday. "It's a significant chunk of ground," Snowden said. "We just have a starting point of discussion and we're looking forward to getting more input." Company executives sketched out their ideas in a meeting with neighborhood leaders in February, and the first of several expected sessions with residents is set for Saturday. Neighbors understand that eventually the land, southwest of the intersection of University and Whitney Way, will be developed — they just want to see minimal impact, said Sally Miley, president of the Spring Harbor Neighborhood Association.

A $4 million residential/office building to be known as Erin Square is slated for a late fall occupancy at 801 S. Park St. Owned by McCaughey Properties, the four-story development near the corner of Erin and South Park streets and across from St. Mary's Hospital will offer 5,000 square feet of leased office space on each of the first two floors and a total of 12 apartments on the third and fourth floors, along with surface and underground parking. McCaughey Properties President Patrick McCaughey on Wednesday said construction will start within 30 days. Leasing of the office space has begun, McCaughey said, with health providers such as dentists and optometrists among the likely tenants. The Middleton office of Sperry Van Ness, a commercial real estate brokerage firm, handled the sale of the property, which was occupied by Madison Typewriter & Business Machines before its owner, John Roling, closed the business last year.

The village of Plain in Sauk County will get a $1.1 million state grant to help build a green technology training and enterprise center to address the need for new manufacturing workers, Gov. Jim Doyle's office announced Thursday. The village also is receiving a $2.4 million federal grant toward the $4.81 million project. The 10,500-square-foot center will be a regional facility to provide work force training and business development in green building and green energy trades to high school students, recent high school graduates, entry-level workers, displaced or under-trained workers and corporate employees. The center will be in the Plain Honey Creek Business Park on Highway 23/Wachter Avenue. The project will include partnerships with several high schools, Madison Area Technical College, UW-Madison's Green Construction Management program, the Association of General Contractors and several private industry partners, who also will be able to use the center for training.

As Mayor Dave Cieslewicz pushes to quickly renovate the central library, an influential Downtown group wants to revisit a more ambitious proposal by the Fiore Cos. to build a new $37 million central library with a second phase of private development on the existing library site. Meanwhile, Hovde Properties, a major Downtown developer and landowner, is offering to help make the grand vision possible. "We are encouraging the city to go back and continue the negotiations," said Susan Schmitz, president of Downtown Madison, Inc., which promotes the central city. "We think it's worth it." In an e-mail last week responding to a question from the State Journal, William Kunkler, Fiore executive vice president, said, "If there was still hope in realizing this vision, we would be the first ones at the table." Cieslewicz said he's willing to "talk to anybody at any time." But restarting negotiations with Fiore or chasing new options presented by Hovde could cause long delays that would add costs and put construction jobs on hold, he said. "This is the time, the moment in history," Cieslewicz said. "I think delay is deadly." If renewed negotiations fail, DMI supports the city hiring a consultant to study a renovation, now estimated at $31 million, and would urge the city to work with the private sector to consider redevelopment potential near the current library site, Schmitz said. Hovde, which owns five properties between the library and Capitol Square, would like to develop a new state Historical Society and Department of Veterans Affairs museum on its land and supports the Fiore library plan, Hovde president Mike Slavish said.

The Middleton Common Council gave initial approval last week to a 144-unit senior housing development on the corner of Allen Boulevard and Maywood Avenue that supporters say will play a major role in revitalizing the languishing area. The council voted 7-1 in favor of contributing $2.1 million in public assistance in the form of tax increment financing (TIF) for Heritage Middleton Senior Housing Campus, although the loan still requires formal approval. City administrator Mike Davis said the city's investment would generate an estimated $6,244,530 in new tax increment by the year 2036, as well as generating 55 jobs when the housing campus opens. The city had previously recommended providing $1.7 million in TIF money for the project, and even earlier had recommended $1.1 million. Davis said the project warrants the city's financial assistance because of extraordinary site costs and "risky" site conditions, sustainability measures in the proposal, the current credit squeeze and resulting lack of available private financing, and risk associated with interest rate trends and tax credit discounts. City planner Eileen Kelley lauded the proposal and said the campus will likely spur economic revitalization of the surrounding area. "In my experience good development begets good development," Kelley stated.

Stevens Construction Corp. is changing the face of Downtown Madison with multimillion-dollar, mixed-use projects on two of its most visible corners. Even as other high-profile projects have hit snags or collapsed, the two Stevens projects one at Park and Regent streets, the other at the corner of West Washington Avenue and South Bedford Street are on schedule for completion this summer. They will feature first-floor retail with apartments or townhouses for rent on several stories above. And they will require hundreds of thousands of work hours by some 200 people at each site, generating business for 20 or so suppliers as well, Stevens Construction President Geoffrey Vine said. The labor on each site includes about 52 field workers from Stevens doing the carpentry and concrete work, plus dozens of others working for subcontractors hired by the Madison-based company. "As far as the city is concerned, they're two very good projects," said Brad Murphy, director of Madison's planning division. "They're both mixed-use developments, and they are both very much in keeping with the neighborhood plans for the area." For Stevens, which has about 150 construction workers and field supervisors plus an office staff of 30, the two projects have helped spur a return to full employment — after about 50 people were laid off in the fall — and extra hires. "We brought everybody back and added a dozen new (construction) workers," Vine said. "We've been through the worst of it, and now we're actually seeing good times."

About the two projects The $9 million Park Regent Apartments will be a six-story, 105,000-square-foot building facing Park Street, with retail tenants including a Qdoba Mexican Grill on the ground floor and 65 apartments aimed mostly at college students on the floors above. Designed by Eppstein Uhen Architects and developed by Degen and Associates, the building is going up on the site of the former Josie's Spaghetti House, which burned in July 2004. Construction began Aug. 19 and will finish by July 15. The $10 million Depot, at West Washington Avenue and South Bedford Street, is a phased project featuring three buildings with a total of 93,880 square feet for 81 apartments and four town homes. With a main entrance on Bedford Street, it will be marketed to a mix of college students and young professionals. Designed by Knothe & Bruce Architects in Madison and developed by owner Dave Meier on the site of the former Badger Bus Depot, the complex will have a CVS Pharmacy on the first floor of Building One, topped by four stories of apartments.Building Two, with four levels of apartments, will be joined to Building One with a three-level connector link featuring office space and an exercise facility for the complex. Building Three will be three stories, with four two-story town homes and two apartments on the third floor.Construction began in October and will finish by July 15 for Building One, July 31 for Building Two and Aug. 15 for Building Three. Both developments will have underground parking.

In addition to the two residential/retail projects being done now by Stevens Construction, other ongoing work in or near Downtown includes: City Row Apartments, a $15 million, 83-unit building by Stone House Development at 600 E. Johnson St. UW-Madison-related projects, including the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery at Johnson Street and Randall Avenue; a new student union across from the WID; a new facilities building at 30 N. Mills St.; and the Chazen Museum of Art addition on the east side of campus.

Fitchburg has its first smart code user. Developers of Green Tech Village entered into an agreement with the city last week to plan the neighborhood under the new code, which has been devised to help the city infuse more New Urbanism into its developments. The first draft of the code came back last week from PlaceMakers, the planning consultants for the city. Mayor Jay Allen said the timeline is for the smart code to be approved by the end of July. "If there was ever an opportunity for us to jump on a public/private partnership this is it," Allen said at the March 22 Common Council meeting. "This is show time." Developer Scott Kelly said his company reserves the right continue development under the old code if smart code doesn't work out. The extra planning in the agreement between the city and Kelly Development will cost the city $12,500. Alder Steve Arnold said he couldn't think of a better way for the city to get smart code off the ground then enter into an agreement. "I do think perhaps there is no way we can spend $12, 000 or $15,000 as a city more effectively to get this process started than to finance the creation of the updated plans in the commissions that would start your project on the spot," Arnold said. The smart code is a modern system that breaks away from the "Euclidean" zoning codes such as "commercial" or "residential" that most people are familiar with today. It is based on form, rather than function. PlaceMakers is designing a code based on the results of a weeklong charrette in February, involving citizens, landowners, developers and other stakeholders in a series of meetings. The city decided to update its code after its recently approved comprehensive plan called for more mixed-use developments, which blend homes, offices and shops.

Once it was a warehouse. Soon it will be offices. But for one week in mid-March, the third and fourth floors of a 1917 Downtown building on West Main Street will become a temporary art gallery. Delta Properties, owners of the building at 634 W. Main St., will host Cache, an art show featuring 28 local artists. “The Common Wealth (Gallery) is the only space in town where things like this happen,” said art show organizer Dale Malner. But “there’s a lot of empty retail and commercial space around town, a lot of possibilities for artists to do shows. “Part of the reason for having this show is to punch a hole in that bubble, where people think they can’t do anything without institutional support.” Delta Properties bought the building in 1989 and used much of it as cold storage. They started to convert part of the building to office space in the early 1990s and contacted Malner, who put in a short-term art show before walls went up and desks went in. “This is the first large-scale show with more than one artist,” said Delta co-owner Bruce Wunnicke. “It’s really a way to share ... a 100-year-old building has features you don’t get to see very often.” And an art show, even just for a week, is good for business.

On a sunny, warm day tailored for field work, hundreds of farmers gathered here for an auction. But before they began bidding Wednesday on parts, machinery and other items used to produce seeds at Kaltenberg Seed Farms, the assembled - with bidding numbers tucked into shirt and bib pockets - paused to applaud its president, Dave Kaltenberg. It was his grandfather who started the business in 1906. A changed economy, the consolidation of seed companies and the emergence of genetically altered seeds, have made it difficult for Kaltenberg to continue one of the county's oldest businesses into its 105th year. "Our hands are so tied that we can't do a whole lot," Kaltenberg said, shortly after the bidding began. "For every bag of seed we sell, we've got to pay a royalty on it." As seed prices have risen, more of the profits on a bag of seed have been going to the companies that own the genetics used to make the specialized seeds, experts say. Kaltenberg, was named president and general manager in 2007, succeeding his brother, Jack Kaltenberg. The move occurred 10 years after the death of their father, James A. Kaltenberg, who in 1949 joined the family business started by his father, Tony Kaltenberg. "This is a very tightly knit family and hard-working family," said Richard Brye, former general manager of the now defunct North Central Seed Producers, which had been based in Middleton. "It's very difficult to see a Wisconsin seed company like this having to be liquidated."

Madison could be a leading candidate to land a permanent maintenance base for high-speed trains, a top state transportation official says. The capital city would be a logical spot for the maintenance center because it would be roughly in the middle of a proposed high-speed route from Chicago to Minneapolis-St. Paul, said Chris Klein, executive assistant to Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi. A decision on where to build the maintenance base, which would create dozens of jobs, probably will be part of the final design process on the planned Milwaukee-to-Madison high-speed route, Klein said. That process also would resolve a controversy over where to put the Madison train station and would decide where to build stations between Milwaukee and Madison, he said. Last month, the federal government awarded the state $810 million for the Milwaukee-to-Madison route and $12 million to upgrade Amtrak's existing Milwaukee-to-Chicago Hiawatha route. Wisconsin and Minnesota will use another $1 million in federal cash to study service between Madison and the Twin Cities. The Milwaukee-to-Madison route will operate as an extension of the Hiawatha, allowing passengers to travel from Madison to Chicago without changing trains. A Madison-to-Twin Cities leg would be part of the same route. Plans call for the Milwaukee-to-Madison trains to start service in 2013 at 79 mph, increasing to 110 mph by the end of 2015, with 110 mph as the eventual top speed for the entire Chicago-to-Twin Cities route.

Last year, when Katja Favretto started telling friends in Los Angeles that she was considering a job offer from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the young political scientist says she started feeling apprehensive about a potential move to the Midwest. “People outside of academia would say, ‘Where is Madison?’ ? ” recalls the 33-year-old Favretto, who earned her doctorate at UCLA, spent her adult life living in Southern California and joined UW-Madison’s political science department as an assistant professor this past fall. “After I told them, they’d say, ‘Wes-consin? Why would you want to go to Wes-consin?’” Not long ago, many within academia were starting to ask the same thing. The Chronicle of Higher Education ran a cover story in April 2008 headlined “Wisconsin’s flagship is raided for scholars,” which sparked a new round of grumbling that UW-Madison was unable to keep its best and brightest from highly regarded rivals. The Chronicle is a major news source in the academic world, and the story was viewed as a blow to the university, validating fears that the school was gaining a reputation as a minor league feeder system for higher education’s heavyweights.

Greyhound buses will pick up and drop off passengers at a new, temporary location closer to Madison’s Downtown beginning Thursday, the bus company announced Wednesday. Curbside service will be available at East Washington Avenue and Baldwin Street on the city’s Near East Side; tickets can be purchased online. The move is the second for the bus line in six months. It lost its longtime Downtown home in October when the Badger Bus depot at West Washington Avenue and Bedford Street was demolished to make way for an apartment and retail development. Greyhound then moved to a spot on Stoughton Road on the city’s Southeast Side. In a news release, the company said it was working with city officials to find a permanent Downtown bus stop.

In a move drawing national attention, Wisconsin Insurance Commissioner Sean Dilweg has taken control of more than $40 billion worth of risky mortgage-related liabilities and other troubled contracts from the insurance unit of Ambac Financial Group, as part of a restructuring plan intended to save the company. The move, which regulators hope will stabilize the company and protect policyholders, must be approved in court under a final rehabilitation plan to be submitted within the next five to six months, said Mike VanSicklen of Foley & Lardner, which is representing the commissioner's office. There is no cost to state taxpayers, VanSicklen said, because payments of claims on the $40 billion in risky securities revolves around getting those policyholders to agree to accept less than they're owed. And VanSicklen believes most will agree to the terms, because the alternative means the company could collapse and they'd receive nothing, he said. "It could bring down the whole company, to the disadvantage of all policyholders, including themselves," VanSicklen said. The insurance company has consented to the rehabilitation plan, he noted. Claims from the $40 billion in risky contracts are threatening the company's core business, which includes $310 billion worth of municipal bond policies. The insurance unit, known as Ambac Assurance Corp., operates out of New York City, but is regulated in Wisconsin because it was founded here. It is the second-largest bond insurer in the world, founded in 1970, but it's facing financial ruin after expanding from the relatively safe public-finance bond market into guaranteeing riskier investments such as mortgage-backed securities in the 1990s.

