BizTimes Milwaukee | October 24, 2022

Friday, November 4, 2022

Registration & Networking – 7:00-7:30am

Breakfast & Program – 7:30-9:30am

Community Center

Going Beyond Giving Back

Join as we celebrate the region’s top nonprofits and corporate citizens at the 2022 Nonprofit Excellence Awards, including the Marcus family, this year’s lifetime achievement award recipients. Before the awards, Jim Kacmarcik and Gretchen Jameson of Kacmarcik Enterprises will also share best practices for corporations looking to give back and discuss the vision for the Kacmarcik Center for Human Performance, a new organization aimed at helping everyone pursue their best life at home, at work and in their community.

Speakers:

• Jim Kacmarcik, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Kacmarcik Enterprises (1)

• Gretchen Jameson, Group President, Human Performance and Social Impact, Kacmarcik Enterprises (2)

2022 Award Finalists:

Corporate Citizenship Awards

Corporate Citizen of the Year: Catalyst Construction

• Ellenbecker Investment Group

• Northwestern Mutual

• Husco

Corporate Volunteer of the Year:

• Mary Burgoon, Rockwell Automation

• Brian O’Neill, Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin

In-Kind Supporter: Tarantino & Company

• SMART- Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, Transportation, Local 18

• Oldenburg Group

Next Generation Leadership:

• Danielle White, Rockwell Automation

• Matthew Wuest, Godfrey & Kahn, S.C. Maggie Pinnt, Pepper Construction of Wisconsin

Lifetime Achievement

• The Marcus Family

Nonprofit Awards

Nonprofit Collaboration of the Year:

• Milwaukee Youth Arts Center: The Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, First Stage, Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra United for Waukesha Community Fund: United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County and the Waukesha County Community Foundation

• Journey House Construction & Design Academy: Journey House Inc., All Hands Boatworks, Teens Grow Greens, Habitat for Humanity, Adams Garden Park FOR M: MKE Tech Hub Coalition, We Pivot, The Commons, Bader Philanthropies, WEDC

Nonprofit Executive of the Year:

• Marci Boucher, Independence First

• Stephanie Borowski, GPS Education Partners Lynnea Katz–Petted, Revitalize Milwaukee Mara Duckens, St. Francis Children’s Center

Small Nonprofit Organization of the Year: Kathy’s House Center for Urban Teaching ALIVE Inc. Milwaukee

• The Ability Center

Large Nonprofit Organization of the Year: Centers for Independence

• Seeds of Health, Inc.

• Junior Achievement of Wisconsin

• Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin Inc.

Emcee:

• Chris Alexander, Scholar Advisor, All In Milwaukee; Weekend Host, Radio Milwaukee

Glenn Margraff Paul Schleicher Lauren Hess

New operator to reopen movie theater and bowling alley at Bayshore

By Maredithe Meyer, staff writer

A new operator plans to re open the movie theater and bowl ing alley at Bayshore in Glendale, where those operations were shut down in 2018.

Bayshore announced that Nebraska-based ACX Cinemas will

open next summer in the former iPic Entertainment space above the rotunda. iPic closed its movie theater and bowling alley four years ago, and the space has sat empty ever since.

ACX’s 42,951-square-foot loca

tion will include six movie screens, bowling, gaming and a full-service bar and restaurant, called Backlot Pizza + Kitchen.

“We are so pleased to wel come ACX Cinemas and elevate the guest experience at Bayshore. They are the perfect addition to our entertainment and hospitality offerings,” said Mary Mokwa, se nior general manager at Bayshore.

ACX currently has three the aters in Nebraska and one in Sioux City, Iowa.

In addition, Bayshore an nounced recently that West Hollywood-based Kids Empire will open its first Wisconsin location next summer on the northern end of the property, across the street from The Cheesecake Factory. The 11,125-square-foot space was formerly leased by a LensCrafters store.

BY THE NUMBERS

1.1 million-square-foot Roundy’s distribution center and warehouse in Oconomowoc was sold recently to a Floridabased company for

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to open our first location in Wisconsin and connect with the community and businesses in the market,” said Andrea Barstow-Ol son, executive vice president of marketing and partnerships at ACX Cinemas.

The entertainment venue is the latest addition to the newly rede veloped Bayshore. Over the past few years, owner Dallas-based Cypress Equities has invested mil lions of dollars in downsizing the mall’s retail space and demolishing or converting existing buildings for other uses.

Bayshore has drawn a wave of new tenants, such as Nike, Total Wine & More, Target and Crumbl Cookies. A Culver’s restaurant was built on the north side of the prop erty, alongside the under-construc tion 311-unit Bayshore Residences apartment development.

Kids Empire is a secure indoor children’s entertainment center that features mazes, slides, rides, creative building games, climbing, bouncing and ball pits. In addition to a large, multi-level playground, the venue will include a smaller playground for infants and tod dlers, according to a news release.

The company has 39 locations currently open and four opening soon across 10 states. The venues are “screen-less environments” with activities for children of all ages. All children must be accom panied by a parent or guardian. Kids Empire offers reservations for birthday parties, with options for pre-packaged foods, bottled drinks and other giveaways. The venue will partner with local pizze rias, caterers and bakers, allowing groups to customize the party’s food and beverage selection.

“We are thrilled to bring Kids Empire to Bayshore and provide fun, interactive activities for fam ilies while they make new memo ries,” said Mokwa. n

BIZTIMES DA ILY – The day’s most significant news → biztimes.com/subscribe

FRESH

ZIZZO GROUP’S new office at 131 S. First St. in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood is designed for today’s post-pandemic, hybrid workforce.

With multi-use meeting envi ronments, ergonomic furniture, a rooftop terrace and an expansive kitchen-café area, employees are encouraged to use the open-con cept space as an extension of their homes, said founder and chief ex ecutive officer Anne Zizzo, who purchased the 12,200-square-foot historic building from Seeds of Health Inc. in June 2021.

“If people are going to come into the office, I want it to be com fortable; I want it to be collabora tive; I want it to be better than what they have at home so that they come into the office. I want this to

be what is going to attract new tal ent and retain the great talent we have,” said Zizzo.

Relocating from the corner of North Milwaukee and East Chica go streets just a few blocks away in the Historic Third Ward, the Mil waukee-based engagement mar keting firm recently set up shop on the second floor and part of the ground floor of the 156-yearold repurposed building. Zizzo is looking to fill the remaining 3,600 square feet on the ground floor with a tenant “who will enhance the neighborhood.”

At night, 27 exterior light fixtures illuminate the freshly painted blackand-white landmark building, which Zizzo envisions as what will serve as a “gateway” between Walker’s Point and the Third Ward. n

LILA ARYAN

“Between all of us, we have nine dogs and eight cats, so we fully understand why people consider their pets to be part of the family,” said Vannoy. “We expect the best care possible for our pets, and our team will provide clients with a level of service that ensures their animals are safe, happy and well cared for.”

the FRANCHISEE

Fetch! Pet Care greater Milwaukee franchise owners (from left) Carolyn Alonzo, Kate Vannoy, Karen Ambrosh, Jane Posanski, Donna Moss and Sarah Fadness.

“Because of Carolyn’s previous experience with the franchise, we were able to utilize all of her knowledge and expertise. … She really helped us get into the system and gave us hints and helpful ideas for starting the business,” said Moss.

GREAT & SMALL LLC FETCH! PET CARE

THE FRANCHISE: Livonia, Michigan-based Fetch! Pet Care is the nation’s largest franchised provider of professional dog walking and in-home pet sitting services. Founded in 2002, the compa ny has grown to more than 100 franchise locations in 33 states and has identified another 170 geo graphical territories for continued expansion.

MAY 2021:

Upon retiring from 33 years of teaching in the Milwaukee Public School system, Donna Moss began working for her cousin, Carolyn Alonzo, who has owned Fetch! Pet Care’s Greater Chi cago franchise since 2007. The experience got Moss thinking about how she could bring the brand to Milwaukee.

SUMMER – FALL 2021:

With Alonzo on board, Moss recruited fellow teachers Kate Vannoy, Jane Posanski, Karen Ambrosh and Sarah Fadness to go into business together. The five women had become friends back in the ‘80s and ‘90s while teaching at Audubon Technology and Communication Cen ter Middle School. As retirement age neared, they thought about what the future would hold. Fetch! sparked their interest.

MARCH 2022:

After creating an LLC and setting up a commer cial bank account, the six partners officially pur chased the greater Milwaukee franchise territory.

JULY 2022:

Fetch! Pet Care of Greater Milwaukee goes live. The goal was to sign one new client per week, and today the business has 13, including regular, repeat dog walks and one-time overnight jobs.

The franchise has hired seven sitters, ranging from retirees to college students.

THE FRANCHISE FEE: $62,500

Fetch! uses a mobile scheduling and communication app called My Fetch!, which allows customers to easily monitor their pet’s care and receive updates on scheduling and services.

The Fetch! owners had booths at several events and farmers markets this past summer to promote the brand.

“

QUOTE un QUOTE ” TONI TOWNES-WHITLEY

INDEPENDENT DIRECTOR, NASDAQ BOARD FORMER PRESIDENT, U.S. REGULATED INDUSTRIES AT MICROSOFT CORP. BOARD TRUSTEE OF UNITED WAY WORLDWIDE

Toni Townes-Whitley advocated for corporate board diversity in a recent keynote address at Milwaukee Women inc’s 20th anniversary celebration. She discussed Nasdaq’s trailblazing action in 2021 to adjust its listing rules, requiring all Nasdaq-listed companies to annually disclose board-level diversity statistics using a standardized template and have – or explain why they do not have – at least two diverse directors by 2025/2026. She also discussed intentional strategies for equity and inclusion for public and private companies. n

“For all the women already on a board, remember there are others coming behind you. You don’t own the seat, you’re just warming the seat.”

“The real impact of the Nasdaq rule, in addition to the narrative and the message that it sends, is the data that it will collect. This data will provide transparency so that we have something to measure, which we haven’t completely had before.”

“We need more women of color, Hispanic women, African American women at the table, and the only way they are coming to the table is if we acknowledge the bias that exists at every form of diversity.”

“For all the women who want to be on a board, I encourage you to have some resilience. Stay at it even if the first few times it doesn’t land. You have to do this when you are excellent at your job. High performance gives you the basis to say, ‘I think I’m ready.’”

“Meritocracy is a mindset – an oftensubconscious mindset – which says, ‘I believe we need to diversify boards as a social good.’ This mindset somehow believes that when you diversify the representation, you are making a tradeoff on quality or excellence.”

“I would ask the CEOs to think about how you change the way you think about your board and your future board and start to think about the talent and expertise you need, not just the job title. Think function and where your company is going, not just where it’s been.”

REV UP

IT DOES:

GOALS:

SharkCrates’ collapsible shipping crates bring a new level of flexibility to businesses

By Ashley Smart, staff writer

MILWAUKEE-BASED SharkCrates, a packaging and containers manufacturer, has brought to market a new shipping solution that can not only save businesses space, but also make sure their products arrive safely.

Nate Collins, president of SharkCrates, said the idea for the company’s heavy-duty, wood en, collapsible shipping crates was spurred by an existing problem that was happening at another company.

After graduating from UW-Madison, Collins worked for PRO USA Inc., a Stuttgart, Ger many-based supplier of steel, aluminum and heatset blanket bars. Collins later opened PRO USA’s Milwaukee location, and the company is now a sister to SharkCrates.

“PRO USA imports a lot of material from Germany. We were using boxes and sometimes we would buy crates on the open market. We were just never really happy with the cost or the quality,” said Collins.

One of the engineers at PRO USA’s German headquarters created a kind of bracket and put it onto pieces of wood, and the idea behind SharkCrates was born. PRO USA initially began using the collapsible crates to ship some of their own products, but other companies quick ly took notice.

“We started producing those brackets in mass (in 2018), and it was the kind of thing where we just knew we were on to something,” said Collins.

PRO USA switched from having a 100,000-square-foot space in their German warehouse dedicated to the crates to opening up an entire facility in Milwaukee for the products in 2019. SharkCrates come in 10 standard sizes on line, and custom-made crates are also available.

“One of the neat things about the system is we can design and build these very quickly because it’s a modular-based system,” said Collins. “We just get these things out the door really fast. We’ll build anything from like a 1-foot cube to crates that are 20 feet long.”

Industrial manufacturers are SharkCrates’ biggest customers, although the company has received inquiries from all kinds of businesses, even artists and universities. The automotive and aerospace industries are also categories where SharkCrates have sold well. Collins said the company has reached the mid-seven fig ures in expected revenue for the year and is ex periencing growth of about two to three times. There are currently eight full-time employees.

“We’re definitely going to need to add more employees next year, there’s just no question about it,” said Collins.

As for what’s next for SharkCrates, the com pany plans to open a second distribution hub in the United States, which would not be local. This will allow the company to service addi tional countries it can’t reach now due to cost. Collins said the company is also working to streamline all of their operations and processes through automation.

“Having run other companies and bought other companies, with SharkCrates we kind of just developed a product out of nowhere,” Collins said. “Just the fact that people are buying it just amazes me. You just don’t think you’re going to create this manual product and people will buy it.” n

Nate Collins

LILA ARYAN PHOTOGRAPHY

How did the business get its start?

Deneke and Welde michael, co-owners and sisters: “We have been working in the field of accounting and tax for the past 15 years and have provided expert ser vices to individuals as well as corporations, both small and large.

Throughout our ca reers, we focused on growing our expertise in the field, and in 2022, we both ob tained a Certified Tax Coach certificate. We realized joining hands and opening a small business is the most effective way to reach our clients directly and help them excel

in their business and personal finances.”

Who are your clients?

“Our clients are new entrepreneurs, small-to-medium sized business owners, and high net worth individ uals and households who want to work with a boutique firm for the long term.

What drew you to Brookfield and this location specifically?

“We were really at tracted to the diversity of Brookfield that a lot of people may not see; we loved the fact that a thriving network of business owners and professionals and families were here

from our Ethiopian community and from other places around the globe. We chose our location on West Capitol Drive because people can access us easily no matter what part of town they are coming from.”

What market trends are you seeing?

“We are seeing a great revival and are excited about the en ergy. As businesses in Milwaukee, Brookfield and beyond are thriv ing post COVID-19, the market trend we are seeing is a come back to expanding their businesses, individual retirement and real estate.” n

B&M's office is located on the second floor.

Representation of women on Wisconsin corporate boards surpasses Milwaukee Women inc’s 2025 target

By Maredithe Meyer and Arthur Thomas, staff writers

THE LATEST annual report by Milwaukee Women inc shows that women hold 26.3% of board seats at Wisconsin’s top 50 public companies.

That’s an all-time high, up from 23.3% in 2021, and surpasses MWi’s goal of 25% by 2025.

Created in 2002, the local nonprofit group is focused on achieving balanced representation of women on corporate boards of directors and has produced re search on board gender diversity of the 50 largest Wisconsin-based public companies since 2004.

“MWi has come a long way since the late Betty Quadracci and other forward-thinking executive women recognized the need for an organization dedicated to changing the face and quality of leadership in the Wisconsin business community,” said Kim Stoll, MWi board chair and vice president of sales and marketing for Badger Meter. “We have made progress in furthering our mission to place more women and under represented minorities on boards,

DIRECTORS

but there is still work to be done, as we shared in today’s report.”

Companies adding to the number of women on their board included Alliant Energy Corp., Brady Corp., Artisan Partners Asset Management, Bank First Corp., Generac Holdings Inc., The Manitowoc Co., Modine Manufac turing Co., Citizens Community Bank Corp., Enerpac Tool Group, Physicians Realty Trust, Twin Disc Inc., and Strattec.

First Business Bank was the lone company on the list in both years that saw its number of wom en directors decline.

In some cases, comparisons from year to year can be compli cated by mergers. Combined, the businesses now known as Regal Rexnord Corp. and Zurn Elkay Wa ter Solutions, formerly Regal Beloit and Rexnord, continued to have five women as directors.

Rev Group Inc. is the only com pany among the 50 largest public companies in Wisconsin to not have a woman on its board.

According to MWi’s 2022 re

WOMEN DIRECTORS

Investment Corp. | 13 | 4

Sensient Technologies Corp. | 10 | 4

A. O. Smith Corp. | 10 | 3

Artisan Partners Asset Management, Inc. | 8 | 3

Associated Banc-Corp | 10 | 3 Bank First Corp. | 10 | 4

First Business Bank | 10 | 4

Fiserv, Inc. | 10 | 4

Generac Holdings, Inc. | 10 | 4

port, women of color hold 5.7% of board seats at Wisconsin’s top 50 public companies, up from 4.5% in 2021. While this year’s research showed an overall increase, prog ress remains slow, particularly for Hispanic and Latino women.

Also notable, the number of public companies in the state with three or more female directors saw a record-setting year-to-year increase, jumping from 34% in 2021 to 44% in 2022. MWi points to research indicating that women need to hold at least three seats for boards to realize the benefits of gender diversity, such as better financial performance and more innovative ideas.

When it comes to company leadership, 26.8% of Wisconsin top 50 public company executives are women, up from 23.4% last year.

Over the past two decades, the number of women holding board seats at Wisconsin’s public companies has increased from 30 to 120, while the number of com panies with at least three women on their boards has increased from three to 22.

For the second consecutive year, Menomonee Falls-based Kohl’s Corp. topped the Wisconsin 50 with six of its total 13 board seats held by women (40%), in cluding two women of color. WEC Energy Group, with three women on its 10-person board, is the only other company of the Wisconsin

COMPANY | TOTAL DIRECTORS | WOMEN DIRECTORS

Johnson Outdoors Inc. | 9 | 3

Lands’ End, Inc. | 8 | 3

Manitowoc Company, Inc. (The) | 9 | 3

Modine Manufacturing Co. | 9 | 3

Nicolet Bankshares, Inc. | 15 | 3

Regal Rexnord Corp. | 10 | 3

Rockwell Automation, Inc. | 11 | 3

WEC Energy Group, Inc. | 11 | 3

Badger Meter, Inc. | 9 | 2

Citizens Community Bancorp, Inc. | 8 | 2

Douglas Dynamics, Inc. | 7 | 2

Duluth Holdings, Inc. | 8 | 2

Enerpac Tool Group Corp. | 9 | 2

Fathom Digital Manufacturing | 10 | 2

50 with two women of color on its board. Twelve companies have one woman of color on their boards.

The report also points to the percentage of women on boards at Wisconsin’s top 50 private companies. Women currently hold 20.5% of board seats at those companies, largely unchanged from 20.7% in 2021. However, Wisconsin exceeds the national av erage for private company female board representation of 14%.

“As evidenced in our research, companies across our state are taking deliberate action to further diversify their boards of directors,” said Stoll.

She applauded a 2021 move by Nasdaq to adjust its listing rules, requiring all Nasdaq-listed companies to annually disclose board-level diversity statistics using a standardized template and have – or explain why they do not have – at least two diverse direc tors by 2025/2026.

Stoll called the new require ment a “game-changer in corpo rate governance that will change the face and quality of board leadership for future generations.”

Toni Townes-Whitley, indepen dent director on Nasdaq’s board and former president of U.S. Regu lated Industries at Microsoft Corp., provided the keynote at MWi’s 20th anniversary celebration on Oct. 11. See what she had to say in “Quote/unQuote” on page 7. n

COMPANY | TOTAL DIRECTORS | WOMEN DIRECTORS

Harley-Davidson, Inc. | 10 | 2

Marcus Corp. (The) | 9 | 2

MGE Energy, Inc. | 9 | 2

Oshkosh Corp. | 10 | 2

Physicians Realty Trust | 9 | 2

Plexus Corp. | 10 | 2

Schneider National, Inc. | 10 | 2

Snap-on, Inc. | 10 | 2

Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. | 7 | 2

Twin Disc, Inc. | 8 | 2

Waterstone Financial, Inc. | 7 | 2

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions | 9 | 2

Blackhawk Bancorp, Inc. | 10 | 1

Green: added to total number of women directors on board

Source:

Women inc. 2022 Research

Palermo’s brings the ‘Stranger Things’ Surfer Boy pizza to life

MILWAUKEE-BASED Palermo Villa Inc. has teamed up with Netflix and Walmart to bring a product from the hit series “Stranger Things” into customers’ kitchens.

Palermo’s has the exclusive license to manufacture the “Surfer Boy Stranger Things Hand Tossed Crust Pizza,” just one of dozens of products that was launched as the fourth season of the wildly popular show was released this past May. The pizzas were also nominated in this year’s Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin contest.

Palermo’s was able to get the license to make the pizzas thanks to its already-strong existing relationship with Walmart. When Walmart learned that Netflix was looking to recreate the Surfer Boy brand of pizzas, Walmart recom mended Palermo’s.

John Leonardo, senior director of marketing for Palermo’s, said the turnaround time between learning the company got the license and getting Surfer Boy pizzas on Walmart shelves was incredibly quick.

“This thing was on an acceler ated timeline. The discussion really started taking place in December of 2021, and it was on the shelves

in May of 2022,” said Leonardo. “We had to agree to the terms of the agreement, develop each of the pizzas and then develop the packaging. … There was a lot that had to happen in that timeframe.”

The Palermo’s team was mostly in the dark about season four of “Stranger Things” when develop ing the Surfer Boy pizza line. In fact, only a small group of people even knew about the license, and that group referenced the project with a code name.

“That was a challenge, obvi ously trying to provide guidance when you can’t quite share exactly what it is you’re trying to do,” Leonardo said.

Surfer Boy pizzas come in four varieties: pepperoni, su preme, multi-meat, and pineap ple jalapeño, which is a favorite of “Stranger Things” character Argyle. The variety uses a milder jalapeno so those who are spiceaverse might be willing to give it a try.

“When we looked at this, we wanted to make it as authentic to pizzeria carryout pizza as possi ble,” said Leonardo. “One of the things that we used is a handtossed style crust to replicate that whole idea that this came from

PALERMO VILLA INC.

3301 W. Canal St., Milwaukee

INDUSTRY: Food manufacturing EMPLOYEES: 912 palermospizza.com

takeout. It’s thinner in the middle but has this thicker edge.”

Everything that goes onto a Surfer Boy pizza is made on site at Palermo’s, except for the crust. Due to high demand, another supplier provides the crust, but Palermo’s does have the capa bility to make the crust in-house. Freshly cut Wisconsin cheese and pepperoni are placed onto each pizza on the manufacturing floor. The sauce has a sweeter profile to appeal to a younger demographic. The design of the Surfer Boy pizza box was also done internally.

“The line is doing excep tionally well. We are in about 3,500 Walmarts across the U.S.,” Leonardo said. “In only a couple of months, we have about a 1% market share of the entire catego ry off of just four items and one retailer.”

The taste of the product was a high priority for Palermo’s. The company didn’t want Surfer Boy pizza to just be a gimmick but a brand that consumers truly con sider when doing their shopping. The company was able to follow

up with consumers who purchased the product via an online survey. Leonardo said 80% of people who bought a Surfer Boy pizza and ate it said it was as good as, or better than, carryout pizza.

“It’s reassuring to hear that consumers are having a good experience,” Leonardo said.

Palermo’s is currently discuss ing the possibility of extending the length of the license agreement with Netflix. It currently runs for one year. n

ASHLEY SMART Reporter

414-336-7144

Pictured on Palermo’s manufacturing floor are Robert Garcia, vice president of manufactur ing; Saul Velasquez, production trainer; and Zar Jaw, production operator.

Pinapple Jalapeño Surfer Boy Pizza from Palermo’s.

Interview

SHARAD CHADHA led a group of local investors in buying Glendale-based Sprecher Brewing Co. from founder Randy Sprecher in early 2020. A little more than a month later, he was a panelist at the BizTimes Media M&A Forum, discussing his vision for the company at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic was just taking hold in the U.S. Recently, he joined BizTimes Milwaukee managing editor Arthur Thomas on the BizTimes MKE Podcast to discuss how he and Sprecher have navigated, and grown, during the pandemic, with the brand now reaching customers in more than 40 states. Listen to the full conversation at biztimes.com/podcast

You embarked on this journey at a unique time. What has it been like over the past 30 months or so?