A group developing statewide standards for wind turbines will meet this week to discuss guidelines for the rules. Gov. Jim Doyle signed a bill in September calling for state regulators to create uniform site regulations for wind farms. The standards will trump any local ordinances.The bill came about after wind energy developers complained local governments' rules were too restrictive. The state Wind Siting Council plans to meet Thursday afternoon at the state Public Service Commission in Madison. The agenda calls for discussing the council's principles.

Early results in a long-term study show herbicides having an edge over cutting to control nuisance plants on Lake Monona. The Turville Bay research project will be up for discussion April 12 at a public information meeting beginning at 7 p.m. at the Lyman Anderson Center, 1 Fen Oak Court on Madison's far east side Researchers set up six five-acre sites on Turville Bay in Lake Monona's southwest corner two years ago -- to see which of the two basic methods of control, herbicides or cutting, would control Eurasian water milfoil better. Two sites were treated with 2,4-D, a granular herbicide; two sites got mechanical harvesting; and two sites were left alone for comparison's sake. The study showed that in the second year in 2009, chemical treatment tended to decrease the frequency of Eurasian water milfoil, but there was no difference between the plots using mechanical harvesting and the plots left untreated. The study will go on for three more years. Sue Jones, Dane County's watershed management coordinator, said herbicide treatments could possibly take place in the test plots before the April 12 meeting. Jones said anyone wanting more information about the chemical application in Turville Bay can contact her at 224-3764. Eurasian water milfoil is found throughout the Yahara chain of lakes (Mendota, Monona, Waubesa, Kegonsa and Wingra), with the plant having a dramatic effect on the lakes, including decreased aesthetic value, impeded recreational use in shallow areas and impacts to the fishery, according to the Dane County Office of Lakes and Watershed. The research project is a joint venture of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the Dane County Department of Land and Water Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Madison-based Orbital Technologies Corp. (Orbitec) is one of five companies nationwide to be awarded a piece of a five-year contract worth a total of up to $50 million to develop space propulsion systems for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. CEO Eric Rice on Wednesday said he didn’t know how much of the $50 million his company could receive, noting it depended on how work was parceled out over the years. He said each of the companies was guaranteed at least $30,000 worth of work supporting research and technology development activities at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. The work will be aimed at development of advanced space propulsion technologies to enable missions with higher performance, reduced cost and improved reliability and safety, a NASA news release said. Rice said he assembled a team of small and large businesses and universities throughout the nation to help conduct his piece of the propulsion work. Orbitec’s Martin Chiaverini will be project manager. The other companies selected for the NASA contract — Aerojet of Sacramento, Calif.; ATK Mission Systems of Ronkonkoma, N.Y.; Northrop Grumman Aerospace Corp. of Redondo Beach, Calif.; and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif. — are giants in the aerospace research industry, Rice said, in contrast to Orbitec. Formed in 1988, Orbitec is considered a national leader in small business innovation for aerospace technology and product development.

Unemployment is up in five Wisconsin metropolitan areas. The state Department of Workforce Development on Wednesday reported local unemployment figures for February. Unemployment rates rose in the Eau Claire, Fond Du Lac, Oshkosh-Neenah, Racine and Wausau areas from January. Rates didn't change in the Appleton, Green Bay and Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis areas and fell slightly in the Janesville, La Crosse, Madison and Sheboygan areas. The Janesville area had the highest unemployment rate of any metro area at 12.7 percent. Madison had the lowest at 6.7 percent. Unemployment rose in 41 counties in February. Rusk County had the highest rate at 14.7 percent, up from 14.4 percent in January. The non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Wisconsin was 9.7 percent in February, up from 9.6 percent in January.

February unemployment was up in 41 out of 72 Wisconsin counties from January, and in 12 of the largest 30 cities, defined as 25,000 residents or more. Among counties, Dane County had the lowest unemployment rate at 6.2 percent, down from 6.3 percent in January but up from 5.5 percent in December. Nine counties had February rates unchanged from January. The state Department of Workforce Development on Wednesday reported local unemployment figures for February. Rusk and Taylor counties posted the highest unemployment in the state, both hitting 14.7 percent. Iron County had the second highest rate, 13.7 percent. More than half of the state’s counties, 46, had double-digit unemployment for February. Beloit had the highest unemployment for any city at 18.3 percent, followed by Racine at 16.7 percent and Wausau at 14.1 percent. The Madison metro area had a February jobless rate of 6.7 percent, down from 6.9 percent in January but up from 6.1 percent a year ago. The Madison metro area also had the lowest unemployment rate of the 12 metro areas in the state; the highest was metropolitan Janesville, at 12.7 percent, followed by the Racine metro area at 11.4 percent and the Wausau metro area at 10.7 percent. The local figures released Wednesday were not seasonally adjusted. The seasonally adjusted employment rate for Wisconsin in February was 8.7 percent. The national rate was 9.7 percent.

The proposed legislation to curb global warming in Wisconsin contains a little-known provision that will raise property taxes - perhaps substantially. The provision allows local governments to increase property taxes, beyond existing levy limits, to pay for new energy efficiency measures and renewable energy products. These terms are undefined in the bill. Seeking new ways to reduce energy costs is laudable, but raising property taxes is a bad idea. We believe this provision should be removed from Senate Bill 450 and Assembly 649 - the global warming legislation. This is a particularly bad time to support higher property taxes. Consider the following: Wisconsin property owners already pay among the highest property taxes in the country. Nationally, we have the fourth highest median real estate tax as a percentage of median home value. We rank ninth highest in the country for median real estate taxes paid.(Source:www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/25197.html.) With increasing foreclosures and increasing pressures for more school and infrastructure funding, this is no time to be increasing the financial burden on property owners regardless of the cause. Property taxes are increasing, while home prices are declining. The average property tax bill increased by 4 percent in 2009, and will increase by an estimated 4.2 percent this year. At the same time, median home prices in Wisconsin fell to $143,000, a drop of 7.7 percent from 2008 to 2009. Increasing property taxes at the same time home values are declining will make it more difficult for Wisconsin families to buy a new home or stay in the one they have. (Sources: Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance and Wisconsin Realtors Association, http://www.wra.org/online_pubs/press_releases/2010/pr0211_hsgstats.html.)

The Milwaukee Common Council Thursday approved deals to lease space in the former Tower Automotive complex to Spanish train company Talgo Inc. and to sell land in the Menomonee Valley to Bilbao, Spain-based renewable energy company Ingeteam. “Milwaukee is moving in a very positive direction with hundreds of new jobs in growing industries,” said Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. “We are enthusiastic about the future of both Ingeteam and Talgo, and we appreciate the investments both companies are making in Milwaukee.” Talgo Inc. will lease 133,000 square feet of space from the city in a building at the corner of North 27th Street and Townsend Street in the former Tower Automotive complex. The company will lease the space for $2.59 per square foot, or $344,470 a year. The city purchased 84 acres of the former 140-acre Tower site last year for $4.5 million. The property is bounded roughly by West Capitol Drive, the Soo Line railroad tracks, West Townsend Street and North 27th Street. The city plans to spend about $30 million to redevelop the property and attract new businesses to a development that city officials call Century City. Talgo is expected to create 80 jobs at the Milwaukee facility, which is located in the middle of an area of Milwaukee’s north side with a high level of unemployment. “As someone who represents an area and a population that is in dire need of jobs, this is truly exciting and wonderful news,” said Ald. Willie Wade. “Just the prospect of job opportunities for many people today is very exciting news. But this recession has hit people in my community extremely hard, and quite frankly things were pretty tough even before the recession. Talgo has given us a bright ray of hope that we can once again manufacture valuable machines – this time trains that will be carrying passengers to destinations near and far, in a future where public transportation plays a pivotal role in our everyday life and in stimulating crucial economic development our city needs.”

A "conservation district" created for a neighborhood north of E. Brady St. may be scrapped. Developments in the district, bordered roughly by Brady St., the Milwaukee River, Humboldt Ave. and Warren Ave., must follow special design and construction guidelines. The Common Council approved the district in 2004. Supporters, including then-Ald. Mike D"Amato, said the guidelines would prevent large condominium developments from being built in the neighborhood, which consists mainly of one- and two-story homes. Opponents argued that those guidelines were too restrictive, and trampled on their property rights. Ald. Nik Kovac, who succeeded D'Amato, recently surveyed neighborhood property owners and residents. Seventy-three respondents want the district repealed, 14 want it changed and 13 want it to remain. In response, Kovac has introduced legislation to repeal the conservation district. This will all be discussed at tonight's meeting of the East Village Association, which begins at 7 p.m. in the community room of the Riverview Tower, 1300 E. Kane Place.

The developer who hopes to convert a former Cudahy supermarket into a movie theater no longer has the building under a purchase contract. Developer David Glazer is still working with city officials on the proposed cinema, said Lara Fritts, city economic development director. "We feel confident it is getting close," she said. But Fritts told me Tuesday that Glazer no longer has the former Kohl’s Food Store, 4630 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., under contract. The means the building could be sold to another developer or investor at any time. I reached Glazer around 2:30 p.m. today. He says he hopes to soon have a deal on the building, and is hoping to attract a new partner to the project. Larry Widen is no longer involved in the project, Glazer said. I called Glazer and Fritts after a reader pointed out that the building is being listed on craigslist.org for a "quick sale." The 17,000-square-foot building, one block north of E. Layton Ave., has a listed sale price of $175,000. The property, including its lot, has an assessed value of $364,800. The owner is KK1 Partners LLC. I reported in December that plans to buy the building and convert it into a four-screen cinema with sit-down dining were on hold. Widen and Glazer operate the Times Cinema, 5906 W. Vliet St., and Rosebud Cinema Drafthouse, 6823 W. North Ave., Wauwatosa. The new operation, Rosebud Cinema Cudahy, would be similar to the Wauwatosa Rosebud. The Common Council approved the $1.73 million plan, which would include city financing of $465,000--with around $440,000 is to be repaid through the development's property taxes. But the estimated construction costs, including environmental cleanup work, turned out to be higher than expected. That's made it more difficult to obtain private financing. Glazer says plans have since been revised to reduce the construction costs.

An investment group led by developer Vincent Kuttemperoor has given 12 condominium units in a Brookfield housing development to a company formed by M&I Marshall & Ilsley Bank. Capitol Heights Center LLC transferred ownership of the condos to Water Street Land LLC in January, according to documents filed with the Waukesha County Register of Deeds. Capitol Heights Center didn't receive any cash in return for transferring ownership to Water Street Land, according to the public documents. That's apparently because the investment group could no longer make payments on the mortgage debt secured by the condos, which are at the Capitol Heights development, north of Capitol Drive and west of Calhoun Road. The debt secured by the properties totaled $5.2 million in December 2003, according to public records. A more recent debt figure wasn't available. M&I Bank spokeswoman Sara Schmitz declined to comment, citing the bank's policy of protecting the privacy of its customers. "Like many other real estate developers and businesses throughout the country, we are working our way through this unprecedented economic environment. As part of that process, we have had to enter into agreements with some of our lenders, such as M&I," wrote Sanjay Kuttemperoor, president of the Kuttemperoor family's company, VK Development Corp., in an e-mail response to Land & Space. "Unfortunately, we cannot go into the specifics of these agreements," he wrote. "

From the owners of cottages on dried-up lakes to groundwater experts who are worried the state could lose even more lakes and streams, supporters of tougher rules for high-capacity wells urged legislators Wednesday to adopt the tighter controls. But opponents of the bill, mostly dairy farmers and agribusiness representatives, argued that stricter water-use regulations could hurt the state's $59 billion agriculture industry. "I'm befuddled by professional environmental groups that want to pass laws that threaten the lifeblood of the dairy industry," Vernon County dairy farmer Jim Mlsna told the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. "We don't need more regulations. We need people who have real working jobs." Opponents testifying at the hearing on Assembly Bill 844 also said they worried about some provisions in the bill, including allowing local councils to set up their own water-use regulations, allowing individuals to challenge the construction of high-capacity wells, and allowing regulation of existing wells under certain conditions. The bill would establish groundwater management areas where pumping threatens the availability and quality of water. Local governments in those areas would create councils that would set water "budgets" to be followed by large users such as municipalities and big farms.

City of Muskego officials are trying to attract a hotel development to the Moorland Road corridor. The city in the southeast corner of Waukesha County has about 23,000 residents, but no hotels. City officials hired New Berlin-based Hospitality Marketers International Inc. to do a hotel market study for Muskego. The study examined the viability of developing an 80-room, mid-priced, limited-service hotel along Moorland Road in Muskego. The city’s population, its businesses, its proximity to I-43 and its current lack of hotels make it viable place for a new hotel said Hospitality Marketers president Greg Hanis. “It’s a really good market I think for hotels,” he said. “We thought the market was good and the timing favorable with the economic development that is occurring in Muskego.” Currently, when residents or businesses in Muskego have visitors that need to stay in a hotel they have to find lodging in another community, said community development director Jeff Muenkel. City officials have sent information about Muskego, including the hotel market studies, to hotel developers, investors and franchisees. Some have expressed initial interest in developing a hotel in the community, Muenkel said, although no specific plans have been submitted. “We’re talking to a few individuals who are looking further into what our market study had to say,” he said. Hotel industry representatives told city officials that the most logical area in Muskego to develop a hotel would be along Moorland Road, just south of College Avenue, near the site of a Wal-Mart Supercenter store that is under construction.