“Quite honestly, it’s been a tough journey, a challenging one, but very exciting and a lot of fun at the same time, if all those can be true. I remember that M&A Forum you all did ... and how wrong I had it at the time. I was one of the panelists and I said, ‘Well, COVID, we’re going to get over it, it’s not going to be that big of a deal,’ or that’s what I thought and how wrong I was. It hit our business really hard. ...

“Fortunately, we have a great soda, the best root beer in America, the best craft soda in many categories as rated by different companies ... so we’ve leaned in heavy on that in bottles and cans and grew, and we’ve been growing tremendously. We’ve more than

Sharad Chadha Chief executive officer and president Sprecher Brewing Co. Inc.

125 Sprecherbrewery.com

doubled, almost tripled the business, we are growing at a 40%, 50% pace year-over-year and it’s been an exciting journey, very difficult with the supply chain disruptions, pricing, costing, people issues, machines, you name it, we’ve had every challenge thrown at us ... and the team has come together and succeeded so far.”

You wanted to grow nationally. Sprecher is one of the Milwaukee area’s best kept secrets, but you wanted to take that national. How’s that process been going?

“That’s the fun part, that’s the exciting part. A lot of people call Sprecher a hidden gem of Milwaukee and Wisconsin, and that truly has shown. The gem is being polished by us and shining bright. We’re in 40-plus states now ... through beer and soda distributors and also direct through customers like Costco and Walmart ... that’s what helped us grow. We have put our product on more shelves in 10-, 15-, 20,000 retail outlets and as we do that, more consumers and more Americans and people all over the world get a taste of Sprecher ... and they love it and they come back for more.”

I’d imagine getting that much additional distribution has to be a challenge. Food and beverage is very competitive, so breaking into additional spots, how have you gone about doing that?

“That is hard. Craft beer and craft soda or soda is highly competitive. They’re huge markets. ... IRI and Nielsen, third-party scan data on retail shelves ... tracks I think 200 brands or companies, 180 maybe, just for root beer and craft soda, so it’s not easy, and each region and each city has their own big players, of course, the big boys and girls, Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, and of course lots of little ones and regional ones and generational ones, and we have to, as I tell my team, tell our story, show it with data and numbers but also with taste and quality and paint a great picture for the buyers and show how we outsell all of the others two to one ... once we are positioned on the shelf ... that’s what’s helped us. We’ve done blind taste tests, we’ve done taste tests, we’ve done samplings ... just putting ourselves out there and getting a chance.

“Luckily, because I had experience working with large companies, we painted a good picture with numbers but also with product and taste and we’ve been able to tell our story. ... Now, it’s not going to be easy, people are talking about recession, are we in it, there’s inflation, the supply chain disruption is real, and to overcome all that and to continue to grow is extremely challenging and so far, we are up for the challenge, let’s see what happens.”

How have you navigated your cultural background from the corporate world with the family business aspect Sprecher had, while driving toward your national ambitions?

“It’s a tightrope walk every day. I tell people the story: I was born and raised in India, I came here for graduate school 25, 30 years ago, so I’m a first-generation immigrant and from there always worked in large corporations ... never been in a small company, never been an entrepreneur, and I really swung for the fences when I put all my money into this and took a huge debt and raised money and bought Sprecher from the founder, and it’s a different world. It’s a different world. I am personally responsible, and it weighs on my shoulders to carry the weight of 125 people and our extended family. … It’s been one of the most challenging, difficult, toughest jobs I’ve ever done but the most rewarding, most gratifying and most fun at the same time.”

What advice would you have for others starting down an entrepreneurial journey?

“I think my biggest learning has been that the challenges are going to be continuous as an entrepreneur and if you want to remain independent and continue to grow, and they’re going to change, you have to be adaptable and resilient and be open to failure and embrace failure, not that you want to fail, but it’s OK to fail. I tell my team ... it’s OK to fail, it’s not OK not to try, and then learn from it, adapt, pick yourself up and go try again. Nobody gets into trouble for trying something and not succeeding, but they do if they don’t try. ... It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Things take longer than you think, they cost more. These are all cliches, but they are true, and I have learned it and felt it. And tomorrow, I don’t know what will be the next problem, it will be something. ... The beauty of it is some good things will happen, too, you’ll get lucky somewhere, you know.” n

AWARDS greater 2022 together

Congratulations to the 2022 Greater Together Award recipients for their work toward advancing racial equity and social justice in our region. Read more about this year’s honorees at greatermilwaukeefoundation.org/gta

WILLIAM C. FRYE AWARD RALPH HOLLMON

DOUG JANSSON LEADERSHIP AWARD LAUREN FEASTER

FRANK KIRKPATRICK AWARD KEITH STANLEY

PRESIDENT’S LEADERSHIP IN RACIAL EQUITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE AWARD JOSÉ OLIVIERI

JON ELLIOTT / MKE DRONES

UGLY BUILDING: 2986 S. KINNICKINNIC AVE.

Located near the corner of South Kinnickinnic and East Rusk avenues and sandwiched between a home and a dive bar, the tiny one-story brick building at 2986 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. in Milwau kee’s Bay View neighborhood has certainly seen better days.

Long home to Grayce’s Cosmo House of Beauty, the 1,495-square foot building has been vacant for years. But Mil waukee-area real estate investor MaryJo McBurney is hoping to change that. A limited liability company owned by McBurney pur chased the property in May with hopes of finding someone inter ested in either renovating or expanding the roughly 100-year-old building or redeveloping the 4,530-square-foot lot where it sits.

“I have been reaching out to developers,” said McBurney, who owns Lee’s Luxury Lounge next door and 33 other properties in the Milwaukee area. “I want it to complement the area, something that is going to bring more business down there.”

BREAKING GROUND

ROC VENTURES PLANS MORE FRANKLIN DEVELOPMENT

Mandel Group and ROC Ventures are pitching three new de velopments for three different sites near ROC Venture’s Ballpark Commons development at the convergence of South 76th Street, Rawson Avenue and Loomis Road in Franklin.

Recently submitted plans include a proposed redevelopment of the Orchard View Shopping Center, located southeast of 76th Street and Rawson Avenue, into a mixed-use town center that would include a hotel, ice-skating rink and more than 500 apart ments. Another mixed-use development, called The Retreat, would include 432 apartments and some retail on vacant land southeast of Loomis Road and south of Rawson Avenue. The third project is a proposed 78-unit apartment building along South Ballpark Drive and adjacent to New Perspective Senior Living.

SIZE: 80 acres

ADDRESS: 8240 W. Loomis Road, 8301 W. Loomis Road, Orchard View Shopping Center (76th and Rawson)

DEVELOPERS: Mandel Group, ROC Ventures

Thursday, November 17, 2022

7:00AM Registration & Networking | 7:30-9:45AM Breakfast & Program | Italian Community Center

From the Outside Looking In

How will macroeconomic headwinds impact commercial real estate in the Milwaukee area?

Several economic indicators show the economy may be heading into a recession and with the Federal Reserve raising interest rates to fight inflation, all while we try to adapt to a post-pandemic landscape, what is the outlook for the local commercial real estate market in 2023?

For some insight, join us at the 2022 BizTimes Commercial Real Estate & Development Conference to hear from industry professionals who will share their perspectives.

Keynote: Geoffrey Kasselman, Partner, Senior Vice President, Workplace Strategy, CRG

Kasselman provides clients with “future-proofing” strategies for their real estate holdings and workplaces. He is also an innovation-minded business futurist and global speaker on topics like mobility, sustainability, e-commerce, supply chain and disruptive technologies. His remarks will focus on how big trends in the U.S. and global economies will shape commercial real estate in Milwaukee and the Upper Midwest.

Panelists:

Tony Lindsay, Principal, Asset Management, North Wells Capital, LLC (1)

• Thomas D’Arcy, Senior Managing Director, Hines (2)

• Lafayette Crump, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee (3)

Moderator:

• Andy Hunt, Vieth Director for the Center for Real Estate, Marquette University (4)

PRESENTED BY:

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Kenosha County is home to a many successful companies and business leaders, and that roster of dynamic companies is growing every year. The Ovation Awards, presented annually by the Kenosha Area Business Alliance in partnership with BizTimes Milwaukee, recognizes the best of the best; companies and individuals that have exhibited a history of growth, innovation, and a positive overall impact on the community.

The program, and the related feature coverage by the BizTimes, provides a fantastic opportunity to learn about the companies and people that are moving Kenosha County’s economy forward.

This year’s award winners definitely deserve to be celebrated! They represent a diverse group of businesses and entrepreneurs that are leaders in their respective industries. We congratulate them on their success, thank them for their investments in the community and encourage them to continue growing, innovating, and being engaged in the Kenosha community.

On behalf of our sponsors, Johnson Financial Group, the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, M3 Insurance, CMIT Solutions of SE Wisconsin, Darwin Realty and Development, and Gilbane Building Company, we are proud to recognize and celebrate their collective achievements.

Congratulations and best wishes for much continued success!

Todd Battle President Kenosha Area Business Alliance

SUPPORTING SPONSORS:

Dan Meyer Publisher BizTimes Milwaukee

COME CELEBRATE SOME OF KENOSHA COUNTY’S BEST IN BUSINESS

family chemistry

Nexus Pharmaceuticals brings new thinking to drug industry

JAKE HILL PHOTOGRAPHY

BY ASHLEY SMART, staff writer

Tucked just out of plain sight of motorists traveling along the I-94 corridor in Kenosha County, there’s a three-story, 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Pleasant Prairie that marks the next stage of growth for a family-owned pharma ceutical company that wants to shake up the industry.

Lincolnshire, Illinois-based Nexus Pharmaceuticals Inc. officially opened its first U.S. manufacturing facility in the Prairie Highlands Corporate Park last summer. The $100 million investment represents the first phase of a $250 million multi-phase project that the com pany plans to complete in 10 years. It’s the first project of its kind within the sterile injectables industry in the past three decades in the United States.

Ayesha Ahmed, general counsel and vice president of human resources, and Usman Ahmed, president and CEO, with their mother, Mariam Darsot, board chair.

Nexus produces critically needed injectable drugs, such as sodium nitroprusside, which is used to lower blood pressure. Today, Nexus’ products are used in more than 5,000 hospitals nationwide.

What sets the company apart is its commit ment to creating high-quality generic and special ty drugs in the U.S. While other pharmaceutical companies primarily source raw materials for their products from other countries like China and India, Nexus sources most of its materials – and manufac tures most of its products – domestically, although some raw materials do need to be sourced interna tionally depending on demand.

Nexus is in its second generation of family leadership, with six family members currently in volved. The company has nearly 200 employees.

Part of Nexus’ overall goal is to help ease Amer ica’s reliance on other countries for critical drugs and address an ongoing shortage of almost 200 drug products. To that end, Nexus plans to create more than 400 long-term jobs in an industry that is historically underrepresented in Wisconsin.

“(The Nexus development) was a breakthrough for Kenosha County, in terms of attracting these high-level jobs in science and research and devel opment,” said Heather Wessling Grosz, vice presi dent of the Kenosha Area Business Alliance. “It’s in

an industry that Wisconsin doesn’t typically win. I think it broke through the barrier of being able to expand a pharmaceutical base into the state of Wisconsin.”

Nexus’ selection of Pleasant Prairie shows that Wisconsin remains a true competitor in the manu facturing industry, said Grosz.

KABA first heard of Nexus in early 2018 through the economic development group Mil waukee 7, which learned the company wanted to transition from contract manufacturing to produc ing its own drugs. At the time, Nexus was consid ering both Illinois and Wisconsin but was leaning slightly toward Wisconsin. KABA took the Nexus team on a tour of the county’s business parks and informed them of the support they could get for their development, ranging from state tax credits to possible loans.

“We got to know their family, and we got to know how big of an investment it is to be in the pharma industry and how this is kind of new ter ritory. There just really isn’t a lot of these kind of developments,” Grosz said.

Active involvement

It’s not only the type of jobs Nexus is bringing to Wisconsin that is unique, but also the company’s

approach to how drugs should be made.

Nexus was founded in 2003 by Mariam Darsot and Shahid Ahmed. Darsot’s background is in or ganic chemistry, and Ahmed’s in analytical chem istry. From their experience working in other lab settings, the couple realized they wanted more con trol over how products were being made.

“We had worked at many companies and many different places, and we weren’t happy with the environment. I was the one who helped him found the company,” said Darsot, who had led the com pany as president and chief executive officer until Oct. 3 of this year.

For its first five years, Nexus exclusive ly operated in the ophthalmic space. Then, in 2009, Nexus launched its first injectable prod uct, Benztropine Mesylate, which is used along with other medications in the treatment of Par kinson’s disease. Nexus specializes in creating difficult-to-manufacture specialty and generic injectable drugs that are easier to use, higher quality and less labor intensive than what is al ready available on the market.

The launch of Benztropine Mesylate – which allowed the company to start turning a profit – was born from a customer’s tip that the drug was con tinually seeing price increases. There also wasn’t

Photo of the Ahmed family in 2021. Top left to right: Usman Ahmed, Ayesha Ahmed, Aman Ahmed, Omair Ahmed, Shahid Ahmed and Mariam Darsot.

much competition in creating the product.

But new issues started to arise shortly after Nexus entered the injectables space. Initially, the company was mostly doing business in India, and problems ranging from compliance with U.S. Food and Drug Administration standards to product quality emerged. The Ahmed family quickly real ized they wanted a domestic facility that was near their Illinois headquarters so they could remain ac tively involved in the manufacturing process.

“We really had an eye-opening experience and realized we should be manufacturing more and more pharmaceuticals in the U.S. COVID-19 really highlighted that. When COVID hit, it was difficult getting around 25 different essential medications,” said Usman Ahmed, the newly named president and CEO of Nexus Pharmaceuticals.

A family affair

Usman is one of four family members repre senting the next generation of leadership at Nexus Pharmaceuticals. The others are Ayesha Ahmed, general counsel and vice president of human re sources; Omair Ahmed, chief strategy officer; and Aman Ahmed, director of international affairs and government relations.

Each sibling has their own area of expertise. When each of them made the decision to join the family business, they fit within the company like pieces of a puzzle. Having experience outside of Nexus only strengthened each of their areas of ex pertise.

The next generation has taken on the task of building out a fully vertical business, said Ayesha.

“It gave us a lot of perspective about how dif ficult it is to be an entrepreneur. You have to be able to take the good days and the bad days,” said Ayesha. “It’s been an incredible, humbling journey. Sitting in this building, I tell Usman all the time, I can’t believe that we have two facilities and we’re at the place we are today.”

Ayesha graduated from the Chicago-Kent College of Law in 2006 and spent some time at a boutique firm. After coming to a crossroads in her career, she called her father for some advice. He recommended she come back home to work for the family business.

Ayesha had a feeling of trepidation around joining Nexus and wanted to make sure she main tained strong relationships with her family mem bers.

“I saw how passionate Usman was … I think that was a huge draw for me. Also, seeing my par ents’ vision and just thinking I’d like to be a part of expanding the company,” she said.

Usman Ahmed has a background in finance and previously worked at JPMorgan Chase in New York. The Great Recession financial crash led him to approach his parents for a possible career change in 2009. The way his family sees it, Usman has the strongest vision for the company heading into the future.

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“We already knew that he would be the pres ident and CEO because he was very passionate about the business,” said Darsot. “He was (previous ly) the COO, so he was taking on a big role. We were all ready for him to become CEO and president.”

Darsot officially retired earlier this month but remains active in the company through her role as board chair.

Ayesha said there is a lot of mutual respect be tween all the siblings and each of their roles within the company, so the transition process was natural and “democratic.”

“CEOs have to be really big visionaries, and I think Usman by far is the one with the big vision,” she said. “He’s the one who really helped us come to the decision to open this facility, for example.”

Bringing new values to big pharma

Since moving into the injectables space in 2009, Nexus has launched 18 products. Its first ready-touse product – an ephedrine sulfate injection, called Emerphed – launched in April 2020. The creation of Emerphed came after pharmacists and anes thesiologists made the request for a ready-to-use ephedrine product.

“With no need for compounding, diluting, or mixing, Emerphed saves valuable staff time while also reducing the potential for preparation error and waste,” the company said in a news release an nouncing the product’s FDA approval.

As Nexus continues to create both generic and specialty drugs, product shortages are not the only driver of innovation. Usman said the company considers both what customers are requesting now and what products will be needed several years from now.

“Not having that pressure or commitment (from shareholders or investors) allows us to focus on what’s best for the business right now, five years from now and 10 years from now,” said Usman.

Reputation in the pharmaceutical industry is everything, so the company must ensure it always has supplies of its critical products on hand for cus tomers. To combat supply chain issues, Nexus is selective in where it sources its raw materials. The company manufactures its products solely in the U.S. or western Europe.

“We want to be a part of the solution when it comes to the affordability question of health care in the United States. We read about it all the time, that medication pricing is out of control. The prod ucts that we make, they’re all administered at the hospital level and are critical-need products. We really do want to bring a value-based approach to our customers,” said Ayesha.

As Nexus continues to grow, its new facility will support the production and supply of injectable drugs in an array of therapeutic areas including an esthesia, oncology, cardiovascular and neurology.

While it is common practice for pharmaceuti

cal companies to sell their products off – often for as much profit as possible – Nexus remains commit ted to creating its own affordable drugs. All profits made are reinvested back into the business.

“They’ve launched all these drugs and instead of maybe selling them to a bigger company and cash ing out and leaving, they instead took the invest ment from the sales of these drugs and said, ‘Let’s grow our company,’” said KABA’s Grosz. “I think Mariam and her husband were instrumental in in stilling the values in their family to say, ‘We want to continue with our product launches, but we also want to control the next step of the process.’”

A signal to other companies

Although the pharmaceutical industry is one of the smaller sectors within Wisconsin’s manufac turing and biohealth industries, its representation is growing. BioForward Wisconsin’s 2022 Industry Landscape and Economic Impact Report shows that there are 92 companies employing more than 6,000 people in the drugs and pharmaceuticals sec tor in the state. That’s out of a total 2,044 compa nies employing 51,530 people across the biohealth industry statewide.

For Wisconsin to continue to attract businesses like Nexus, the state needs to be more vocal about sharing its success in innovation, said Michael Har rison, director of Milwaukee operations and educa tion initiatives at BioForward Wisconsin.

Ayesha Ahmed

JAKE HILL PHOTOGRAPHY

“Pharma companies rely on universities and startups to provide the innovation that they can ac quire and develop into the next blockbuster thera py,” said Harrison. “If the reputation for cutting-edge research and top-notch startups isn’t there, pharma may continue to overlook the Midwest.”

He believes Nexus selecting Wisconsin as the site for its manufacturing facility could signal to other companies that the state has the strength in high-tech manufacturing and biomanufacturing as well as the supply chain and talent needed to support the growth of their business.

“This is another step in the reshoring of phar maceutical manufacturing to the U.S.,” said Har rison. “Many of us have had to deal with supply chain issues due to the overseas manufacturing of many of the goods we purchase. By bringing this manufacturing to the U.S. and to Wisconsin, we

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Same local commitment and attention to detail. New levels of bench strength and expertise.

Nexus’ pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Pleasant Prairie.

are ensuring that the U.S. will have continuous and ready supplies of much-needed drugs and thera pies.”

In addition to providing a supply of critically needed drugs, the jobs Nexus is bringing to Wis consin could have a much bigger impact than the 400-plus positions expected to be created at the new facility. The Industry Landscape and Econom ic Impact Report shows that jobs created in the biohealth industry have one of the highest rates of “employment multipliers.”

“This means that for every job directly created by our industry, we indirectly support 1.5 more jobs in Wisconsin, like in a supplier or a service provid er,” said Harrison.

While Wisconsin’s private sector employment declined by 2.7% from 2018 to 2021, the biohealth industry grew by 10.6%.

“Our biohealth industry is booming in Wiscon sin, and our continued growth is leading the state out of the economic challenges of the pandemic,” said Harrison.

Next steps for growth

A company just doesn’t decide to build a $100 million facility without a plan for future growth. That’s where Usman comes in as the visionary of the family. There are two strategies he sees as being pivotal in Nexus’ continued success.

“Now, we’re going to be able to make even more types of injectable products and more complex ge nerics,” said Usman. “That’s going to be a big factor

in our growth. We’re going to focus more on our ready-to-use products. We’re not making a new molecule. We’re basically reformulating existing molecules. They’re easier to administer and there’s less risk of medication errors.”

Moving forward, the company will invest more money into the creation of novel and complex for mulations. The new Pleasant Prairie facility is a key tool in this process as it houses cutting-edge tech nology, including an advanced isolator system and lyophilization (freeze-drying) machine.

Nexus also plans to partner with local insti tutions to provide job training and career and

research opportunities. Ayesha said that finding qualified workers continues to be one of Nexus’ biggest challenges. Part of the company’s approach to finding talent is having a pipeline of potential future employees in the works. Nexus has part nerships with Gateway Technical College and UW-Parkside. The culture of a family business also works to the company’s advantage.

“The culture here is really collaborative and really supportive,” said Ayesha. “It’s not just one person out for themselves, it’s a team. People chip in when one person has a big project. Just that kind of mentality has helped us keep that family feel.” n

Usman Ahmed and Mariam Darsot.

A Nexus microbiologist works in the state-of-the-art facility’s new microbiology laboratory.

NEXUS

JAKE HILL PHOTOGRAPHY

2022

OVATION Awards | ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR

Mariam Darsot, board chair, retired CEO Nexus Pharmaceuticals

Mariam Darsot, the recent ly retired president and chief executive officer of Lincolnshire, Illinois-based Nexus Pharmaceuti cals, is the Kenosha Area Business Alliance’s 2022 Entrepreneur of the Year, as part of KABA’s Ovation Awards program.

Darsot spearheaded the creation of a family-owned phar maceutical company that started in her living room and has since grown to have a $100 million manufacturing facility in Pleasant Prairie. The facility is only the first phase of an expected $250 million investment over 10 years, that is expected to create more than 400 local jobs.

Darsot founded Nexus with her husband Shahid Ahmed in 2003. Today, both Darsot and Ahmed, along with their four children, are all active in the company. Nex us aims to make generic drugs more accessible to hospitals and patients.

“At our core, we care about helping others, and being (privately held) has helped us connect more directly to those people we want to help,” said Darsot. “We have more liberty in choosing partners, vendors, and pricing without being swayed by outside voices. We have taken chances with these choices with finding ways to make gener ic (drugs) as fairly accessible to patients and hospitals as possible, which is something publicly held companies cannot do as freely.”

In addition to her mission to help improve the public’s access

to critically needed injectable drugs, Darsot is heavily involved in the surrounding community. Nexus is donating furniture to the Boys & Girls Club of Kenosha and redesigning its space. The company also partnered with the Kenosha Unified School District this year to expose students to the pharmaceutical industry and spon sored the Education Foundation of Kenosha’s annual golf outing.

“I have been active in helping recruit talent in Kenosha County for our manufacturing facility,” Darsot said. “I continue to com municate with local governmental associations to make sure our world-class facility is highlighted and makes this small town’s story known around the world. I also highly encourage our team to sup port local Kenosha vendors. I am diligent in supporting small, local companies whenever I can.”

Heather Wessling Grosz, vice president of the Kenosha Area Business Alliance, said Darsot stood out as this year’s Entrepre neur of the Year because of the values that she has instilled in her

family. As Nexus has launched more products, the company has always remained in control of them, allowing family members to make sure quality and price match their mission.

“I think it’s her leadership in her family … you can just feel it,” Grosz said.

Nexus earned a gold award as part of Inc. magazine’s Best of Business 2021 program. The com pany has also been certified as a Minority Owned Enterprise and a

Women’s Business Enterprise.

Darsot officially retired from her role as president and CEO on Oct. 3. Her son, Usman Ahmed, has succeeded her. Ahmed joined Nexus in 2009 as vice president of finance and business development before being named chief financial officer in 2013. In 2021, he as sumed the role of chief operating officer.