A decision on where to put University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's new School of Freshwater Sciences will not be on the April agenda of the UW System Board of Regents meeting. UWM officials continue to discuss the matter, said Tom Luljak, vice chancellor of university relations. Luljak told me a proposal will not be presented to the the board when it meets next Thursday and Friday. The next board meeting after that is scheduled for May 6. I recently reported that the university is considering splitting the $50 million school between UWM's Great Lakes WATER Institute, which overlooks the harbor at 600 E. Greenfield Ave., and a business park planned for Reed Street Yards, on the Menomonee River canal south of the Harley-Davidson Museum. Creating facilities at both sites would resolve a conflict between school faculty and scientists, and the school's private sector backers. The university staffers want the school to be built on the harbor, where they have easy access to Lake Michigan. Water industry executives say the school needs a high profile and attractive environment to draw more water technology investors and businesses to Milwaukee. The Greenfield Ave. area includes some large, unsightly coal piles across the street from the institute

Car shoppers flocked to showrooms last month, lured by big promotions from Toyota and other automakers that could persist into the spring. Toyota's unprecedented incentives, including low-interest financing, cheap leases and free maintenance for return customers, pushed up its U.S. sales 41 percent in March and helped it recover from a dismal February. They also touched off an incentive war that drew in buyers to rival dealers. General Motors Co. reported a 21 percent jump in new vehicles sales on Thursday, while Ford's climbed nearly 40 percent and Honda Motor Co. rose 23 percent over March last year. The sales point to one conclusion: March was a good time to buy a new car. Automakers ramped up promotions, with incentive spending up $100, or 4 percent, from February to $2,742 per vehicle, according to Edmunds.com. That's still down from a record high of $3,165 last March, when dealers scrambled to lure customers worried about rising layoffs and bankruptcies at GM and Chrysler. Toyota rolled out the incentives in early March to counter safety recalls that have tarnished its image of quality and reliability. The recalls, which began in October and grew in later months, include more than 8 million cars and trucks around the world due mainly to reports of unintended acceleration. The company blames gas pedals that stick or become trapped under floor mats.

Wisconsin finished in the bottom half of states competing for education stimulus funds.Delaware and Tennessee are winners in the first round of competition for $4 billion in stimulus "Race to the Top" funding. Tennessee won $500 million for its schools, while Delaware got $100 million. Wisconsin finished 26th out of 41 states in the first round. Department of Public Instruction spokesman Patrick Gasper tells WKOW that Wisconsin will reapply for aid in round two. Applications are due June 1. The federal grant money is part of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus law, which provided an unprecedented $100 billion for schools.

A family entertainment center, featuring indoor go-kart racing tracks, is being proposed for a former warehouse in the Town of Brookfield. The two indoor tracks -- a small one for young children and a longer one, with higher speeds, for older children and adults -- would be part of Top Dog Speedway and Family Entertainment Center. The speedway and entertainment center, which also would feature batting cages, miniature golf, video games, a golf simulator, and party rooms, is proposed for 43,300-square-foot building at 21875 Doral Road. The development is proposed by Mark Damico, former president and chief executive officer of StoneRiver Inc. Damico left StoneRiver, formerly known as Fiserv Insurance Solutions, in October after 14 years at the company. Damico told me he's financing the new venture, which he hopes to open by July. The business needs a conditional use permit from the Town Board. The Milwaukee area has a growing number of family entertainment centers, including the new Jump Zone opening soon in Franklin. But the only indoor go-kart track in southeastern Wisconsin appears to be Stocky's Fast Track, in West Bend. Damico says offering go-karts, which can accommodate adults, appeals to a broader demographic than other family entertainment centers. I'll have more details later at JSOnline.com, and in Thursday's Journal Sentinel.

Foreclosure filings continued to pile up in March in Wisconsin, setting a one-month record for the state and posting the highest totals of the economic downturn in Waukesha, Kenosha and Racine counties. The 2,852 filings statewide topped the record of 2,792 set in September, according to preliminary figures from Madison-based ForeclosureAlarm.com. Foreclosure filings climbed past the 600 mark - to 603 - in Milwaukee County for the first time this year, and set high marks of 168 in Waukesha County, 136 in Kenosha County and 132 in Racine County, court records show. Filings fell by two from the previous month in Ozaukee and Walworth counties, to 24 and 77, respectively. They rose by nine in Washington County to 52. The seven-county southeastern Wisconsin region had 1,192 foreclosure filings in March, up from 1,046 in February and the most since July of last year. Economists blame high unemployment and lower home values for the dogged foreclosure crisis.

Horny Goat Brewing Co. is expanding its Horny Goat Hideaway brew pub at 2011 S. 1st St., located along the Kinnickinnic River on Milwaukees south side. Construction began this month on the project, which will include four volleyball courts, corn hole (bean bag) pits, a 50-seat outdoor bar, a landscaped patio/boardwalk area, fire pits, 10 boat slips and an area for outdoor live band performances. Horny Goat is not disclosing the cost of the project, but claims it will create the largest outdoor bar patio in Milwaukee. “Horny Goat is all about fun, friendship and of course, outstanding beer,” said Horny Goat Brewing chief executive officer and co-owner Jim Sorenson. “Horny Goat knows that good beer is as fundamental to a great party as kicking music and cool people. This new complex will bring together all of these elements to create an experience like no other in this town or the rest of the Midwest.” The project was designed by Milwaukee-based Rinka Chung Architecture and is being built by Milwaukee-based Castle Rock Construction. “The covered bar will have a modern industrial feel that reflects the feel of the surrounding neighborhood,” said Bret Radke, project director for Rinka Chung. “Inside, patrons will be able to enjoy an ice cold Horny Goat beer while sitting at the bar or nearby tables.

Waukesha Electric Systems is planning a $42 million expansion of its headquarters and manufacturing facility at 400 S. Prairie in Waukesha. The company expects to add at least 100 new manufacturing, engineering and business support jobs. According to a memorandum of understanding with the city of Waukesha, the city is considering a $9 million tax incremental financing request from the company. Waukesha’s Finance Committee will consider the memo on Tuesday at 7 p.m. If the memo is agreed upon, the Common Council could consider it as early as April 8. If the agreement receives approval from the council, a formal TIF proposal would be developed. Waukesha Mayor Larry Nelson said the memo was the result of six months of negotiations between the city and Waukesha Electric officials. “I’m thrilled that Waukesha Electric plans to expand in our city,” Nelson told BizTimes today. “These are the kind of skilled manufacturing, engineering and support jobs that will bring new people to our city.” In January, Waukesha received $12.45 million in tax credits to expand its Waukesha plant to make large high voltage power transformers. At the time, the company anticipated that more than 80 percent of the transformers will be used to help bring renewable energy to distant load centers or to replace aging, less efficient transformers. Nelson’s post is up for re-election on April 6. He is being challenged by Waukesha businessman Jeff Scrima.
Nelson said the memo of understanding was brought forward at the request of Waukesha Electric officials, not because of the timing of the election. “It was a week ago when we had a meeting where they asked how quickly we could produce the memo to get this moving forward,” Nelson said. “The timing has nothing to do with any election. It has everything to do with reaching an agreement a week ago and both Waukesha Electric and the city wanting to move this forward.”

2010 Under terms of a new five-year, multi-million-dollar agreement, Sussex-based Quad/Graphics Inc. will become Hearst Magazines largest print supplier, starting in January 2011. Quad/Graphics will print five of Hearst Magazines leading consumer magazine titles: Good Housekeeping, O, The Oprah Magazine, Harpers Bazaar, House Beautiful and Veranda. The magazines will be produced on Quad/Graphics state-of-the-art presses at its Sussex and Lomira plants. “Hearst awarded the new printing contract to Quad/Graphics based in large part on the work our Lomira plant has done for ‘Veranda,’” said Joel Quadracci, Quad/Graphics chairman, president and chief executive officer. “We have proved that our people and platform can meet or exceed Hearst’s quality and customer service expectations, and we are excited about expanding our business relationship with Hearst.” That relationship goes well beyond simply putting ink on paper. Quad/Graphics’ industry-leading co-mail program, which provides significant postal savings, and the printer’s advanced workflow management solutions, also play key roles. “Quad and Hearst are two companies with a lot in common - a commitment to excellence, a strong culture of innovation, and a keen focus on the latest developments in print, bind, distribution and content management technologies,” said Laura Reid, vice president of production for Hearst Magazines. “We are looking forward to continuing to grow a strong partnership with Quad Graphics.”

Alterra Coffee Roasters Inc. might buy a 24,000-square-foot building in the Bay View neighborhood, and renovate it into a wholesale bakery, according to Department of City Development documents. Alterra plans to remodel the facility, between S. Howell and S. Kinnickinnic avenues, just south of Lincoln Ave., "to produce bakery and other prepared foods," according to the department letter. The facility has multiple addresses: 2301 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., 2314-2320 S. Howell Ave. and 2328 S. Howell Ave., according to city records. It has been used as a bank branch and other retail purposes, along with offices, warehouse space and two apartments, according to assessment records. Alterra also plans to renovate its cafe at 2211 N. Prospect Ave., the letter says. The letter was written to accompany a request for a $7.8 million industrial revenue bond issue to finance Alterra projects, including a new cafe in Shorewood, at 4500 N. Oakland Ave., and renovations to its Grafton cafe. Lincoln Fowler, one of Alterra's owners, declined to comment Thursday on the company's plans, saying they were still in flux. The City of Milwaukee would not be a lender under the bond issue. The city's role would be to allow the bonds to be issued in its name. That makes the bonds tax exempt, which allows Alterra to pay a lower interest rate to the investors that buy the bonds. Alterra has 233 employees, according to the city documents. The new bakery would add 20 jobs in Milwaukee, and the new cafe would add 15 jobs in Shorewood. The bond issue will be considered Tuesday by the Common Council's Community and Economic Development Committee.

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz has proposed an ambitious schedule to renovate the central library amid discontent over the collapse of talks with a developer that would have delivered a new $37 million library and second phase of private development. In an e-mail to Madison City Council members on Wednesday, Cieslewicz said his goal is to break ground on a renovation of the 45-year-old library at the corner of North Fairchild and West Mifflin streets in one year and have it completed by April 2012. The renovated facility would be larger, the price tag about $6 million less, and the time frame 24 months sooner than for a 105,000-square-foot, six-story, glass and stone library proposed by the Fiore Cos. at the corner of Henry Street and West Washington Avenue, the mayor wrote. The mayor, who could not be immediately reached for comment, wrote that he intends to introduce a resolution designating a design consultant on April 20 with council approval of that first step on May 5. “Staff and I believe this is an ambitious but doable schedule,” the mayor wrote, adding that he would later bring a full and detailed plan to the council for approval. Ald. Mike Verveer, 4th District, who represents the core Downtown, said that he is offering “lukewarm” support for the renovation and that Downtown stakeholders are voicing “dissatisfaction” with the sudden collapse of talks with Fiore and the mayor’s quick pivot to renovation. “There’s a lot of dissatisfaction and frustration among the folks I’ve talked to,” Verveer said.

Space, space and more space. That's what residents said they wanted, particularly for the Senior Center, at Monday's public information meeting to discuss the expansion of the Fitchburg Community Center. The $1.2 million expansion is planned to add around 6,000 square feet to the existing 14,000-square-foot building, with construction beginning in November. Renovations to the existing building might also happen. The meeting was the first of two planned public input sessions, with the focus mainly on the programming of the Community Center, not just the planned addition. Representatives from Dorschener Associates, the city's hired architect, said the five top values residents told them they want in the Community Center were a place for performances, programming for health and wellness, programming for continuing education and youth, community connectivity and a cost-efficient building. The program statement developed will be applied to the entire building. The wish list for the Senior Center, as Dorschener reps reported Monday, includes rooms for wellness programs such as foot care and massages, a private space for case managers, a computer lab and a library-like lounge area. Alder Darren Stucker said he would like to see studio space for FACTv in the Community Center, as it was unable to be included in the plans for the new library. One concern that was brought up during the meeting is a need for better signage. One resident said when people come into the building they don't know where to go and that a welcome or reception desk would be a good addition.

Clearing a huge hurdle, the Madison Plan Commission early Tuesday endorsed a series of land use approvals for the $93 million-plus redevelopment of the historic Edgewater hotel. At 2 a.m., after more than six hours of polarized public testimony, questions of speakers and staff, and debate, the commission approved a zoning change, conditional use for waterfront development, and vacating part of a right of way on Wisconsin Avenue. "Obviously, we couldn't be more pleased with the outcome," developer Robert Dunn, president of the Hammes Co., said after the votes. "We think this is a monumental step toward getting final approval of the project. But we have much more to do." The city's financial committee, the Board of Estimates, still must consider a forthcoming request for public assistance. The City Council already has set aside $16 million for assistance in the 2010 capital budget. And the Landmarks Commission, which last year deemed the new tower too big for the Mansion Hill Historic District, may review revised plans. The city attorney is expected to offer an opinion this week on whether the project should return to that commission. Last week, the Urban Design Commission, charged with making recommendations on architectural appearance, voted 5-4 to give initial approval. Opponents of the project were disappointed. "They didn't pick up on the lack of parking," said Fred Mohs, a member of a Mansion Hill neighborhood steering committee that's also voiced concern about the project's height and massing. "They don't have enough parking to run as a business."

Returning to the place of its biggest setback, the Hammes Co. on Wednesday morning said it will seek approval from the city Landmarks Commission on its revised proposal for a $93 million-plus redevelopment of the historic Edgewater hotel. Last November, the commission refused the project as too big for the Mansion Hill Historic District, nearly killing it. The City Council allowed the review process to continue, but the Landmarks decision has loomed as a major roadblock. "We've made significant changes to the project," Hammes director of development Amy Supple said. "It makes sense to go back." Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said, "I'm happy they're doing that. It's the right thing to do." Hammes wants to restore the original 1946 hotel, cut the size of a 1970s addition and build a public terrace atop it overlooking Lake Mendota, create a staircase to the lake and erect a new hotel tower. The Landmarks Commission, the first city committee to review the project, voted 5-2 that the hotel tower, eight stories at the time, was not compatible with buildings in a 200-foot radius. The commission also voted 5-2 against a variance from the standard. The vote to deny a Certificate of Appropriateness effectively blocked the project.