Darsot will remain active with the company through her role as board chair. n

Mariam Darsot (right) and her son Usman Ahmed, president and CEO of Nexus.

Darsot on a facility tour of the new Pleasant Prairie campus in 2021.

OVATION Awards | BUSINESS OF THE YEAR

Heartland Produce Co.

PRODUCE CO.

Kenosha

Produce wholesaler

Kenosha-based Heartland Produce Co., a family-owned, full-service wholesaler, has been named Business of the Year by the Kenosha Area Business Alliance as part of its Ovation Awards program. The company sells to both independent grocery stores and national chains via its Organic Indeed and Fresh Indeed brands.

“We’re in the fresh produce in dustry so everything we do … the end user needs to enjoy what they purchase from us, and the family has to enjoy having a healthy prod uct,” said Bill Dietz, president of Heartland Produce.

Founded in 1989 in Elgin, Illi nois, Heartland Produce officially moved its operations to the Keno sha Industrial Park in 1994. The company is owned by third- and fourth-generation family mem bers. Dietz said from the time the company first moved to Kenosha, the community was welcoming.

In 2021, Heartland Pro duce broke ground on a new 205,000-square-foot facility within the Greeneway Corporate Park in Kenosha – a massive increase in size from the company’s original 40,000-square-foot location.

Heartland acquired 31 acres of land for the project at the former Dairyland Greyhound Park dog track site in June 2021 for $5.29 million.

The $29 million investment gives the company both a modern distribution facility and room to grow in the future. The new facility was officially finished this spring with all employees moving in May. Heartland has also recently invest ed more than $1 million to bring new equipment into the facility.

“Our business kept growing consistently every year. For about four or five years, we were pretty

maxed out on space. This is some thing that we had in the works for a while, probably a couple years prior to COVID-19,” said Dietz.

Despite the challenges the pandemic brought with it, the company decided to move forward with expansion plans. Heartland Produce didn’t have as many supply chain issues as other companies but did struggle for some time with the then-skyrocketing freight rates. Dietz said his number one priority was adjusting employee practices to keep workers safe in the middle of a global pandemic.

At Heartland’s warehouse, workstations were re-arranged to be six feet apart and a mask policy was implemented. Employees who did not absolutely need to be at the warehouse were also given the option to work from home.

“The biggest concern was how

to keep everyone in the workplace safe and to avoid having a major COVID outbreak in our ware house,” said Dietz.

Heartland Produce is also actively involved in the Kenosha community. One of its flagship charitable endeavors is the Heart land Children’s Foundation, which was founded in 2014. Through an annual golf outing, Heartland Produce raises money that is then donated to organizations that help children and families. Past orga nizations to receive the donations have included the Kenosha YMCA, Women & Children’s Horizons and the Shalom Center.

“We raise money for good. I’ve always thought children are our best asset, and it’s the best thing we can do moving forward … to do anything to make them healthy, successful, protected … all of those

things that go into a child growing into a successful adult,” said Dietz.

As the company continues to grow, it has also increased its organic produce line. Through the addition of two sleek wrapper ma chines and a gyro bagger, Heart land can custom package and bag produce through its two brands. n

The outside of Heartland Produce Co.’s newly finished distribution center in Kenosha.

Fresh produce is ready to be shipped out to Heartland Produce Co.’s customers.

The inside of Heartland Produce Co.’s new Kenosha distribution center.

Bill Dietz

OVATION Awards | SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR

Finishing & Plating Service Inc.

It has been 70 years since Tom Laken Sr., a self-taught chemist, started Finishing & Plating Service Inc. in 1952, but the company is still going strong into its fourth generation of family leadership.

Today, FPS specializes in zinc electroplating of parts ranging from small fasteners to large 10foot by six-foot components.

“We service a lot of the agricul ture companies, home appliances, fasteners,” said Tom Laken IV, president of FPS. “That’s a lot of our main customers, but we really cover pretty much everything, a little automotive, that kind of stuff, too.”

Tom and his brother are the fourth generation in the business. Their father, Tom Laken III, is the company’s chief executive officer.

Being a family business has its benefits, even in an increasingly corporate world.

“It’s pretty beneficial because we just have a good understand ing of working with each other and people respect that we have made it work for this long,” Tom Laken IV said.

The company has done more than just make it work, it has grown to around 50 employees running six state-of-the-art plating lines across three shifts, five days per week. The company moved to a 38,000-square-foot facility in the Kenosha Industrial Park in the early 1990s and has since com pleted two expansions, adding warehouse space and enclosing its shipping docks.

FPS has also invested signifi cantly in an in-house water treat ment facility that exceeds local, state and federal requirements. The company has also received

ISO certifications for its quality management.

Those investments have translated to business growth with revenue up more than 12% since 2019. While business remains steady, Laken IV acknowledged things have cooled lately.

“We’ve been pretty busy the last year, year and a half, sort of catching up from COVID,” he said. “We always have work to do.”

As the pandemic and changes in demand created issues in supply chains, Laken IV said it seemed as if some customers were sending double the orders to make sure they had stock in place in case similar disruptions took place.

“Now they’re starting to realize things are starting to slow down

and maybe we’re getting back to normal,” he said.

Like many businesses, Laken IV said it can be challenging to fill open positions, but recently things have improved, and the company has been able to hire through more traditional means and asking employees for referrals.

FPS has also been a supporter of a number of foundations, chari

ties and programs in the Kenosha area over the years, including the YMCA, Boys & Girls Club of Keno sha and the Kenosha Achievement Center.

“We just have a big philosophy with giving back to the community and helping out those who are helping us grow our business,” Laken IV said. “It just goes full circle.” n

The FPS facility in Kenosha

Return-type rack lines at FPS Automatic and manual barrel lines at FPS

Flight bar area at FPS

Seventh Ave., Kenosha

Awards

Herzing University, a private, nonprofit university headquartered in Milwaukee, moved its Kenosha campus into the former Kenosha News space in downtown Kenosha in 2020.

The university has evolved from its found ing in 1965 as a computer training institute to now include campuses in seven states plus an online division. Herzing changed its name from college to university in 2009 when it added graduate programs.

The Kenosha campus, which previously was located at 4006 Washington Road, offers a variety of academic programs including nursing, health care, business and technology.

In addition to its downtown investment, Herzing is a founding partner of the Kenosha Emerging Leaders Academy, a program and facility that aims to help underserved youth in

Kenosha continue their education, experience a state-of-the-art tech center and music studio, and get access to free, in-house physicals.

Herzing has also opened its Kenosha campus to a number of nonprofit organizations to host trainings in areas like mental health, women’s health, Narcan training, and seminars on diversity, equity and inclusion.

The work of Kenosha Creative Space, a nonprofit aiming to create economic oppor tunities for local artists, musicians, creatives, entrepreneurs and other local organizations, takes many shapes.

The organization is behind Create @ theSpace, a weekly open jam, creator and studio night; the Kenosha Mural Project, which was recognized by the Wisconsin Main Street Awards program as best public improvement project in 2015; pop-up galleries; Students Spotlight @theSpace, a partnership with Carthage College that provides live music performance and networking opportunities; BeExposed! To the Arts, a series of events showcasing local artists and creatives at differ ent locations; and Creative Space Fest.

KCS has also played a role in helping

businesses like Blue House Books, Hot Mess Studios and BLAK Coffee get off the ground by providing physical space and other resources.

In 2021, the organization worked with Atlanta-based Plywood People to bring its Plywood Process accelerator for social and creative enterprises to Kenosha.

“Our initial cohort of participants graduat ed shortly after the first of the year, and some have already taken their enterprises to the next level,” Kenosha Creative Space said in its nomination documents.

That next level includes one business open ing a standalone storefront and another having dedicated office space in the Kenosha Creative Space. In total, 17 people participated in the first cohort and another cohort is in the works.

Finishing & Plating Service would like to thank our employees, customers, KABA, and the city of Kenosha for 70 years of business. It is an honor to receive the Small Business of the Year Award in Kenosha. We look forward to what the future holds!

is a proud community partner

Herzing’s Kenosha campus

Francisco Loyola, executive director

Land Quest Realty works in all elements of real estate, from brokerage services to reno vations to property management and beyond, and owner Ryan Douglas has been involved in the Kenosha and Racine communities for decades. He’s given time and resources to organizations like Habitat for Humanity, HALO, Kenosha Dream Playground, Great Lakes Community Conservation Corps, Uplift 900, and First Choice Pre-Apprenticeship.

The company’s recent projects have also had an impact on the community, preserving historic buildings and adding to the availability of apartments.

When the former Weiskopf School at 812 50th St. was at risk of being torn down, Land Quest stepped in to buy the 1902 building, preserving one of the oldest buildings in

Kenosha. The company preserved historic elements of the building and converted it into 14 loft apartments.

The company was also behind converting a blighted, vacant medical office building at 3601 30th Ave. into 42 loft apartments and added 28 newly constructed apartment units on an adjacent parking lot. The project’s prox imity to Gateway Technical College offers more housing options for students and faculty.

Kutzler Express has a legacy that stretches back to 1927 when, as Waukegan-based Kutzler Cartage, it was one of the first firms to run freight from Chicago to the north shore of Illinois. The company moved to Kenosha in the 1950s and today has more than 150 employees.

In the past two years, the company has added more than 60 employees, bought property for a new trucking terminal, added a 401(k) program, doubled profit margins and increased revenue by 52%.

“I have just been trying to stay strong and consistent during the pandemic and to let our employees know that they will always have a place to work and home to go back to,” said Tony Kutzler, the fifth-generation to lead the business. “The past three years have been unpredictable, but we have been growing and

providing more opportunities for our people.”

Kutzler Express has also started a training school for truck drivers with little or no experi ence, added a brokerage division and supports a number of local charities and events.

THANK YOU!

Liftpro wants to thank our customer base of over 1,000 satisfied clients and our valued employees for making this award possible. Since 2008 we have grown to be one of the largest independent aerial lift companies in Wisconsin.

Ryan Douglas

A Kutzler truck

FORWARD AWARD WINNERS

Awards

LIFTPRO LLC 3120 64th St., Kenosha

INDUSTRY: Aerial lifts liftprowi.com

Founded in 2008, Liftpro started in a 4,000-square-foot building before moving to a 25,000-square-foot facility in 2012. The company offers a full line of aerial lifts for rent or purchase, including scissor lifts, boom lifts and push-around man lifts.

Liftpro has invested more than $3.5 million in new delivery trucks, van and rental equipment and more than $400,000 in its building. The company delivers throughout southeastern Wisconsin and Chicagoland and provides service on customer-owned lifts and transportation for customer machines. In the past three years, Liftpro has more than doubled employment to 14 and its revenues have topped $6 million.

Beyond its business growth, Liftpro is involved with a number of nonprofits, includ ing the Boys & Girls Clubs of Kenosha, youth

and college sports teams, Kenosha County Fairgrounds and many more. The company regularly donates aerial lifts and equipment to charities and other groups in need of help. Last year, donations totaled more than $50,000.

CELEBRATING KENOSHA COUNTY’S BEST IN BUSINESS

Congratulations to these dynamic companies and entrepreneurs. Let’s contin ue to celebrate growth throughout the Kenosha area in the next year.

Thank you to our sponsors, Johnson Financial Group, the University of Wis consin-Parkside, and M3 Insurance, and our supporting sponsors CMIT Solu tions of SE Wisconsin, Darwin Realty and Development, and Gilbane Building Company, for their investment in the Kenosha-area business community.

Congratulations and best wishes for much continued success!

Liftpro’s Kenosha building

BUSINESS IN RACINE & KENOSHA

Deadlines loom for Foxconn development

BY CARA SPOTO, staff writer

WHEN THE FOXCONN development was first pitched by then Gov. Scott Walker and the com pany’s former chief executive officer Terry Gou, local and state leaders were promised a manufac turing metropolis off I-94 in Mount Pleasant, one that would catalyze development of a 3,000-acre tax increment financing district.

In that initial development agreement, Fox conn executives agreed to invest $10 billion to construct a 20 million-square-foot manufacturing campus and create 13,000 jobs.