One of the ways to pay for the new health care overhaul has left some tanning salon owners feeling a little burned. The plan imposes a 10 percent tax, effective July 1, on indoor tanning services with the hopes of raising $2.7 billion over 10 years. “For them to tax us, it’s really going to hurt the small business owners,” said Linda McCoy, who owns the Sun and Swim tanning salons in Middleton and Fitchburg. “That’s going to have to be passed on to the consumer. We don’t have enough to absorb that.” Dale Suslick, who has nine Madison Tanning Co. salons, says he expects the tax to have an impact on salons locally and nationally. “We’ve talked to a lot of other people who have sun spas, and they are closing up shop,” he said. “This is the death sentence for a lot of them. Some were kind of making it, but now they are looking to sell or get out of the business altogether.” The tax first appeared in the bill in December, just days before it passed the Senate. An earlier version would have taxed elective cosmetic surgery 5 percent, but lobbyists fought the so-called “Botax,” and it was replaced by what is now called the “Tan Tax.” That switch came as a surprise to people in the tanning salon industry, said John Overstreet, executive director of the Indoor Tanning Association, a trade association. “The bill passed on Christmas Eve, and the weekend before that was the first time I heard anything about it,” Overstreet said. “One of the guys who works on issues for us called and said, ‘Uh-oh.’” Supporters of the tax hope it discourages the use of tanning beds, which a cancer research agency within the World Health Organization last year declared as “carcinogenic to humans.” Those in the tanning industry say their business provides a boost of vitamin D and counters the effects of seasonal affective disorder.

Assessing the impact of the Great Recession on Wisconsin is turning into a tale of Madison and everybody else. While Madison has certainly taken some lumps over the past two years, its unemployment rate has remained among the lowest in the nation. Assessing the impact of the Great Recession on Wisconsin is turning into a tale of Madison and everybody else. While Madison has certainly taken some lumps over the past two years, its unemployment rate has remained among the lowest in the nation. In fact, the Madison metropolitan statistical area (MSA), which includes Iowa and Columbia counties, is ranked among the strongest 20 metro areas in the U.S., according to a new report from the Brookings Institution. The report rates the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas on such factors as job losses, housing price declines and economic activity. The only other Midwestern metro areas on the list are Omaha, Neb., and Kansas City, Mo. “With the presence of the State Capitol, the UW and other government entities, relatively speaking Madison is weathering the recession better than many other regions,” says Tim Cooley, the city’s economic development director. Indeed, the 20 cities surviving the best read like a list of college and government towns: Austin, Texas; Jackson, Miss.; Syracuse, N.Y.; and Baton Rouge, La., among others.

Action taken Monday by the Madison School Board means the owners of an average $250,000 home will see their property taxes rise by at least $127 this winter, school district officials said Tuesday. At the close of Monday's packed public hearing on the district's 2010-11 budget, School Board members voted unanimously to claim $4 million in tax authority granted by voters in a 2008 referendum, plus another $7.7 million allowed under revenue caps. That vote helped shrink the district's looming budget hole for the 2010-11 school year from $29.8 million to about $18.1 million. In two additional votes, the board voted to drop school consolidation plans and remove nearly 100 full-time jobs from the district's list of $30 million in possible cuts. The board's work is far from done. Its seven members will continue to discuss the budget in public meetings scheduled for April 5, 12 and 26 and will hold a second public hearing at 1 p.m. on April 12 at Warner Park Community Recreation Center, 1625 Northport Drive. Under revenue caps, the board must make at least another $1.2 million in cuts. It also must decide how to deal with a remaining budget hole of $16.9 million, either by further raising property taxes, making more cuts within the district, or a combination of the two.

Madison is the second most expensive home ownership market in the Midwest, according to a new study by the Center for Housing Policy. The study compares and ranks housing costs in 210 metropolitan areas with salaries for 60 or more occupations. Madison’s median home price of $189,000 in the fourth quarter of 2009 ranked the city No. 63 overall and second in the Midwest behind Chicago, which has a median home price of $210,000. The most expensive city in the U.S. was San Francisco, with a median home price of $625,000. Madison also was second in the Midwest for two-bedroom rent, tied with Minneapolis/St. Paul at $899, 80th overall. Chicago topped the Midwest and ranked 55th nationally at $1,015. San Francisco also led in rent, at $1,760 per month. The study examined affordability for workers in a “green” economy, those working to make energy and businesses more efficient, and traditional workers.

The housing market could use a lot more people like Meryl Schiller. The 26-year-old human resources professional put her Waukesha condominium on the market in January and began looking - via her Realtor's Web site - for a house. She checked out many for-sale homes online but visited only two before deciding on a three-bedroom house on a cul-de-sac in New Berlin. By then, she also had a buyer for her condo. In mid-April, Schiller expects to close on both deals and move into her new house. "I wasn't necessarily expecting my condo to sell as quickly as it did, given the market for condos nowadays," she said. "I was very lucky to get an offer." If only it always worked so smoothly. If it did, real estate agents and mortgage brokers might be able to remove the adjective cautiously from their otherwise optimistic view of the housing market as the spring selling season kicks in. After more than three years of falling home prices and slow sales, real estate and mortgage professionals say they anticipate sales building through April as home shoppers try to beat the April 30 expiration of a federal tax credit of up to $8,000 for first-time buyers and $6,500 for move-up buyers such as Schiller. But whether any momentum will continue into summer, when the tax credits are gone, is difficult to predict. Congress might not be willing to extend the tax credit deadline as it did last fall, letting the housing market fend for itself in an environment that, even without government buying incentives, still would have some very alluring elements: low interest rates, favorable prices and a ton of inventory.

Concordia University Wisconsin, located in Mequon, will have a groundbreaking ceremony on May 14 to celebrate the start of construction of its 57,000-square-foot School of Pharmacy building. Construction is expected to be completed for the 2011 fall semester. Concordia recently received another anonymous $1 million donation for the School of Pharmacy. The donation puts the college’s fundraising campaign at more than $8 million. The total cost of the School of Pharmacy project is estimated at $12 million to $15 million. “We are thrilled at the momentum of support that continues throughout the community for the school,” said Curt Gielow, executive dean of the Concordia School of Pharmacy. Concordia is in the process of getting its new School of Pharmacy accredited. Full accreditation will only occur after the first class of students graduate in 2014. Concordia’s School of Pharmacy will only be the second in the state. The other is at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Nationally, there are just over 100 accredited pharmacy schools.

A conflict over where to put University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's new School of Freshwater Sciences might receive a solution worthy of King Solomon. The idea: split the baby, so to speak, between UWM's Great Lakes WATER Institute, which overlooks the harbor at 600 E. Greenfield Ave., and an alternative site at Reed Street Yards, on the Menomonee River canal south of the Harley-Davidson Museum. City Development Commissioner Rocky Marcoux told me such a compromise might be in the works. The proposal recently surfaced from school faculty members, confirmed Tom Luljak, UWM's vice chancellor of university relations. "We're having conversations," said Luljak, who referred further questions to Val Klump, WATER Institute director. Klump hasn't yet returned my phone call, but I hope to reach him today. Creating facilities at both sites would resolve a conflict between water school faculty and staff, who want their programs at the harbor site, and water industry executives who believe the school needs to be based in an area with a higher profile, and more attractive environment, to impress visting muckety-mucks.

Mercy Housing Lakefront Inc. will continue to seek zoning approval, and the purchase of a city lot, for a proposed nine-story east side apartment building. But Mercy's plan to seek federal tax credits to help finance the $12.7 million project could be delayed until next year. Chicago-based Mercy will not be filing an application for affordable housing tax credits by this year's April 9 deadline. Mercy had originally hoped to meet the deadline for the credits, which are given to developers in a competitive process overseen in this state by the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority. The credits require developers to lease apartments at below-market rents to people earning no more than 60% of the area median income, or $28,440 for a one-person household. Mercy's proposed development site includes a city-owned parking lot between N. Farwell and N. Murray avenues, about a half-block north of E. North Ave.Mercy executive said they need to obtain a purchase option from the Common Council for the city lot. The option would show that Mercy has control over the development site--a necessary step when applying for tax credits.

We have another sign of the rising demand for high-end rentals, even as the condo market has tanked on Milwaukee's east side. Developer Elan Peltz received zoning approval Monday from the city Plan Commission to build a pair of duplexes, totaling four apartments, on Milwaukee's east side. Peltz had orginally planned six condominiums units for the site, at 1530 N. Jackson St., roughly one-half block south of E. Pleasant St. But condos are no longer viable because of the big drop in demand for that type of housing, Peltz told the commissioners. Peltz said the rent for the three-bedroom apartments, each with around 1,600 square feet, will be around $2,400 to $2,600 a month. He said the apartments would be marketed to young professionals, and said there's a waiting list for people wanting to rent at the nearby North End apartments, 1551 N. Water St. Peltz said it will probably cost about $700,000 to build each duplex. He figures he'll be able to borrow around 50% of that amount. He hopes to begin construction by fall on the first duplex. The project site will include eight parking spots.

The Weissgerber family plans to expand its Gasthaus restaurant, in Waukesha, and hopes to eventually build a hotel at that location, under a proposal to be reviewed Wednesday by the ciy Plan Commission. The proposal calls for adding 2,900 square feet to the restaurant, 2720 N. Grandview Blvd. Most of that new space would be used to expand the restaurant's banquet facility, said co-owner Jack Weissgerber. That second-floor banquet room now seats around 85 people, he said. With the expansion, it could seat around 130 to 140 people, and would include an elevator. Work on that expansion could begin by fall if the project receives zoning approval and financing, Weissgerber said. Also, the Weissgerbers are proposing a four-story hotel, with 90 rooms and a 60-space underground parking structure. The hotel would be built south of the restaurant, on part of the parking lot. The combination of a hotel and expanded banquet facility would help improve the restaurant's ability to attract group business, Weissgerber said. The Gasthaus has a highly visible location that's close to several large businesses, such as GE Healthcare, Weissgerber said. But the 2.5-acre site, at the corner of Grandview Blvd. and Silvernail Road, has been underused, he said. The development of the hotel probably won't begin until a year or two from now, Weissgerber said. He said the family will wait until the economy has recovered enough to make a new hotel feasible. "Right now is not a good time to jump into the hotel market," Weissgerber said. The family has operated Gasthaus since 1983.

A European bank that lent money to five Wisconsin school districts that made risky investments has seized $5.6 million from district-controlled trusts to try to compel district officials to repay the debt. DEPFA Bank took the action earlier this week after a year of fruitless efforts to work out a restructuring of $165 million worth of loans to the districts' trusts that have been in technical default for more than two years. "We are taking the steps that we can take, and we are very much interested in restructuring the loan," DEPFA Bank spokesman Walter Allwipher said Wednesday. Officials with the school districts - Kenosha, Kimberly, Waukesha, West Allis-West Milwaukee and Whitefish Bay - used the borrowed money plus other existing or borrowed assets to purchase $200 million worth of complex investment vehicles called collateralized debt obligations. The districts had planned to use quarterly interest payments from the investments to help fund non-pension retirement payments, with the expectation that the full amount of the investment would be returned to them after seven years and used to pay off their debts to DEPFA. But the investments began to lose most of their value amid the global financial crisis in 2008 and now are believed to be nearly worthless. The five school districts have sued Stifel, Nicolaus Co., Inc. and Royal Bank of Canada in Milwaukee County Circuit Court, claiming the two investment banks misled them about the nature of the districts' investments.

When the U.S. House of Representatives passed historic health care reform on Sunday night, it also altered the student loan industry, eliminating roughly $60 billion in federally subsidized lending to students with direct lending by the federal government to college students. The health care bill, and its student loan component, await the signature of President Obama and ratification in the Senate. Federal officials quoted in news reports in the New York Times and other sources say the change will save money and make for a more efficient system. However, bankers in Wisconsin say financial institutions will likely no longer offer student loans. “It probably means that private banks will no longer offer student loans any more,” said Jason Busch, a spokesperson for the Wisconsin Bankers Association. “A lot of them have gotten out of it (before) anyway – there are so many guidelines they have to abide by. From our perspective, this is another example of government taking control of something that the private sector has historically been able to handle on its own.” Marshall & Ilsley Corporation previously exited the student loan business, a bank spokeswoman said.

Ald. Robert Bauman, a longtime advocate of high-speed rail, is raising questions about the city Redevelopment Authority's pending deal to lease space at the former Tower Automotive complex to train-maker Talgo. Bauman was the only member of the Common Council's Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee to vote Friday against recommending approval for the lease, which goes to the full council on Wednesday. As I have previously reported, Bauman said committee members should have been more fully briefed by Department of City Development officials prior to the vote. Among Bauman's concerns is a lease provision allowing Talgo to walk away if the company doesn't receive orders for 16 additional trains by September 2011, beyond six orders it already has. Development Commissioner Rocky Marcoux told committee members the department is renovating the building as part of the larger redevelopment plan for the 84-acre Tower site, renamed Century City. Marcoux said those plans would have proceeded even without landing Talgo as a building tenant. He also said delaying approval for the Talgo lease would make it more difficult for department officials to attract future development prospects.