Five years later, Foxconn’s 825-acre Area 1 –one of four areas in a TID that had been planned with the expectation of other manufacturers flocking to the area – consists of four buildings: a 1-million-square-foot “advanced manufacturing” facility; a 300,000-square-foot “smart manufac turing center,” a 120,000-square-foot “multipur pose building” and a 100-foot-tall “high perfor mance computing data center globe.”

Foxconn originally planned to manufacture LCD screens at the complex, but those plans never moved forward. Recently the company has been making servers, server racks and computer moth erboards at the site, according to a source and a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report.

Under the state’s original incentive package

CURTIS WALTZ |

tax rate, that tax bill would equal $27 million.

That $27 million tax bill would come on top of $7.3 million in special assessment payments the company is also making annually to pay back the county for property acquisition costs.

Should the company default, the village and Racine County could be faced with an inability to pay off the more than $310 million in debt the entities issued to acquire the land and make infra structure improvements.

Faced with questions from concerned resi dents, officials have noted that the company has so far made all of its payments, including a $60 million contribution in 2017 and would face for feiting its current investments as well as the po tential state incentives were it to default.

with the company, Foxconn could have received up to $2.85 billion in tax incentives if the compa ny created 13,000 jobs and invested $10 billion in capital expenses in the complex. After Tony Evers was elected governor, the state renegotiated its deal with the company. The new incentive pack age offers the company up to $80 million in tax credits if it hires 1,454 workers and invests $672 million in capital spending in the complex by the end of 2025.

But the company faces another deadline – this one involving property values that will require the Taiwanese tech giant to pay millions more in property taxes whether or not the factory com plex increases in size, value or production.

Under a TID agreement between the company and the Village of Mount Pleasant, “the improve ments” in Area 1 – including parking lots and buildings – must be worth roughly $1.4 billion by Jan. 1, 2024.

Right now, Foxconn is paying about $10 million on the current assessed value of the improvements in Area 1, which sits at roughly $550 million.

If that value hasn’t increased to the agreed upon $1.4 billion by the deadline, the company will still have to pay its tax bill as if the land is worth that much. Based on the village’s current

They’ve also pointed to protections in the de velopment agreement. Those protections include the village’s ability to claw back development rights on the land it owns within the TID: about 100 acres in Area 1 and 1,471 acres in Areas II and III.

The village would also seek compensation to the fullest legal extent, according to an official project fact sheet, which would include taking possession of the land and assets in the Foxconn development.

Asked to respond to ongoing concerns about the potential for Foxconn’s default and what development potential exists for the Fox conn-owned land and the more than 1,500 acres of village-owned land in the TID, Milwaukee-based Mueller Communications, which has been staffed with handling Foxconn-related media inquiries for the Village of Mount Pleasant and other enti ties, provided this quote from Claude Lois, the Fox conn project director for Mount Pleasant:

“Foxconn has met every financial obligation under the local contract and the village fully ex pects that the company will continue to do so. We continue to be well-positioned to attract future in vestments in Mount Pleasant’s TID #5 and are par ticularly hopeful that a high-tech manufacturer will develop on this attractive, shovel-ready site.” n

Keep up with BizTimes’ 2023 roundup of the leaders making a difference throughout southeast Wisconsin.

At companies across southeast Wisconsin, notable executives are running businesses, navigating company restructurings, serving on boards, running marketing departments, and investing in growth throughout the region. The notable individuals profiled in these categories are nominated by their peers at work and in the community.

N OTA BLE HEROES I N HEALTH CARE

Notable Heroes in Health Care salutes the accomplishments of people and organizations making a positive difference on the front lines of health care.

Extended Nomination Deadline: November 11, 2022

Issue Date: December 12, 2022

Look for these Notable and Rising Stars nominations in 2023!

Notable Leaders in Higher Education

Nomination deadline: December 16, 2022

Issue date: January 23, 2023

Notable BIPOC Executives

Nomination deadline: January 13, 2023

Issue date: February 20, 2023

Notable Women in STEM Nomination deadline: February 17, 2023 Issue date: March 27, 2023

Notable Women in Construction & Design

Nomination deadline: March 10, 2023 Issue date: April 17, 2023

Notable Mortgage Brokers and Title Officers

Nomination deadline: April 7, 2023

Issue date: May 15, 2023

Notable Nonprofit Board Leaders

Nomination deadline: April 28, 2023

Issue date: June 5, 2023

Notable Leaders in Accounting Nomination deadline: June 16, 2023

Issue date: July 24, 2023

Notable Alumni

Nomination deadline: July 14, 2023

Issue date: August 21, 2023

Rising Stars in Manufacturing Nomination deadline: September 1, 2023

Issue date: October 9, 2023

Notable Women in Insurance

Nomination deadline: September 15, 2023

Issue date: October 23, 2023

Notable Veterans

Nomination deadline: September 29, 2023

Issue date: November 6, 2023

Notable Women in Hospitality

Nomination deadline: October 13, 2023

Issue date: November 20, 2023

Notable Health Care Leaders

Nomination deadline: November 3, 2023

Issue date: December 11, 2023

To view this year’s winners and nominate, visit biztimes.com/notable

INSURANCE & BENEFITS

Insuring mass timber buildings can be more complex, but cheaper

BY KATHERINE BECK, for BizTimes

WHEREVER THE EYE lands in one of newest mass timber buildings, from the floor to the ceil ing, it sees wood. Wood floors. Wood beams. Even wood ceilings, as is the case at the new Ascent apartment tower on Kilbourn Avenue in down town Milwaukee.

Relying heavily on wood for construction isn’t anything new, after all it was how buildings were constructed for centuries. But as technology im proved and new building materials were invented, how buildings were constructed also changed.

However, as people rediscover the charm of ex posed wood in renovated century-old buildings in Milwaukee, and across the country, new construc tion is also incorporating the look.

For Ann Pieper Eisenbrown, owner of Pieper Properties, primarily using wood to construct Milwaukee’s first mass timber project, Timber Lofts, was about more than aesthetics; it was about sustainability and cutting down on con struction timelines.

Mass timber differs from traditional lumber construction in that it uses large pieces of timber to make large pieces for the project, such as columns, beams and floors.

Not that long ago, Pieper Eisenbrown and others wouldn’t have been allowed to erect mass

timber high-rises. However, changes in the U.S. building code have allowed for such construction to happen. While mass timber construction isn’t anything new, it does present some complicating factors for insurance.

Pieper Eisenbrown said she didn’t run into any issues with getting Timber Lofts insured after tak ing its insurability into consideration throughout the planning and construction process. But that isn’t always the case for builders of mass timber projects, and the WoodWorks - Wood Products Council recognizes that some insurance companies are cautious about providing insurance for mass timber construction. As such, it has prepared a pa per to help guide developers and owners who need insurance for their mass timber projects.

Two types of insurance are taken into consid eration when discussing mass timber buildings: builder’s risk insurance for during construction and property insurance for when the building is finished and occupied.

“Relative risks are assessed differently for each, and each requires a unique approach,” ac cording to WoodWorks. “… Construction-phase risks associated with fire are different in mass timber buildings than with most other framing systems. Since the timber elements have inherent

fire-resistance capabilities, a building can have a certain level of passive fire resistance after the frame is erected. Protection doesn’t rely on (and wait for installation of) materials such as spray-ap plied fire proofing. The potential for faster con struction can also mitigate several risks. Less time under construction means less time for potential hazards such as theft, arson, etc.”

For property insurance, factors such as mois ture, durability and building enclosure detailing must all be taken into consideration, according to WoodWorks, and are usually site-specific.

Jamie Vanderveldt, a commercial insurance consultant with R&R Insurance Services in Pe waukee, said with mass timber projects remain ing uncommon in the area, they have worked more with frame habitational construction for apartment buildings and the corresponding build ers risk processes for those projects that have val ues up to $100 million.

“The difficulty in insuring a mass timber project is many insurance companies are not experienced with this type of construction and don’t have the capacity for this much risk on one project,” Vanderveldt said. “Finding the right car rier that is willing to take on the risk would be the most difficult part of the project. Especially in today’s marketplace, where carriers’ rates are increasing, construction inflation is high driving the total insured value of the project much higher than even one or two years ago. Some aspects of a mass timber project that would need to be taken into consideration when discussing insurability

— MICHAEL THOMPSON

Inside the 25-story Ascent, a hybrid mass timber building in downtown Milwaukee.

are if the product is up to code and the experience of the general contractor.

“Mass timber uses panels, and if there is a weak or damaged panel, it can cause collapse or water damage issues to the structure,” Vanderveldt said. “Another concern would be choosing an experi enced general contractor with this specific experi ence. Because the general contractor is in charge of the whole site, the insurance companies would look for site security, heat and motion monitoring with alarms, fencing, etcetera to keep the general public off the site. Site plans, construction schedules and more are always important to any project.”

However, while one might think the cost of

insuring a mass timber project would be more than a building that relies heavily on steel or concrete, in fact they are less expensive to insure. Vanderveldt said the rates for mass timber generally are about 20% to 30% less than a traditional frame project because of the quality of construc tion materials that have a better fire rating.

Pieper Eisenbrown doesn’t have any more mass timber projects planned but does have advice for others who do when it comes to insurance: Start early with the insurance process and review the construction methods with the carriers.

Having opened in 2020, the 60-unit Timber Lofts on Florida Street in Walker’s Point was fol lowed by Milwaukee-based New Land Enterpris es’ Ascent, a 25-story apartment building that is the world’s tallest hybrid timber structure. Its 19 apartment floors are on top of a six-story con crete podium.

Joining the mass timber construction portfo lio in Milwaukee would be the Edison, which is a planned 16-story apartment building along the Milwaukee River downtown, northeast of State and Edison streets. n

Optimize your self-funded benefit plan with Quartz Align.

Learn how a provider-sponsored plan can help you maximize your benefit investment.

Talk to your benefits advisor or call us directly.

Calvin

The Ascent

The Ascent

INSURANCE & BENEFITS

Restaurant operators turn to insurance and benefits as attraction, retention tool – but at a steep cost

BY MAREDITHE MEYER, staff writer

AS THE SERVICE and hospitality sector contin ues to face workforce challenges coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurant operators are put ting in extra time – and money – to be an employer of choice.

One tactic that has gained traction, even in the years prior to the pandemic, is offering access to health insurance and benefits. But even as de mand for full health care coverage has increased post-pandemic, it remains one of the most expen sive investments an operator can make.

“The restaurant industry, because we deal with heat, fire, grease and knives, we run into higher pricing than what you’d find in a different indus try that may be more desk-based, as an example,” said Susan Quam, executive vice president of the Wisconsin Restaurant Association.

As the need for talent recruitment and at traction has increased, so has the importance of investing in employees’ wellbeing. These days, however, in an industry where average profit margins already range from 3% to 5% percent, investing in health insurance may seem all the more unattainable.

“Right now, we’re seeing that our inflation in the restaurant industry for food and other prod ucts is twice the consumer price index, so we’re running at about 15% or 16% inflation for our goods,” said Quam. “And then you throw on a 25%30% increase of wages paid and then all of the extra costs like gas, electricity and other overhead and

other insurance, so they’re having a hard time rais ing their menu prices high enough to cover all of those costs, and then try to add in (employee health) insurance.”

Through a partnership agreement with the Na tional Restaurant Association, WRA has worked with Minnetonka, Minnesota-based United HealthCare for nearly a decade to offer discounted health care options to its members. Those options range from employer discounts on medical rates for fully insured groups to individual and family health insurance that both full- and part-time em ployees can purchase on their own at a special rate.

The newest offering, Teladoc Health, was add ed just before the pandemic hit. Priced at $9 per employee per month, the employer-sponsored program offers unlimited access to virtual doctor visits for mental health and medical conditions for all employees (full time, part time and furloughed) and their families. The program’s mental health service particularly gained traction during the pandemic, said Quam, as employers and employ ees alike dealt with the stress of keeping a busi ness afloat or making enough money to support a family.

She said Teledoc continues to be a popular “en try-level” way into the world of employee-spon sored health insurance.

“It’s a program that has a lot of promise, espe cially for our very small operators who don’t have a lot of employees and have a hard time trying to

connect up with the full insurance,” said Quam.