The 11th Annual Milwaukee Awards for Neighborhood Development Innovation (known by its fans as MANDI awards, hence the Barry Manilow reference above) were presented recently. The awards honor non-profit community groups and their partners involved in revitalizing Milwaukee neighborhoods. The winners are: The Zilber Vision Award: The Harley-Davidson Foundation for its far-reaching and prolific commitment, financial and otherwise, to the neighborhoods surrounding the Harley-Davidson headquarters. Northern Trust Navigator Award: J. Allen Stokes, executive vice president of Inner City Redevelopment Corp., provides leadership to a coalition of nonprofits working together in a targeted area of the Harambee community on Milwaukee’s north side. PNC Trail Blazer Award: Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee, Education Initiative, a pilot education program that helps kids in public housing stay in school through mentoring, after school programs, tutoring, grade monitoring and family commitment Harris Bank Cornerstone Award: Layton Boulevard West Neighbors. Founded by the School Sisters of St. Francis, this organization works at the grassroots level to engage neighbors and improve the quality of life in one of Milwaukee’s most densely populated and diverse neighborhoods on the south side. The State Farm Insurance “Building Blocks Award” Large Project: David Schulz Aquatic Center, 1301 W. Hampton Ave., developed by the Milwaukee County Parks Department. The new center acts as a social and recreational hub, as well as a cultural landmark, in this north side neighborhood. The State Farm Insurance “Building Blocks Award” Small Project: Washington Park Apartments, 3940 W. Lisbon Ave., developed by the United Methodist Children’s Service. This newly developed 24-unit apartment complex provides quality affordable housing and family services.

A group representing farmers, environmental advocates and scientists will hold a public meeting to talk about how to handle hazardous manure emissions. The Agricultural Waste Best Management Practices Advisory Group is developing recommendations to mitigate potentially dangerous hydrogen sulfide and ammonia emissions from manure. The Agricultural Waste Best Management Practices Advisory Group is developing recommendations to mitigate potentially dangerous hydrogen sulfide and ammonia emissions from manure. The recommendations are expected to be completed by the end of the year. The state Department of Natural Resources will then incorporate them into rules. The meeting is set for April 7 at the DNR's Madison headquarters.

On Sept. 19, 2008, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke convened a conference call with the Democratic caucus of the U.S. Senate. We were starkly told that the liquidity of our financial system was frozen by a plethora of toxic assets and that if we did not immediately appropriate $700 billion the world economy would, within weeks, descend into a cataclysmic free-fall. Ten days of frantic briefings and negotiations followed. I talked with people across the philosophical spectrum and heard conflicting advice, but the bottom line was: The crisis is real. On Oct. 1, 2008, the Senate voted to fund the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). I decided to vote favorably after being reassured by Senate Democratic leaders that we would examine excessive executive compensation, work to reregulate the financial sector and include the American taxpayer on the upside of any recovery. The financial sector recovered rather quickly, but not without a vast amount of help. The time has come to include taxpayers in the rewards of a recovery that would never have happened without their money. Billions of dollars in bonuses paid recently to financial-sector executives are a direct result of the TARP bailout and generous Federal Reserve policies constructed during the crisis. These firms have had toxic assets removed from their balance sheets and have benefited from interest rates near zero as the Federal Reserve opened its “discount window.” A July 2009 report to Congress indicated that the guarantee of support from the Fed was in the neighborhood of $6.8 trillion. In short, the top-tier managers in these companies had enormous backup from taxpayers.

With multimillion-dollar projects like the Villager Mall redevelopment and the Allied Drive neighborhood revival under way, Madison Community Development Authority board Chairman Gregg Shimanski recently told a city finance committee that, for better or worse, the city’s redevelopment arm has become one of the biggest developers in town over the past year. “Land is inexpensive everywhere, financing is expansive and construction is really inexpensive,” he says. “I think we’re finding opportunities.” While the CDA’s recent growth stems in part from the nation’s economic recession, its evolution from a body primarily used to distribute federal low-income housing vouchers into an organization that is also the full-scale redevelopment arm of the city has been occurring over several years, officials say. They add that the body’s role is unlikely to shrink as the economy improves. And as the CDA’s mission has grown, Shimanski and others on the volunteer CDA board have gained the support of Mayor Dave Cieslewicz for a paid director position to supplement the “skeleton crew” of city staff that do much of the agency’s work. Currently, the authority is managed by the city’s director of planning, community and economic development, who also manages four other city divisions. Having gained unanimous support from the City Council’s financial committee on March 8, a paid director is likely to be approved by the full City Council when the matter is taken up April 13.

After years of hope and planning for a new Madison Central Library, a proposal for a new $37 million, six-story glass and stone facility may be dead. Construction was supposed to start this fall, but negotiations between the city and the developers, the Fiore Cos. and Irgens Development Partners, have broken down over costs. Unless the dispute over about $2 million in costs can be resolved — a scenario called “unlikely” by a Fiore official — Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said he intends to propose that the existing library at the corner of Fairchild and Mifflin streets be renovated. The mayor said he has “not given up” on the new library proposal.

Rumors of the death of the Central Library project are greatly exaggerated, according to Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz. I spoke to Cieslewicz on Tuesday afternoon and he took issue with the State Journal's article calling the project "probably dead." "The city will build a new Central Library on time and on budget," he says. His bottom line was whether the city successfully negotiates with the proposed developer, the Fiore Cos., to complete the six-story, glass-heavy structure on West Washington Avenue as a city-run project or whether the city chooses to go with a "reimagined" Central Library based on the current library structure at the corner of Mifflin and Fairchild streets, Madison will see a new Central Library begin this year.

A proposed $37 million, six-story glass and stone library and a larger, related development are dead, but Mayor Dave Cieslewicz is now vowing to renovate the existing central library. After a nearly two-hour private meeting Thursday afternoon, the city and the Fiore Cos. agreed to drop plans for the new $37 million library at the corner of Henry Street and West Washington Avenue. The city and Fiore and Irgens Development Partners were unable to bridge a $2 million difference in costs over the project. "I'm fine with it and I'm at peace with it," Cieslewicz said after the meeting. "I'm confident we tried as hard as we can to make the project work. (Fiore executive vice president) Bill Kunkler did as well. Sometimes, you just can't work it out." The city will now focus on renovating the existing 45-year-old facility at the corner of Fairchild and Mifflin streets into "a brand new, state-of-the-art library," Cieslewicz said. The proposed renovation, estimated at $27 million, will be put before the Library Board and City Council, and construction could begin before the end of the year or early 2011, the mayor said.

Long live the Central Library. Just like that, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz switched gears from promoting construction of a brand-new Central Library downtown to being totally committed to a major renovation of the current 1960s structure at Mifflin and Fairchild streets. But, the adjustment may take some time for others. For downtown Ald. Mike Verveer, whose district included the Central Library, and many of his constituents, the switch from a new building in a new location to an enhanced building on the same site is a bit of a letdown.

By the slimmest of margins early Thursday morning, the city’s Urban Design Commission gave what backers of a controversial plan to renovate the historic hotel have been wanting for months — a victory. The commission, charged with making recommendations on the architectural appearance of new developments, voted 5-4 in favor of initial approval for the Hammes Co. proposal. It came after more than three hours of consideration by the commission and comments from the public, mostly from a group of residents and historic preservationists who have lobbied hard against the project. Hammes wants to restore the original 70-year-old hotel, cut the size of a 1970s hotel addition, create a public terrace and staircase to Lake Mendota, and erect an eight-story hotel tower. The new hotel would have 180 to 190 rooms and 355 underground parking spaces. The UDC’s vote came after Hammes agreed last month to move the proposed hotel tower an average of 15 feet away from Wisconsin Avenue to preserve the view of Lake Mendota from the Capitol and to create three stories of underground parking. A core group of opponents to the plan who have been vocal at past meetings turned out again Wednesday and made it clear the most recent changes were not enough. “The problem is simply that the site is too small for the project,” said Kitty Rankin, the city’s former preservation planner. UDC members asked detailed questions about how the stairs from the hotel to the lakefront would be cleared of snow, where buses would unload, what kinds of landscaping would be included and what access there would be for the handicapped.

For the five members of the Urban Design Commission who voted to move the Edgewater Hotel project forward Wednesday night, it came down to whether the project had become "good enough" to pass on to other city committees, voting by a slim 5-4 margin to grant initial design approval. The decision was obviously personally difficult for many of the members, who have spent hours debating the relative merits and concerns about the project as they have shifted (sometimes minutes before the commission was set to meet). Ald. Marsha Rummel had one of the most interesting speeches of the evening, saying she was proud of all the changes that the commission had asked for and received with the Edgewater proposal, but still expressing significant concerns about the project going forward.

The Madison Common Council tackled a 125-item agenda Tuesday night. Alders gave the official go-ahead for developers to construct the Hilldale Target and Westgate Hy-Vee grocery store. Alders also approved an ordinance to create a 25 cent fee, anytime citizens make an online payment to the city. Proceeds would help re-coup the costs of the program. Madison has to pay U.S. Bank 27 cents in service fees for each transaction. The new fees could take effect as early as June, and would apply to parking tickets, water bills, and court costs.

It’s been nearly a year since Madison Area Technical College got approval for its ambitious facilities master plan, but before any of its multimillion dollar projects can become reality, voters will have to approve a referendum giving MATC the green light to increase the amount it collects in property taxes. Considering the college hasn’t used a referendum since November 1974, perhaps such a proposal would be a relatively easy sell during more typical times. But trying to pass a referendum during one of the worst economies since the Great Depression — coupled with signs that MATC’s Part Time Teachers’ Union will speak out against the expansion plans — means the school may be facing an uphill battle. “The economy could be a major issue,” says John Matthews, the executive director of Madison Teachers Inc., who has backed numerous referendums funding K-12 education in Madison over the decades. “The key is you have to get people to understand why they have to pay more taxes and the value of that. You really have to get people to buy into it because you’re asking them to put an ‘X’ in the box that says you are willing to pay more taxes as an investment in the community. You have to convince people it’s an investment that’s going to improve the future for their family.”

States are adamant that they don't want to take advantage of anyone, but with budgets in free-fall and tax increases a losing hand politically, lawmakers acknowledge they are dependent on gambling dollars. At least 18 states this year are looking to expand games of chance because of a drop-off of anywhere from 5 to 14 percent in the money they collect from casinos, horse racing, lotteries or other gambling. "Absolutely, we're addicted to gambling dollars," said Iowa state Rep. Kraig Paulsen, the House Republican leader and an opponent of plans to expand gambling in Iowa, which already receives about $300 million a year from the industry. "The current budget couldn't be close to being balanced without that money." The idea of luring people to the craps tables when they are being battered by the recession is an awkward one for state governments _ a point that has been raised by people who deal with the collateral damage from gambling.

Giant wind turbines on the Epic campus would be OK with the FAA. The Federal Aviation Administration is in charge of determining, among other things, where towers more than 200 feet tall can and cannot be placed if there are nearby airports (there are a couple of small airports in the Town of Verona). A wind turbine contractor applied last month for a "determination of hazard" for four 466-foot-tall wind towers with the FAA, one of the first steps in putting up such structures, and on Friday the agency gave its approval. Representatives for Epic and the contractor, the Morse Company, both said last month that because the company is still gathering data, the locations and heights of turbines they build - if any - have not yet been determined. However, because of a new state law, the state, and not the City of Verona, will have the last word on where they can be built on the company's sprawling, 600-acre campus. Already Morse has erected a 197-foot-tall meteorological tower to study wind speed and direction, as well as gather other data for possibly erecting photovoltaic cells. Epic facilities director Bruce Richards explained that the company is also considering biomass and solarthermal power to reduce the health care software company's dependence on conventional electricity. Wind power is just one of the possible components of such a move, he said, explaining that any power produced would be used on-site and not sold back to an electric company.

Dane County home sales up 21 percent in February

Dane County total home sales rose in February compared to a year ago while the median price fell, continuing the trend of robust sales in the lower price range. The South Central Wisconsin MLS this week reported 270 house and condominium sales for Dane County in February, up 21 percent from 223 in February 2009. Year-to-date through February, Dane County saw 453 sales, up 21 percent from 374 in the same period last year. “Just about the entire area has seen steady increases in sales compared to the year before, starting last July and carrying forward, particularly in the lower price range,” said Kevin King, executive vice president of the South Central Wisconsin MLS. He predicted accelerated sales through at least June, when the extended and enhanced federal tax credit on home purchases is scheduled to expire. “Interest rates are great, WHEDA is back in the marketplace (making loans, after an 18-month pause), and inventory is stable,” King said, “though it is still high compared to 2005, when this all started.” Dane County’s median sales price of $197,750 in February was down 5.3 percent from $208,900 a year ago, while year-to-date through February the median fell 6 percent, from $208,450 to $195,900. Looking at house sales only, the median Dane County price in February declined 4.4 percent from February 2009, or from $225,000 to $215,000. Sales volume increased 22 percent, with 199 houses sold in February compared with 163 in February 2009.

Long-time Milwaukee-based commercial real estate brokerage Colliers Barry is forming a partnership with St. Louis-based commercial real estate services provider Cassidy Turley, it was announced Friday. Colliers Barry will become a part of Cassidy Turley as of April 15, and will then operate as Cassidy Turley Barry. James T. Barry III, Colliers Barry president, will remain as president of the newly named firm. Cassidy Turley is a newly formed company that has recruited several firms that were formerly affiliated with the Colliers International alliance of commercial real estate brokerages. Barry said Cassidy Turley will help his company expand its services, and geographic reach. “In an increasingly competitive global market place, we are aligning ourselves with a market leading company that shares a vision of delivering our clients expanded market insight and cutting edge real estate services,” Barry said, in a statement.