WRA is also seeing operators who can’t afford full medical coverage but, as an alternative, are now offering other kinds of less-expensive insur ance, such as dental, vision, disability and life.

For at least one Milwaukee-based restaurant group, a recent additional investment in employee benefits is seeing a slow return, at least on the hir ing front.

Black Shoe Hospitality, which owns Butter mint, Maxie’s, Story Hill BKC and Blue’s Egg, has offered health insurance to its full-time employees for almost all of the 15 years it’s been in business, but earlier this year, in an effort to increase fulltime staffing, the company bulked up its compen sation packages with dental, vision, disability and life insurance as well as 401(k) matching.

“I would love to be telling you about a success story that it’s made all the difference in recruiting people, but unfortunately it has not,” said Dan Sid ner, co-owner of Black Shoe Hospitality.

Sidner says he’s proud of the group’s current base of 160 employees. But unfortunately, from an operational standpoint, the ratio of full-time to part-time staff has shifted drastically – from 65% full time to 35% part time pre-pandemic to now 45% to 55%.

And even after increased pay, additional time off, and what’s amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of insurance and benefits offer ings, “we are not seeing the benefit of additional (job) applicants,” said Sidner.

It’s a different story for employee retention and satisfaction, however, especially for employees with families.

Sidner pointed to one example of an employee who now provides health insurance for her two children and husband, who does not receive ben efits through his job. One of her children has some health issues, and with access to medical coverage through her job at Black Shoe, doctor’s visits are now less of a headache. There’s also the employee who recently had a baby and was able to have in surance cover most of the pre-natal care and hos pital expenses.

Following the addition of the 401(k) match, Sidner said he got positive feedback from several managers saying the benefit was something they never expected from an employer in the restaurant industry.

“(Adding more benefits) has meant a tremen dous amount to the employees we already have, es pecially managers, because a restaurant manager is a restaurant professional – someone who wants to make a career of it,” said Sidner. “I’m very proud to offer those benefits to a restaurant manager because we’re asking them to do everything that exists in any other professional career. … We need people who want to make a career in the hospital ity industry.” n

Staff wait on diners at Buttermint, the newest concept by Black Shoe Hospitality that opened late last year in Shorewood.

KAMES PHOTOGRAPHY

Linda Crawford at advertise@biztimes.com

BUSINESS IN RACINE & KENOSHA

Deadlines loom for Foxconn development

BY CARA SPOTO, staff writer

WHEN THE FOXCONN development was first pitched by then Gov. Scott Walker and the com pany’s former chief executive officer Terry Gou, local and state leaders were promised a manufac turing metropolis off I-94 in Mount Pleasant, one that would catalyze development of a 3,000-acre tax increment financing district.

In that initial development agreement, Fox conn executives agreed to invest $10 billion to construct a 20 million-square-foot manufacturing campus and create 13,000 jobs.

Five years later, Foxconn’s 825-acre Area 1 –one of four areas in a TID that had been planned with the expectation of other manufacturers flocking to the area – consists of four buildings: a 1-million-square-foot “advanced manufacturing” facility; a 300,000-square-foot “smart manufac turing center,” a 120,000-square-foot “multipur pose building” and a 100-foot-tall “high perfor mance computing data center globe.”

Foxconn originally planned to manufacture LCD screens at the complex, but those plans never moved forward. Recently the company has been making servers, server racks and computer moth erboards at the site, according to a source and a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report.

Under the state’s original incentive package

CURTIS WALTZ |

tax rate, that tax bill would equal $27 million.

That $27 million tax bill would come on top of $7.3 million in special assessment payments the company is also making annually to pay back the county for property acquisition costs.

Should the company default, the village and Racine County could be faced with an inability to pay off the more than $310 million in debt the entities issued to acquire the land and make infra structure improvements.

Faced with questions from concerned resi dents, officials have noted that the company has so far made all of its payments, including a $60 million contribution in 2017 and would face for feiting its current investments as well as the po tential state incentives were it to default.

with the company, Foxconn could have received up to $2.85 billion in tax incentives if the compa ny created 13,000 jobs and invested $10 billion in capital expenses in the complex. After Tony Evers was elected governor, the state renegotiated its deal with the company. The new incentive pack age offers the company up to $80 million in tax credits if it hires 1,454 workers and invests $672 million in capital spending in the complex by the end of 2025.

But the company faces another deadline – this one involving property values that will require the Taiwanese tech giant to pay millions more in property taxes whether or not the factory com plex increases in size, value or production.

Under a TID agreement between the company and the Village of Mount Pleasant, “the improve ments” in Area 1 – including parking lots and buildings – must be worth roughly $1.4 billion by Jan. 1, 2024.

Right now, Foxconn is paying about $10 million on the current assessed value of the improvements in Area 1, which sits at roughly $550 million.

If that value hasn’t increased to the agreed upon $1.4 billion by the deadline, the company will still have to pay its tax bill as if the land is worth that much. Based on the village’s current

They’ve also pointed to protections in the de velopment agreement. Those protections include the village’s ability to claw back development rights on the land it owns within the TID: about 100 acres in Area 1 and 1,471 acres in Areas II and III.

The village would also seek compensation to the fullest legal extent, according to an official project fact sheet, which would include taking possession of the land and assets in the Foxconn development.

Asked to respond to ongoing concerns about the potential for Foxconn’s default and what development potential exists for the Fox conn-owned land and the more than 1,500 acres of village-owned land in the TID, Milwaukee-based Mueller Communications, which has been staffed with handling Foxconn-related media inquiries for the Village of Mount Pleasant and other enti ties, provided this quote from Claude Lois, the Fox conn project director for Mount Pleasant:

“Foxconn has met every financial obligation under the local contract and the village fully ex pects that the company will continue to do so. We continue to be well-positioned to attract future in vestments in Mount Pleasant’s TID #5 and are par ticularly hopeful that a high-tech manufacturer will develop on this attractive, shovel-ready site.” n

Keep up with BizTimes’ 2023 roundup of the leaders making a difference throughout southeast Wisconsin.

At companies across southeast Wisconsin, notable executives are running businesses, navigating company restructurings, serving on boards, running marketing departments, and investing in growth throughout the region. The notable individuals profiled in these categories are nominated by their peers at work and in the community.

N OTA BLE HEROES I N HEALTH CARE

Notable Heroes in Health Care salutes the accomplishments of people and organizations making a positive difference on the front lines of health care.

Extended Nomination Deadline: November 11, 2022

Issue Date: December 12, 2022

Look for these Notable and Rising Stars nominations in 2023!

Notable Leaders in Higher Education

Nomination deadline: December 16, 2022

Issue date: January 23, 2023

Notable BIPOC Executives

Nomination deadline: January 13, 2023

Issue date: February 20, 2023

Notable Women in STEM Nomination deadline: February 17, 2023 Issue date: March 27, 2023

Notable Women in Construction & Design

Nomination deadline: March 10, 2023 Issue date: April 17, 2023

Notable Mortgage Brokers and Title Officers

Nomination deadline: April 7, 2023

Issue date: May 15, 2023

Notable Nonprofit Board Leaders

Nomination deadline: April 28, 2023

Issue date: June 5, 2023

Notable Leaders in Accounting Nomination deadline: June 16, 2023

Issue date: July 24, 2023

Notable Alumni

Nomination deadline: July 14, 2023

Issue date: August 21, 2023

Rising Stars in Manufacturing Nomination deadline: September 1, 2023

Issue date: October 9, 2023

Notable Women in Insurance

Nomination deadline: September 15, 2023

Issue date: October 23, 2023

Notable Veterans

Nomination deadline: September 29, 2023

Issue date: November 6, 2023

Notable Women in Hospitality

Nomination deadline: October 13, 2023

Issue date: November 20, 2023

Notable Health Care Leaders

Nomination deadline: November 3, 2023

Issue date: December 11, 2023

To view this year’s winners and nominate, visit biztimes.com/notable

INSURANCE & BENEFITS

Insuring mass timber buildings can be more complex, but cheaper

BY KATHERINE BECK, for BizTimes

WHEREVER THE EYE lands in one of newest mass timber buildings, from the floor to the ceil ing, it sees wood. Wood floors. Wood beams. Even wood ceilings, as is the case at the new Ascent apartment tower on Kilbourn Avenue in down town Milwaukee.

Relying heavily on wood for construction isn’t anything new, after all it was how buildings were constructed for centuries. But as technology im proved and new building materials were invented, how buildings were constructed also changed.

However, as people rediscover the charm of ex posed wood in renovated century-old buildings in Milwaukee, and across the country, new construc tion is also incorporating the look.

For Ann Pieper Eisenbrown, owner of Pieper Properties, primarily using wood to construct Milwaukee’s first mass timber project, Timber Lofts, was about more than aesthetics; it was about sustainability and cutting down on con struction timelines.

Mass timber differs from traditional lumber construction in that it uses large pieces of timber to make large pieces for the project, such as columns, beams and floors.

Not that long ago, Pieper Eisenbrown and others wouldn’t have been allowed to erect mass

timber high-rises. However, changes in the U.S. building code have allowed for such construction to happen. While mass timber construction isn’t anything new, it does present some complicating factors for insurance.

Pieper Eisenbrown said she didn’t run into any issues with getting Timber Lofts insured after tak ing its insurability into consideration throughout the planning and construction process. But that isn’t always the case for builders of mass timber projects, and the WoodWorks - Wood Products Council recognizes that some insurance companies are cautious about providing insurance for mass timber construction. As such, it has prepared a pa per to help guide developers and owners who need insurance for their mass timber projects.

Two types of insurance are taken into consid eration when discussing mass timber buildings: builder’s risk insurance for during construction and property insurance for when the building is finished and occupied.

“Relative risks are assessed differently for each, and each requires a unique approach,” ac cording to WoodWorks. “… Construction-phase risks associated with fire are different in mass timber buildings than with most other framing systems. Since the timber elements have inherent

fire-resistance capabilities, a building can have a certain level of passive fire resistance after the frame is erected. Protection doesn’t rely on (and wait for installation of) materials such as spray-ap plied fire proofing. The potential for faster con struction can also mitigate several risks. Less time under construction means less time for potential hazards such as theft, arson, etc.”

For property insurance, factors such as mois ture, durability and building enclosure detailing must all be taken into consideration, according to WoodWorks, and are usually site-specific.

Jamie Vanderveldt, a commercial insurance consultant with R&R Insurance Services in Pe waukee, said with mass timber projects remain ing uncommon in the area, they have worked more with frame habitational construction for apartment buildings and the corresponding build ers risk processes for those projects that have val ues up to $100 million.

“The difficulty in insuring a mass timber project is many insurance companies are not experienced with this type of construction and don’t have the capacity for this much risk on one project,” Vanderveldt said. “Finding the right car rier that is willing to take on the risk would be the most difficult part of the project. Especially in today’s marketplace, where carriers’ rates are increasing, construction inflation is high driving the total insured value of the project much higher than even one or two years ago. Some aspects of a mass timber project that would need to be taken into consideration when discussing insurability

— MICHAEL THOMPSON

Inside the 25-story Ascent, a hybrid mass timber building in downtown Milwaukee.

are if the product is up to code and the experience of the general contractor.

“Mass timber uses panels, and if there is a weak or damaged panel, it can cause collapse or water damage issues to the structure,” Vanderveldt said. “Another concern would be choosing an experi enced general contractor with this specific experi ence. Because the general contractor is in charge of the whole site, the insurance companies would look for site security, heat and motion monitoring with alarms, fencing, etcetera to keep the general public off the site. Site plans, construction schedules and more are always important to any project.”

However, while one might think the cost of

insuring a mass timber project would be more than a building that relies heavily on steel or concrete, in fact they are less expensive to insure. Vanderveldt said the rates for mass timber generally are about 20% to 30% less than a traditional frame project because of the quality of construc tion materials that have a better fire rating.

Pieper Eisenbrown doesn’t have any more mass timber projects planned but does have advice for others who do when it comes to insurance: Start early with the insurance process and review the construction methods with the carriers.

Having opened in 2020, the 60-unit Timber Lofts on Florida Street in Walker’s Point was fol lowed by Milwaukee-based New Land Enterpris es’ Ascent, a 25-story apartment building that is the world’s tallest hybrid timber structure. Its 19 apartment floors are on top of a six-story con crete podium.