The developers of a 24-unit apartment building proposed for a South Side site, now used as a seasonal outdoor farmer's market, hope to reach an agreement to keep the market at that location. The four-story building, dubbed Mitchell Street Market Lofts, is proposed for the corner of W. Mitchell St. and S. Muskego Ave. The developers have tentative plans to include street-level commercial space that would allow the farmer's market to operate year-round. But the farmers who now sell their goods at the market aren't sure they want to operate year-round, says Leana Nakielski, development manager at Growing Power, a nonprofit urban farm that manages the market. Also, an indoor market might only be big enough to accommodate around half of the 30 or so vendors who now have stalls at the seasonal market, Nakielski said Thursday, at a city Redevelopment Authority board meeting. The developers wanted the board to grant an option to purchase the city-owned lot. The board granted the option with the condition that the developers include a farmer's market at that location. The 24,500-square-foot lot would sell for $110,250. "We want Growing Power to be here," said Todd Hutchison, a principal in Wisconsin Redevelopment LLC. That firm is part of Mitchell Street Market Lofts LLC, the group formed to develop the site.

St. Louis Park, Minn.-based MSP Real Estate Inc. plans to build a 164-unit apartment development at 14901 Library Lane, in New Berlin’s City Center area. Preliminary plans for the development call for three multi-family workforce housing buildings and one senior housing building. The workforce housing portion would have one, 12-unit, two-story building and two 34-unit, three-story buildings. The senior housing portion proposes one, 102-unit, four-story building. The 75-acre City Center area, located south of National Avenue and Coffee Road intersection, is a mixed-use area with a library, retail space, office space and residences.

Ingeteam, which announced last month it will build a wind turbine parts factory in the Menomonee Valley Industrial Center, would receive a $2 million forgivable loan under a proposal to be reviewed Thursday by the city Redevelopment Authority. According to the resolution authorizing the loan, Ingeteam, based in Bilbao, Spain, would not have to pay back the money if it meets job creation goals--including 275 full-time positions by 2015. The 114,000-square-foot facility would make generators for wind turbines, and solar power inverters. Ingeteam will spend an estimated $15 million to $17 million on the factory, according to the Department of City Development. Other public financing for the development includes what has been previously reported: $4.5 million in state tax credits, and a $500,000 state forgivable loan, along with $1.66 million in federal clean technology manufacturing tax credits. The Redevelopment Authority board also will consider granting an option to Ingeteam to buy the 8.1-acre site for the new factory. The city would sell the land at the market rate of $120,000 per acre.

Developers Boris Gokhman and Walter Shuk, of New Land Enterprises, claim AnchorBank acted in "bad faith" in connection with a foreclosure suit the bank filed on three Milwaukee-area properties. Madison-based AnchorBank filed the suit in January, claiming Gokhman and Shuk defaulted on loans totaling around $15 million. Those loans were secured by the Fox Bay Building, 302-334 E. Silver Spring Drive Whitefish Bay, and its parking lots, as well as two properties on Milwaukee's east side: the Oriental Theatre building, 2216-2230 N. Farwell Ave., and the Habhegger buildings and lots, at N. Water and E. Brady streets. Those properties have a total assessed value of $12.6 million. Gokhman and Shuk on Tuesday filed their response in Milwaukee County Circuit Court. Among other things, it says they were current on all payments owed to Anchor when the bank began making unreasonable demands. "Throughout 2009, the time at which some of the notes were maturing, Anchor unreasonably determined that, despite its past pattern of extending the loans to defendants, it would not extend any of the loans described above in the manner in which it had throughout the years," Gokhman and Shuk said, in a counterclaim filed against Anchor. "This was true even though the loan for the Oriental Theatre building does not mature until the summer of 2011. In December of 2009, Anchor asked the defendants to re-execute all the notes – even the one that had not yet matured – and extend the maturity date of all notes until only February of 2010.

The developer of a three-story medical office building under construction in Wauwatosa is seeking financing help through an unusual city bond issue. The city Redevelopment Authority this week granted preliminary approval to an $18 million conduit bond sale for the 60,000-square-foot building, at 2999 N. Mayfair Road. The bond issue is not a city loan to building developer Mayfair Medical Properties LLC, said Nancy Welch, Wauwtosa's director of community development. Mayfair Medical would be responsible for repaying the debt. However, the city's role as a conduit means the bonds would be tax-exempt, allowing Mayfair Medical to pay a lower interest rate to investors who buy the bonds. The bond sale will require final approval from the Redevelopment Authority board after a public hearing, Welch said. That hearing has not yet been scheduled. It marks the first such bond issue by Wauwatosa since 1998, she said. However, Milwaukee and other cities are routinely involved in such bond sales. The bond sale was requested by Mayfair Medical, which Welch said is affiliated with VJS Development Group LLC. The building was initially developed for Mayfair Radiology, but work stopped in the spring of 2008 after that medical group was bought by Aurora Health Care Inc.

A plan to build 50 to 60 apartments on Miwaukee's north side, at W. Atkinson Ave. and N. 16th St., is not going forward, according to one of the development partners. That's the word from Darryl Williams, pastor at St. Mark AME Church, which is near the development site. A plan by the church and Gorman & Co. to build the apartments was filed earlier this month with the Department of City Development. The ground level of the proposed four-story building was to be used for the church's community center. The Plan Commission had been scheduled to conduct a public hearing on zoning approval for the project at its March 8 meeting. But that item was dropped from the agenda. Williams now tells me that the plan was conceptual, and had been prematurely presented to the Department of City Development by the church's non-profit community development corporation. Williams said he didn't realize it would end up scheduled for Plan Commission approval, and asked city officials to drop it from the agenda. Williams said news of the proposal caught neighborhood residents by surprise. He said church officials had planned to discuss the conceptual plan with neighbors, and make changes to it, before submitting it for zoning approval. Also, Williams said he's not inclined to develop housing at that location because the it would take away most of the church's parking spaces. He said church officials are looking at other ideas to spur development in the neighborhood.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court said Tuesday it will review a dispute over a loan that help financed the conversion of a downtown Milwaukee office building into condominiums--a project that ended up in foreclosure. The case involves a 2004 loan commitment letter issued by Town Bank indicating it would provide $9 million in financing, in two phases, to City Real Estate Development LLC for the Wisconsin Tower project, 606 W. Wisconsin Ave. The bank issued a $2.5 million loan to finace the building's purchase, asbestos removal and other activities. Delafield-based Town Bank and City Real Estate, led by investor David Leszczynski, then continued negotiating the financing's planned second phase of $6.5 million to build condos. But, Town Bank decided not to provide that second loan, according to a summary of the case provided by the Supreme Court. Town Bank sought a lower court's judgment that it had performed its obligations under the $2.5 short-term loan agreement. City Real Estate argued that Town Bank breached its contract to finance the second phase of the loan commitment letter, bringing costly delays on the project. A Waukesha County Circuit Court ruling denied Town Bank's summary judgment motion. A Court of Appeals panel concluded the circuit court erroneously denied Town Bank's request for a summary judgment. The Supreme Court will be asked to interpret the meaning of the lending contract. In a separate action, City Real Estate later borrowed $11.8 million from M&I Marshall & Isley Bank, in March 2006. The firm defaulted on the loan in August 2008 and owed $2.5 million as of September 2009, when M&I filed a foreclosure suit in Milwaukee County Circuit Court. That case is still pending in circuit court.

Gorman & Co. wants to buy 40 vacant central city lots for $1 each, on which it would build homes that would be rented to families earning below the Milwaukee area's median income. A proposal to sell the lots, which are in the Metcalfe Park and North Division neighborhoods on the north side, will be reviewed Friday by the Common Council's Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee. The city resolution says Gorman, based in Oregon, Wis., would use federal affordable housing tax credits to help finance construction of the homes. Developers compete to obtain those credits, which are then sold to investors to raise equity financing for projects. In return, developers must rent apartments or houses at below-market rates to people earning less than 60% of the local median income. In Milwaukee, that amount is $32,520 for a two-person household, with the limits increasing as the household size increases. The lots are in areas bounded by N. 27th to N. 30th streets and W. Meinecke Ave. to W. Center St., and N. 8th to N. 11th streets, and W. Center St. to W. Locust St. The sale would be contingent on final approval of building plans. Gorman plans to eventually sell the homes after 15 years of renting. The firm in 2007 and 2008 developed 30 houses in a similar program on the north side. Gorman and other developers face a March 26 deadline to apply for affordable housing tax credits. The Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority will announce this spring which developers received the credits. Other affordable housing project proposals in Milwaukee include Gorman's plans for 60 apartments at W. Atkinson Ave. and N. 16th St., and 64 apartments and 14 rental homes at the former Jackie Robinson Middle School, 3245 N. 37th St. Also, Mercy Housing Lakefront Inc. wants to build 83 apartments on the east side, near Columbia St. Mary's Hospital.

This Thursday's meeting of the city Redevelopment Authority should be eventful. The authority is tentatively scheduled to review both the proposed lease of a city-owned building at Tower Automotive's plant for the new Talgo train factory, and the proposed sale of city-owned land in the Menomonee Valley Industrial Center for the Ingeteam wind turbine factory. Both proposals are controversial. Talgo will make trains to be sold to Wisconsin and other states as part of the stimulus-funded creation of high-speed rail lines, and Ingeteam is supplying parts for wind turbines, an alternative energy industry that has seen government mandates and subsidies. There have been a lot of comments on both topics in previous blog posts and articles about these projects, especially the Talgo development. It wil be interesting to see if Thursday's meeting, which begins at 1:30 p.m. at the 809 N. Broadway building, draws any opponents to the public hearings on the proposed building lease and land sale. Here's a previous blog post that sums up public financing for both projects. By the way, after filing this post, I learned that the Talgo and Ingeteam items are scheduled to be reviewed at a Friday meeting of the Common Council's Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee. That meeting begins at 9 a.m, at City Hall.

We Energies has filed for regulatory permission to build a $255 million biomass power plant near Wausau. In its application to the state Public Service Commission, the utility says the plant would supply steam to Domtar's paper mill in Rothschild and create up to 150 jobs. We Energies says it will work with Domtar to get waste wood from loggers and sawmills. The utility needs the biomass plant to comply with a state law on renewable energy. It mandates that 10 percent of Wisconsin's electricity come from renewable sources by 2015. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports We Energies is hoping to start construction next year.

To capitalize on recent business growth in space more suited for its growing digital capabilities, independent marketing communications agency, Jacobson Rost will move its headquarters from Sheboygan to Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward on May 1. The move will bring 35 jobs to Milwaukee. The agency plans to add another five to 10 employees to its Milwaukee staff over the next 18 months, while continuing to grow its new Chicago and Boston offices with the addition of another 20 employees. Jacobson Rost currently employs 55 creative and marketing professionals. Located in loft space in the historic Saddlery Building at 233 N. Water St., Jacobson Rost will lease 10,000 square feet of office space. The new office space brings all employees together on one floor. It features an open-loft design converted from industrial space with bright skylights, natural hardwood floors and a brick-and- timber interior design inspired by the building’s original craftsmen tenants. Designed to promote creativity and transparency, the open-plan layout trades closed offices for collaborative work areas. After more than five decades in Sheboygan, the agency sought new office space blending modern amenities with old-world charm at a more centralized location to serve its national and Midwestern client base. “Milwaukee is a great city, with great creative and marketing talent,” says Jerry Flemma, president and chief operating officer for Jacobson Rost. “As we focus more of our agency growth outside the central U.S. region, finding a location that is easily accessible to transportation while still right in the heart of Wisconsin where we’ve honed our craft just makes sense.”

Sales in the four-county metropolitan Milwaukee area fell 1.5 percent in February, compared to February of 2009, ending 8 consecutive months of month over month gains, according to data from MLS Inc. Home sales in Milwaukee County were down 2.4 percent in February. Sales in Waukesha County were down 11.4 percent, sales in Washington County were the same as in February of 2009 (40 sales), and sales in Ozaukee County increased by 65.6 percent. “Despite the decrease in February sales, the state of the real estate market in the Milwaukee area is improving,” said Mike Ruzicka, president of the GreaterMilwaukee Association of Realtors. “February was a slight pause in market activity as the April 30th tax credits deadline approaches. Sales in March and April should increase, just as sales did in October and November of last year, when the tax credit was set to expire on November 30th.” The number of homes listed for sale dropped dramatically during the Great Recession as many home owners decided to wait for the housing market improves before they sell. But now homes listed for sale are on the rise again as buyers hope to attract sellers before the federal government’s home purchase tax credit expires on April 30. Listings were up 17.9 percent in the four county area in February. In Milwaukee County listings were up 19.5 percent in February, in Waukesha County listings were up 17.3 percent, in Washington County 14.5 percent and in Ozaukee County 11.0 percent. “In normal times, we see increases in listings begin around March, but this year sellers listed their properties in January and February to let buyers take advantage of the tax credits,” Ruzicka said.

The state's struggling insurance fund for jobless workers has already billion from the federal government to pay record claims, but the borrowed $1.2 Legislature won't try to stanch the bleeding until next year at the earliest, officials said. Cutting benefits to the unemployed now or raising taxes that are already on the increase would threaten the state's battered economy, labor and business leaders agree. But delaying repairs to the state's unemployment reserve fund could lead to more borrowing and higher interest payments to the federal government to repay the debt later. Like 31 other states around the country, Wisconsin has had to borrow money from the federal government to help it keep making payments to some 250,000 out-of-work state residents. This is the first time the state has had to take a federal loan to make its required payments to jobless workers in more than two decades. The federal stimulus law has forgiven interest on the borrowing through the end of 2010, but without action by Congress, employers in the state will start paying for the financing next year. One group that has argued in the past for keeping jobless funds strong now finds itself warning states against acting rashly. "You guys got yourselves into this over the last eight or nine years, and it's going to take time to get yourselves out of it," said Rick McHugh, a staff attorney for the National Employment Law Project.

The picture of an economy growing modestly without producing inflation yet struggling to create jobs emerged from government reports Thursday. The number of newly laid-off workers requesting jobless benefits fell slightly last week for the third straight time. But initial claims remain above levels that would signal net job gains. New claims for unemployment aid fell 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 457,000, according to the Labor Department. That nearly matched analysts’ estimates of 455,000, according to Thomson Reuters. The four-week average of jobless claims, which smoothes out volatility, dropped to 471,250. Still, the average has risen by 30,000 since the start of this year. That’s raised concerns among economists that persistent unemployment could weaken the recovery. The average number of weekly jobless claims remains above the 400,000-to-425,000 level that many economists say it must fall below before widespread new hiring is likely. Initial jobless claims are considered a gauge of the pace of layoffs and an indication of companies’ willingness to hire. High unemployment has persisted even though the economy grew in the second half of last year.

Companies that hire unemployed workers will get a temporary payroll tax holiday under a bill that easily won congressional approval Wednesday in what Democrats hope is just the first of several election-year measures aimed at boosting hiring. The 68-29 bipartisan vote in the Senate sent the legislation to the White House, where President Barack Obama was expected to sign it into law Thursday. Eleven Republicans voted for the legislation, an impressive tally considering the politically charged atmosphere on Capitol Hill. It was the first of several jobs bills promised by Democrats, though there's plenty of skepticism that the measure will do much to actually create jobs. Optimistic estimates predict the tax break could generate perhaps 250,000 jobs through the end of the year, but that would be just a tiny fraction of the 8.4 million jobs lost since the start of the recession. The measure is part of a campaign by Democrats to show that they are addressing the nation's unemployment problem, but that message was overshadowed by Congress' feverish final push to pass health care overhaul legislation by this weekend. "It is the first of what I hope will be a series of jobs packages that help to continue to put people back to work," Obama said after the vote.

The debate over how to create more jobs in Wisconsin will be virtually non - stop during the 2010 election year, as candidates for governor, the Legislature and other statewide offices trade ideas – and a few jabs – about what works. An opening salvo was fired recently when Republican candidate for governor Scott Walker promised to create 250,000 jobs and 10,000 businesses by 2015, the end of the four - year term for whoever is elected Wisconsin’s next chief executive. Democratic candidate Tom Barrett called Walker’s goal a “random” number but offered an estimate of his own – 180,000 jobs over three years. Not to be outdone, Republican candidate Mark Neumann made a light - hearted guess when asked about Walker’s goal: “I’ll bid 350,000.” Whether it’s 180,000 jobs, 350,000 jobs or somewhere in between, all those numbers sound pretty big at a time when nearly 9 percent of the state’s workforce is still unemployed. Is it realistic for any candidate to make specific promises about job creation? Let’s look closely at the numbers. Wisconsin has a little more than 2.6 million non - farm workers today, so growing that total by 250,000 represents an increase of about 10 percent over four years. That may be possible given recent history and some basic workforce math.

When Mid Town Commons was approved by the City Council in 1999, it was widely cheered as Madison's first "new urbanism" residential development. Following the much-hyped Middleton Hills, developers of Mid Town Commons promised the same pedestrian-friendly combination of housing, shopping and public spaces for vacant land west of Elver Park. It was to offer a traditional neighborhood feel, miles from the bustle of downtown. The overall development called for 700 dwelling units in a mix of residential and mixed-use buildings, with a commercial core along Mid Town Road. Among the early investors was Peter Frautschi. A decade later, however, only about half of the so-called "High Point-Raymond" neighborhood has been built out. And it's been virtually all residential development; none of the street-scale shops and restaurants first envisioned. Along those lines, developer Justin Temple is now moving forward with an $8 million, 80-unit apartment project at 1723 Waldorf Boulevard, despite earlier plans that called for mixed uses on the site.

Another potential location for a Madison Amtrak station is under development only six blocks from the Capitol Square. Property owners near the intersection of Williamson Street and Blair Street are promoting their concept for "Gateway Station," an urban redevelopment with condos, retail, office space, a 1,500-space parking ramp and a high-speed rail station. Marty Rifkin, who owns property in the 700 block of Williamson Street and has hired architectural firm Potter Lawson to develop the concept, said the Milwaukee-to-Madison train "ought to go where the population is." The Wisconsin Department of Transportation has initially indicated support for locating the station at the Dane County Regional Airport, where it would eventually continue on to Minneapolis. The federal government has awarded $810 million to the state for the Milwaukee-to-Madison line, but money to extend the line to the Twin Cities has not been approved. State officials did not respond to questions Thursday about whether a Downtown station has been ruled out.

Developer Robert Dunn has submitted revised plans for the redevelopment of The Edgewater hotel, restarting a review process that could culminate with final decisions by the City Council on April 20. The revised plans, submitted Wednesday, reflect ideas unveiled to the Urban Design Commission mid-February. The plans show a proposed eight-story tower set back 15 feet from Wisconsin Avenue and a second underground parking structure, both made possible through the transfer of land owned by neighboring National Guardian Life Insurance.Dunn, president of Hammes Co., still intends to restore the original 70-year-old hotel, cut the size of a 1970s addition and put a public terrace atop it, create a staircase to lake Mendota and erect and eight-story hotel tower. The new hotel would have 180 to 190 rooms and 355 underground parking spaces. The city's review schedule now has the Urban Design Commission considering the project on March 17, and the Plan Commission on March 22. The city's finance committee, the Board of Estimates, must still consider a yet-to-be released request for public assistance for public parts of the redevelopment.

City officials and the developer continue to debate the construction process for the $37 million project. In early September, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz stood on the steps of the downtown Central Library with labor leaders and the potential developers of the new Central Library and Edgewater Hotel projects to trumpet the importance of the city's financial contribution to both as job creators in a tough economy. Since the City Council agreed to set aside millions of dollars for both projects during its November budget meetings, though, council members have seen the Edgewater Hotel project dominate news headlines and city meetings while the library project has slid quietly into the background. Now, council members have grown restless with the apparent lack of movement on the Central Library. But city officials and representatives of the Fiore Cos., which was chosen to lead the Central Library project, say that despite public silence, they are engaged in important negotiations about the best way to handle the project to get the city the most for its $37 million commitment.

The Willy Street Co-op is close to completing a deal for its long sought-after second grocery store, with plans in place to open this fall in a former Walgreens store in Middleton. The Willy Street Co-op is close to completing a deal for its long sought-after second grocery store, with plans in place to open this fall in a former Walgreens store in Middleton. The co-op board has signed a letter of intent to sign a lease with Anding Realty and open a store at 6825 University Ave., in the Parkwood Plaza shopping center. Staff and board members will spend the next two weeks getting member feedback before signing the lease. "It's taken us a long time to get here," general manager Anya Firszt said Tuesday. The new store, which will be known as the Willy Street Co-op-West or Willy West, will be approximately 9,500 square feet of retail space. It will have many of the same organic foods and natural products as the store at 1221 Williamson St., but will have a meat counter and a small beer and wine section. The store will anchor a shopping center with a Hallmark store, a Blockbuster video store and a Little Caesars pizza restaurant. "It's going to be great for Middleton, especially those that go to the Willy Street Co-op now," said Middleton Mayor Kurt Sonnentag. "It's good for the co-op because they'll probably increase their membership. As for that part of Middleton, that spot has been vacant" since Walgreens moved to University Avenue and Branch Street.

UW-Madison is partnering with some of the worlds leading business schools to create a first-of-its-kind graduate degree in global real estate. The unique model for the new Global Real Estate Master will start American and foreign students at one of three international schools and then bring all the participants together for a final semester at the Wisconsin School of Business at UW-Madison. The unique model for the new Global Real Estate Master will start American and foreign students at one of three international schools and then bring all the participants together for a final semester at the Wisconsin School of Business at UW-Madison. “It will be an incredible experience for all involved — students from around the world sharing the same classroom in Madison and learning real estate the Wisconsin way,” said UW-Madison professor Francois Ortalo-Magné, chair of the real estate department and academic director of the new program. “I am really convinced that in Wisconsin we have something to teach the world and I think the world will respond to that.” In the first phase of the program, students will spend one to three semesters studying economics and finance to earn an MBA or master of science in a business field at one of the three partner universities — HEC Paris, the INCAE Business School in Costa Rica or the business school at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Then they will come to UW-Madison in a single class for the final semester featuring intensive real estate coursework and practical training.

A local conservation group has applied for state funding to purchase a 23-acre tract of upland considered "the most threatened" for development near Cherokee Marsh. The Natural Heritage Land Trust is seeking a 50 percent matching grant from the state's Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program to help pay for the $1.7 million parcel, which will be added to the 260 acres of land previously purchased in 2007 for the Cherokee Conservation Park. The rest of the purchase price will come from the city's parkland acquisition fund. The hilly, wooded property is considered the final piece of upland habitat for the Cherokee Conservation Park. The parcel had already been zoned and platted for residential development before the conservation group and the city decided in January to try to get the land for the park. The Department of Natural Resources said the proposed acquisition will not involve significant adverse environmental impact so neither an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement needed to be done. The property will be used for hiking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, nature study, wildlife observation and photography, according to a news release from the DNR. Before the DNR grants the stewardship funding for the purchase of the parcel, it will take comments from the public on the acquisition.

State lawmakers on Monday proposed tighter restrictions on high-capacity wells, including reviews of well plans that would affect smaller springs and allowing anyone to challenge applications. The restrictions are part of a Democrat-authored bill that would expand state groundwater regulations by creating local groundwater management councils and rules for rainwater and wastewater use and conservation orders The bill's authors, Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona, and Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, announced the legislation during a news conference at a spring in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum woods. They said excessive groundwater withdrawals have resulted in contaminants seeping into southeastern Wisconsin groundwater and lower lake and wetland levels statewide. "This bill assures we can sustain our water supply for the long-term future," Miller said. The bill represents the second piece of major environmental legislation that Miller and Black, who head the natural resources committees in their respective chambers, have introduced this year. In January they rolled out a massive energy bill that calls for more renewable-fuels use and opens the door to nuclear power.

The city of Madison announced that it will hold a public meeting on the city's application for Google Fiber on Thursday, March 11 at 7 p.m. at Olbrich Gardens. "Madison is a perfect fit for Google Fiber," Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said in a news release. "We have a tech savvy, engaged population and we're already home to a local Google office. We need the community's help to make our application as competitive as possible." "Madison is a perfect fit for Google Fiber," Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said in a news release. "We have a tech savvy, engaged population and we're already home to a local Google office. We need the community's help to make our application as competitive as possible." In mid-February, Google announced plans to bring ultra-high speed fiber networks to residential homes in trial locations around the country. Since then, numerous additional cities have tossed themselves into the fray, including Burlington, Vt.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; Topeka, Kansas; Baltimore, Md.; St. Louis; Ventura, Calif.; and Nevada City, Calif. UW-Madison professor of telecommunications Barry Orton thinks Madison shouldn't waste energy in the face of so much competition and long odds. "Personally, I think Madison is wasting time and energy on what is a very long shot," he said in an e-mail to The Capital Times. "I'd rather all concerned pool their efforts by spending the same effort working for minimum wage at McDonald's and using the money to buy lottery tickets with city fiber the beneficiary. It would be a much larger payoff at far better odds."

The Capital Area Regional Planning Commission is continuing its planning process in Verona with a fourth meeting Monday night. Though there continues to be disagreement between the city and the commission about both the method and meaning of determining the future urban development areas, the city is waiting to see how it plays out, both internally and externally. Last week the Madison Area Builders Association wrote a letter to CARPC reporting its attorney's opinion that the FUDAs being developed for communities around the county will have little legal standing and should not be able to trump comprehensive plans. Correspondence from the county executive to the state Department of Natural Resources suggests otherwise, and a clearly stated goal of a statewide regional planning commission association has been for RPCs to gather the power to regulate more than water quality.
But while that's all being sorted out, Verona has quietly continued to be the pilot for the FUDA process, covering many of the same issues as were discussed in the making of its comprehensive plan, which was approved last fall.

After spending years in the background Northeast Neighborhood plan is starting to take shape in Fitchburg. The plan has been in the works since 2005 and soon will go before the Plan Commission for a public hearing and potentially adoption within the next few weeks with the goal of making part of it developable in the near future. The neighborhood, which will be located to the east of US Highway 14, west of Larsen Road and south of Nine Springs E-Way, is being planned as mixed-use and transit-oriented. It's designed around the potential of light rail, as well as a connection to Madison Metro bus service with a park-and-ride lot. The Capital City Bike Trail would also provide another transportation option. It's also being considered a possible test case for the new "smart" zoning codes being developed to help the city conform to its comprehensive plan, which called for more "new urbanist" style developments - residential, retail and office mixed together to provide self-sufficient neighborhoods. The city recently held a weeklong charrette to gather public input before designing the codes.

The cash-strapped Madison School District could hire a deputy superintendent at a salary of $150,000 plus benefits under an administrative reorganization plan approved by the school board Monday. The position, also called the "chief learning officer," is key to a retooling of the district's Doyle Building headquarters designed by Superintendent Dan Nerad and would replace the current job of chief of staff, a $145,000 position held by Steve Hartley, who is retiring. Nerad's reorganization plan also would cut 8.75 full-time positions over two years from the district's nearly 60-member staff. The board passed the restructuring plan 5-2, despite concerns voiced by members Lucy Mathiak and Maya Cole about its long-term financial sustainability and the lack of job descriptions for the new positions it creates.The district faces a $30 million budget hole for the 2010-11 school year, which the board must resolve this spring either by raising property taxes, cutting jobs and school programs, or a combination of the two. Restructuring the staff at Doyle would save the district $329,159 and provide $458,250 in property tax relief in the 2010-11 school year, and save another $795,788 in 2011-12, said Erik Kass, assistant superintendent for business services. Nerad's plan also creates a new office to coordinate ongoing teacher training; emphasizes more standardized curriculum across the district; reassigns the Talented and Gifted division; and expands the role of Shabazz High School principal to director of "innovative and alternative programs," partly to focus on alternatives for students who otherwise would be expelled.

After a rare decrease in January, foreclosure filings rose sharply in February locally and throughout Wisconsin. Foreclosure filings in Dane County were up 32 percent in February compared to a year ago, with 148 new filings compared to 112 in February 2009, according to court records compiled by DaneCountyMarket.com. Statewide, foreclosures increased 9.5 percent in February, with 2,572 compared to 2,349 a year ago. That’s in contrast to January, when foreclosures decreased for the first time in 34 months in Dane County and statewide. Filings were down 18 percent in Dane County and 4 percent statewide compared to January 2009. Year-to-date through February, filings in Dane County increased 3 percent, with 275 filings compared to 266 in the same time period in 2009. Statewide, filings increased 2 percent through February, with 4,982 filings compared to 4,867 a year ago. Historical data show mostly increases in year-over-year monthly filings in Dane County since the summer of 2005.

Marquette University broke ground Friday on a new engineering facility, named the Discovery Learning Complex, on the south side of Wisconsin Avenue between 16th and 17th streets. When complete, the five-story, 115,000-square-foot building will feature the university’s new Discover Learning Laboratory, a separate, two-story engineering materials and structural testing lab, additional research and teaching labs, common areas for students and office space for faculty. The building is expected to be ready for occupancy by August, 2011. The $35 million engineering facility is the first phase of an anticipated $100 million, 250,000 square foot facility named the Discovery Learning Complex, the university said. To date, the university has raised $70 million in cash and long-term pledges. It is aggressively fundraising another $50 million in cash to complete the engineering campus. “With a history that spans more than a century, Marquette’s College of Engineering continues to educate engineers with the highest level of technical skill,” said the Rev. Robert Wild, S.J., president of Marquette University. “Today we demand even more of our engineers. This new facility will foster the development of the skills we need in the 21st century – innovative thinking, creative problem solving of real world issues, and experience in team dynamics.”

Oconomowoc officials are generally pleased with preliminary architectural plans for the Pabst Farms Town Centre, reports Paige Smaga at Living Lake County.com. However, as my colleague Joe Taschler reported in December, the project remains on hold because of the recession.

A new warehouse in the Park 94 at Mount Pleasant industrial park has received a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, developer HSA Commercial Real Estate Inc. announced Wednesday. The 323,610-square-foot building is the first speculative industrial development in southeastern Wisconsin to obtain LEED status, said Craig Phillips, executive vice president for development at Chicago-based HSA. The building was awarded a LEED Core and Shell Silver designation. Park 94 is near I-94 and Highway 20 in Racine County. By the way, the building's leasing agentes are Ken Braden, of Colliers Barry, along with Chicago-based Colliers B&K.

The City of Milwaukee plans to seek $750,000 in federal funds to help renovate a former Pabst brewery building that would house the new headquarters for Astronautics Corp. of America. The Pabst funding request is included in a list of federal appropriation earmarks that the city is seeking. The Common Council's Judiciary and Legislation Committee is to review that request at its Thursday meeting. The resolution says the Department of City Development "is assisting the company in locating and developing a central operations site for the company." "The Pabst Development site is an ideal location for the company. DCD will use the funding to build out and re-design a portion of the Pabst site to accommodate research facilities for Astronautics," the item says. This doesn't mean Astronautics, now based at 4115 N. Teutonia Ave., has decided to consolidate those offices and its south side manufacturing operations at the Pabst site. My calls to Astronautics and its broker, C.B. Richard Ellis Inc., haven't been returned yet. The grant could be part of a package of financing assistance that city officials would offer Astronautics, said development department spokesman Jeff Fleming.

Kendall Breunig, who's converting the former Pritzlaff Hardware/Hack Furniture buildings into offices, housing and retail space, is not seeking federal affordable housing tax credits for that Walker's Point development. That's what Breunig told me when I contacted him about that rumor, which an anonymous poster spread in the comments section of a recent Land & Space item regarding an affordable apartments development elsewhere in Walker's Point. Breunig told me he's still trying to land commercial tenants for the buildings, which are at the southwest corner of W. St. Paul and N. Plankinton avenues. The recession has hurt those efforts, he said. But Breunig said he's not planning to seek affordable housing tax credits. Those credits are given to developers, who then sell them to raise equity financing. In return, developers are required to rent apartments at below-market rents to people earning no more than 60% of the area median income.

We Energies has tentatively agreed to sell nearly 120 acres of undeveloped land in St. Francis to the City of St. Francis, company spokeswoman Irrisol Arce just told me. The land includes 87 acres that Cardinal Stritch University had planned to buy for a second campus, Arce said. The university, which has its main campus in Glendale and Fox Point, later dropped those plans for a St. Francis campus, which would have included buying the former Cousins Center from the Milwaukee Archdiocese. Also to be sold is around 30 acres, including land north of E. Howard Ave., between S. Lake Drive and S. Kinnickinnic Ave., Arce said. She declined to provide further details. Mayor Al Richards told me the Common Council hasn't decided yet whether or not it will buy the land. He said most of the land, if bought by the city, would remain undeveloped. Some parcels, however, are buildable, he said. Richards declined to comment on the rumored sale price of $800,000--which seems like a low price for such a large amount of land, even if most of it remains undeveloped. St. Francis resident Mike Ferentz, who tipped me off about this, told me he understood much of the land would be used to preserve green space around the Seminary Woods area.

A proposal to develop a nine-story east side apartment building, aimed at employees from the nearby Columbia St. Mary's Hospital, just ran into a chilly reception at its initial City Hall appearance. And my name was invoked--perhaps unfavorably, I must confess--during that Tuesday morning meeting. The Common Council's Public Works Committee was reviewing a resolution to provide a purchase option to Mercy Housing Lakefront Inc. for a city-owned lot between N. Farwell and N. Murray avenues, about one-half block north of E. North Ave. Chicago-based Mercy Housing wants to buy the 46-space city parking lot for $425,000--around $30 per square foot--and combine it with part of a neighboring parking lot owned by U.S. Bank, which operates a branch office at 2303 N. Farwell Ave. Mercy would develop a nine-story building with 83 apartments and a 115-space parking structure, including 30 spaces for public parking. Mercy, a non-profit developer, plans to seek federal affordable housing tax credits to help finance the $12.7 million project. Those credits require developers to lease apartments at below-market rents to people earning no more than 60% of the area median income--$28,440 for a one-person household.

Wisconsin recipients of more than $18 million in stimulus funds failed to file required reports on how the money was spent in the latest quarter, including five that the federal government cited for not filing any reports since the stimulus bill was passed last year. The five recipients didn't report anything to the federal agency that oversees the stimulus package about how the money was spent or how many jobs were created in the first two stimulus reporting periods, federal records show. Those five, including Milwaukee Area Technical College and home improvement chain Menards Inc., collectively have been awarded about $209,000 in stimulus money. "The two-time losers - those who failed to file reports in the last quarter of 2009 and the earlier reporting period - should really be embarrassed," said Earl E. Devaney, chairman of the federal Recovery Board. "They took millions of dollars and then thumbed their noses at taxpayers."

"We continue to see strong hiring demand across the Asia Pacific region, likely due to their increased domestic demand," said Jeffrey A. Joerres, Chairman and CEO of Manpower Inc. "And while hiring intentions improved in the U.S., when you factor in the effects of seasonality, it's very similar to last quarter. This is because unlike previous recessions, companies have become more sophisticated in knowing when they need workers and will no longer hire in anticipation of demand. Instead, companies will continue to push their organizations to do more with less and wait for clear signals of an increase in demand before hiring." The Manpower survey shows employers in 27 of 36 countries and territories expect some positive hiring activity in the second quarter, while those in eight are reporting negative hiring expectations - an improvement in comparison to the 18 countries and territories reporting negative outlooks last year at this time. Employers in 23 countries and territories are reporting stronger year-over-year outlooks, with those in India, Brazil, Taiwan, Peru, Costa Rica, Australia and Singapore noting the strongest job prospects. Hiring plans are weakest in Italy, Spain and Ireland. Employers in Panama were surveyed for the first time this quarter and report upbeat hiring plans for the next three months.

Faculty members and non-faculty scientists in University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's new School of Freshwater Sciences don't like the idea of putting the school at the Reed Street Yards, on the Menomonee River canal south of the Harley-Davidson Museum. The faculty and scientists have voted 24-0 for a resolution that recommends UWM either improve the current site of the Great Lakes WATER Institute, which overlooks the harbor at 600 E. Greenfield Ave., or propose an alternative site on the harbor. The main problem with Reed Street Yards is "serious obstructions" from drawbridge operations and barge traffic to the institute's research vessel, the resolution says. The resolution was sent to UWM Chancellor Carlos Santiago, who says Reed Street Yards might be a better site than putting the freshwater school in an expanded, renovated institute on Greenfield Ave. Santiago says the large coal storage piles, located just across the street from the institute, make it difficult to raise money for the freshwater school's construction and operations. UWM officials are still studying both sites, and a final recommendation will be made to the UW-System Board of Regents, said Tom Luljak, vice chancellor of university relations. The faculty resolution is part of the "healthy dialogue and debate" over the issue, Luljak said. The 17-acre Reed Street Yards, bordered roughly by S. 6th St., S. 3rd St., the Menomonee River canal and W. Florida St., is a former rail yard where developers General Capital Group and Peter Moede plan to create a business park..

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee says it needs more time to buy a Milwaukee County Grounds parcel in Wauwatosa, where the university and its partners plan to develop a science research facility, technology-based business park and other buildings. UWM was to buy the 89-acre parcel in April after waiving all contingencies by March 31. The land, east of U.S. Highway 45 and north of W. Watertown Plank Road, is being sold for $13.55 million. But the university had to redesign its layout of the development site after the County Board changed the boundaries of a wildlife habitat zone on the parcel, said David Gilbert, president of the UWM Foundation. That delayed UWM from seeking zoning approval for the proposed development, he said, with the Wauwatosa Plan Commission taking up the issue at tonight's 7 o'clock meeting. So, the university is asking the County Board to postpone the deadline on waiving contingencies until July 31. The board's Committee on Economic and Community Development recommended approval on a 5-0 vote at its Monday meeting.

A Middleton-based developer is proposing a 186-unit apartment community for seniors in Brookfield. Nakoma Development LLC wants to build the apartments on 30 acres at 1300 S. Barker Road, said Dan Ertl, city planning director. The project would include six two-unit townhouses, with the remaining 174 units spread among four larger buildings, he said. The project site has been used as a landfill for clean construction industry debris, Ertl said. There is increased demand for senior apartments in Waukesha County because of the county's aging population, said Robert Schwarz of Nakoma Development. The apartments will have market rents, and be conventionally financed. The plan will have its initial conceptual review at tonight's Plan Commission meeting, which begins at 6:30 at City Hall. We'll have more details later at JSOnline.com, and in Tuesday's Journal Sentinel.

Above is a rendering of the nine-story apartment building proposed for Milwaukee's east side by Chicago-based Mercy Housing Lakefront Inc. The project site is between N. Farwell and N. Murray avenues, and this is a view of the project looking south, from E. Thomas Ave. The smaller units in front are the eight or so two-story townhomes on the north end of the development site. The remaining 75 apartments would be in the taller building set farther back from Thomas Ave. By putting the townhouses on the north end of the site, the developer is trying to reduce the impact of the taller building on the two-story houses on Thomas Ave. Nearby residents and business operators have expressed concerns about the project, which would include a 115-space parking structure, including 30 spaces for public parking. Some people feel the building would be too tall for the neighborhood, and others are concerned about a reduction in public parking spaces. The development site would include a city-owned lot with 46 public parking spaces. Supporters say the building's height fits well in an area that already includes the expanding Columbia St. Mary's Hospital. They also say the area has a lot of available parking in structures operated by the hospital, l and nearby Whole Foods Market. You can read more about it in a previous blog post here. The rendering was provided by Korb Tredo Architects, of Milwaukee.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett on Tuesday said the state should create 180,000 jobs over three years - fewer jobs than called for by one of his opponents in the governor's race but a total Barrett hopes to achieve at a faster rate. "I think that's an obtainable goal if we can just push, push, push. But that's a goal," the Democrat said after touring retail businesses in Madison. That contrasts with a plan by Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, a Republican, to create 250,000 jobs by 2015. Also running for governor as a Republican is former U.S. Rep. Mark Neumann. He said he would boost jobs by reining in state spending and criticized the other candidates' job numbers. "Does this mean that if I promise to create 300,000 jobs in two years, I win the numbers game?" Neumann said in a statement. "Candidates can make any political promises they want, but at the end of the day, people and businesses create jobs, not the government." To meet Walker's goal, the state would have to create 4,167 jobs a month over five years. Barrett's proposal would mean creating 5,000 a jobs a month over three years.

The UW-Whitewater's Global Business Resource Center will be among the organizations helping Wisconsin businesses get more involved in selling their products to customers in other countries. The state Department of Commerce signed a memorandum of understanding with the Global Business Resource Center on Wednesday. The state Department of Commerce signed a memorandum of understanding with the Global Business Resource Center on Wednesday, authorizing the collaboration. The center is expected to identify companies in southeastern Wisconsin that could expand into new markets, refer them to the Department of Commerce, and help provide training and other services to the companies.

A start-up manufacturer that plans to produce and sell solar energy panels for homes and businesses is seeking a $500,000 loan from a city-affiliated business lending agency to help finance a $7.8 million factory. Helios USA LLC plans to locate the facility at the Canal Street Commerce Center, 1301 W. Canal St., in Milwaukee's Menomonee Valley. It will lease 40,000 square feet there. That's according to an agenda released Monday for the Milwaukee Economic Development Corp. The group's Loan and Finance Committee will consider the loan at its Tuesday meeting. Helios expects to create 54 jobs, according to the agenda. The company's president is Steven Ostrenga. It was announced in December that Helios was getting $1 million in federal stimulus funds aimed at developing jobs tied to renewable energy. Supporters of those grants say investing in companies like Helios will help create jobs, while also reducing carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. Critics say the use of such grants amounts to the federal government playing an overly intrusive and expensive role in the private market.