Joining the mass timber construction portfo lio in Milwaukee would be the Edison, which is a planned 16-story apartment building along the Milwaukee River downtown, northeast of State and Edison streets. n

Optimize your self-funded benefit plan with Quartz Align.

Learn how a provider-sponsored plan can help you maximize your benefit investment.

Talk to your benefits advisor or call us directly.

Calvin

The Ascent

The Ascent

INSURANCE & BENEFITS

Restaurant operators turn to insurance and benefits as attraction, retention tool – but at a steep cost

BY MAREDITHE MEYER, staff writer

AS THE SERVICE and hospitality sector contin ues to face workforce challenges coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurant operators are put ting in extra time – and money – to be an employer of choice.

One tactic that has gained traction, even in the years prior to the pandemic, is offering access to health insurance and benefits. But even as de mand for full health care coverage has increased post-pandemic, it remains one of the most expen sive investments an operator can make.

“The restaurant industry, because we deal with heat, fire, grease and knives, we run into higher pricing than what you’d find in a different indus try that may be more desk-based, as an example,” said Susan Quam, executive vice president of the Wisconsin Restaurant Association.

As the need for talent recruitment and at traction has increased, so has the importance of investing in employees’ wellbeing. These days, however, in an industry where average profit margins already range from 3% to 5% percent, investing in health insurance may seem all the more unattainable.

“Right now, we’re seeing that our inflation in the restaurant industry for food and other prod ucts is twice the consumer price index, so we’re running at about 15% or 16% inflation for our goods,” said Quam. “And then you throw on a 25%30% increase of wages paid and then all of the extra costs like gas, electricity and other overhead and

other insurance, so they’re having a hard time rais ing their menu prices high enough to cover all of those costs, and then try to add in (employee health) insurance.”

Through a partnership agreement with the Na tional Restaurant Association, WRA has worked with Minnetonka, Minnesota-based United HealthCare for nearly a decade to offer discounted health care options to its members. Those options range from employer discounts on medical rates for fully insured groups to individual and family health insurance that both full- and part-time em ployees can purchase on their own at a special rate.

The newest offering, Teladoc Health, was add ed just before the pandemic hit. Priced at $9 per employee per month, the employer-sponsored program offers unlimited access to virtual doctor visits for mental health and medical conditions for all employees (full time, part time and furloughed) and their families. The program’s mental health service particularly gained traction during the pandemic, said Quam, as employers and employ ees alike dealt with the stress of keeping a busi ness afloat or making enough money to support a family.

She said Teledoc continues to be a popular “en try-level” way into the world of employee-spon sored health insurance.

“It’s a program that has a lot of promise, espe cially for our very small operators who don’t have a lot of employees and have a hard time trying to

connect up with the full insurance,” said Quam.

WRA is also seeing operators who can’t afford full medical coverage but, as an alternative, are now offering other kinds of less-expensive insur ance, such as dental, vision, disability and life.

For at least one Milwaukee-based restaurant group, a recent additional investment in employee benefits is seeing a slow return, at least on the hir ing front.

Black Shoe Hospitality, which owns Butter mint, Maxie’s, Story Hill BKC and Blue’s Egg, has offered health insurance to its full-time employees for almost all of the 15 years it’s been in business, but earlier this year, in an effort to increase fulltime staffing, the company bulked up its compen sation packages with dental, vision, disability and life insurance as well as 401(k) matching.

“I would love to be telling you about a success story that it’s made all the difference in recruiting people, but unfortunately it has not,” said Dan Sid ner, co-owner of Black Shoe Hospitality.

Sidner says he’s proud of the group’s current base of 160 employees. But unfortunately, from an operational standpoint, the ratio of full-time to part-time staff has shifted drastically – from 65% full time to 35% part time pre-pandemic to now 45% to 55%.

And even after increased pay, additional time off, and what’s amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of insurance and benefits offer ings, “we are not seeing the benefit of additional (job) applicants,” said Sidner.

It’s a different story for employee retention and satisfaction, however, especially for employees with families.

Sidner pointed to one example of an employee who now provides health insurance for her two children and husband, who does not receive ben efits through his job. One of her children has some health issues, and with access to medical coverage through her job at Black Shoe, doctor’s visits are now less of a headache. There’s also the employee who recently had a baby and was able to have in surance cover most of the pre-natal care and hos pital expenses.

Following the addition of the 401(k) match, Sidner said he got positive feedback from several managers saying the benefit was something they never expected from an employer in the restaurant industry.

“(Adding more benefits) has meant a tremen dous amount to the employees we already have, es pecially managers, because a restaurant manager is a restaurant professional – someone who wants to make a career of it,” said Sidner. “I’m very proud to offer those benefits to a restaurant manager because we’re asking them to do everything that exists in any other professional career. … We need people who want to make a career in the hospital ity industry.” n

Staff wait on diners at Buttermint, the newest concept by Black Shoe Hospitality that opened late last year in Shorewood.

KAMES PHOTOGRAPHY

Linda Crawford at advertise@biztimes.com

NEGOTIATIONS

Power play Stellar performance gives Yankees star strong position in the marketplace

SINCE THE FIRST PITCH was thrown out in April, one of the big questions in Major League Baseball has been: Will Yankees slugger Aaron Judge resign with the team, or become a free agent?

Amazingly, at the beginning of this season, Judge turned down an offer from the New York Yankees, worth $213 million for seven years.

Little did he know, this season he would break Roger Maris’ American League single-season re cord of 61 home runs and become a candidate for the league’s Most Valuable Player award. Judge’s market value has only risen since he turned down that huge contract offer earlier in the year.

Based on his performance, Judge is “driving the bus” when it comes to contract negotiations. As suming he declares free agency, he will have many passengers boarding his “bus,” including the Yan kees and several other teams that hope to sign him.

This should be an interesting set of negotia tions.

Usually in contract negotiations the guidelines are clear. Not this time. In recent years, some of MLB’s biggest stars Mookie Betts of the Dodgers, Mike Trout of the Angels and Fernando Tatis Jr. of the Padres each signed contracts in the $300 mil lion range.

These contracts all are above the initial offer from the Yankees to Judge and provide him with a legitimate basis for countering with an amount above the team’s initial offer. He has both informa tion and legitimate power.

There will be plenty of other free agents watch

ing this negotiation scenario play out on the nation al stage. This could become a template for future contract negotiations.

What is Judge’s true value? The Yankees need to figure it out quickly or the marketplace will do it for them. There will be a bidding war among the passengers on Judge’s bus. This will result in a monster contract, and anyone riding the bus has the ability to have skin in this game.

There is a veiled threat that Judge could end up across the East River in Queens playing for the New York Mets or on the Pacific Coast playing for the Dodgers or Giants. The pressure will be on the Yankees from their fan base, and from his fellow players to keep Judge in pinstripes.

So, if you were Judge’s agent, what criteria would you use to convince those many passengers on the bus that your client is worth a $300 million contract? Would you use the prior agreements with the current and past players? What should be the length of the agreement? Would you use his record-breaking performance this year? Is the fact that he could be chosen the MVP of the league an important factor in the negotiation?

All of these elements together would make for a powerful argument for a record-breaking salary agreement. I would expect his agent would use all the tools available to him to leverage the best possi ble deal for his client.

But, one final element must be taken into con sideration. What does Aaron Judge want? At the present time this is a mystery and only he knows the answer.

So as the Aaron Judge bus continues its journey, one or more of the passengers will be getting on and off as the fare begins to increase. I expect the bidding to start once Judge declares himself a free agent at the end of the season. The Yankees need to act prior to this bus reaching that final stop on the journey, step up to the plate and make him the type offer he cannot refuse.

They had that opportunity at the beginning of

the season and did not make their best offer. Now, it’s safe to say, at this time the ball is in Aaron’s court and he will be the ultimate judge.

This situation can easily occur in salary negoti ations with top executives. Many companies base their offers on what the last person was earning, rather than researching what the going rates are in the relevant market. If this is the mid- to upper-lev el executive you want to add to your team, make them an offer that is more than competitive, one that satisfies their needs. More than likely, there is a high probability they are also negotiating with other companies and you want them to join your team. Make your first offer your best offer, and you will not strike out. Instead, you may hit that needed home run. n

CARY SILVERSTEIN

Cary Silverstein, MBA, is a speaker, author and consultant, a former executive for Gimbel’s Midwest and JH Collectibles, and a former professor for DeVry University’s Keller Graduate School. He can be reached at csilve1013@aol.com.

Danger ahead!

What family businesses need to watch out for

I AM DATING MYSELF. When I was a boy, there was a show called “Lost in Space.” The adventures were of a family, a crazy narcissistic scientist and a robot that were literally… lost in space.

When the robot sensed danger ahead, which happened in every show, it stated, “Danger Will Robinson (the youngest male family member), dan ger.”

Family businesses do not have robots yet to warn them of what lies ahead. We rely on reading the tea leaves, a crystal ball or gut instinct. In the current age of numeracy, everything can be statis tically analyzed, so we can better prognosticate the challenges that family businesses face.

The first danger on the road ahead is the busi ness owner aging out. According to the Conway Center for Family Business, the core age of the central business owner is 60.2 years with 40.3% of heads moving to retirement soon. This would not be so bad if the succession plan was delineated, which in 43% of the cases it is not.

We have an aging crisis coming soon for the typical family business and that crisis could come from a failure to plan, an unwillingness to change or an inability to turn over the reins.

A recent survey indicates that Americans feel that our country is ethically at low ebb. The good news for family businesses is that they are tra ditionally seen as being more ethical, with 60% believing that family businesses beat non-family businesses in the ethics game. Does the aging out of business owners take with it the values and eth ics advantage that family businesses enjoy? Will junior son or daughter maintain the ethical focus,

and community commitment that many family businesses have now? One such value is retain ing employees during economic hardship. Family businesses are more inclined to retain non-family workers during these periods.

A final danger that is plaguing many family businesses, perhaps now more than ever, is emo tional baggage such as guilt and entitlement. Guilt, as some family members choose not to join the family business, and entitlement as some family members believe the family business is theirs be cause they exist. The emotional and psychological issues of family business are frequently not dis cussed and as such are not managed. The current generation seems to be acutely aware of their emo tions and feels they need to be heard and that their feelings are the truth.

No business owner can force a family member into the family business. This is a recipe for disas ter. And, no family member can force the hand of the business owner just because they were born into the family. This is why the setting of barriers needs to be clearly communicated with each fam ily member.

I was recently made aware of a family situation where the owner of an organization was blindsid ed by a non-participating family member with an offer to buy out the owner. The owner was told by the non-participating family member that they were not running the organization correctly, a mal aise the non-participating member claimed they could fix. The offer to buy out the owner came with a guarantee that the current owner could stay with the business for an agreed upon period of time.

How nice. An unsolicited offer from a hostile family member. The audacity! The privilege! The entitlement!

These are dangers, Will Robinson!

Many of those come from outside factors, which are normal to all businesses, but the most devastating can come from inside the family. As generations change, so too do family members’

thoughts and emotions. What one generation con siders unethical might be seen by another family member as the way it should be. My own children and I disagree on religion, politics and work-relat ed issues such as how much time off an employee should receive. Setting clear boundaries is one way to avoid these dangers spilling over from work to a family crisis but communication is another balm.

The world is changing, and frankly sometimes I feel like we are all “Lost in Space.” When that loss hits the family business, it is a danger indeed. n

DR. DAVID BORST

Dr. David Borst is executive director and chief operating officer of Family Business Leadership Partners, a regional resource hub for family business. He can be reached at David.borst@cuw.edu.

COACHING

Hang tough

How to be more resilient in business

OVER the last several years, business owners have struggled with a lack of employees, COVID-19, a virtual workforce, recession, a political divide, sup ply chain problems, inflation and war.

What does it take to run a successful business amidst those disruptions? It’s tough enough to gen erate profits in a typical business environment, and it gets much more challenging in the abnormal business environment that we have right now.

How can you cope?

Business owners and employees must be resil ient, deal with stress and persevere no matter how long the tough times last. Let’s consider what you can do to push through stress, disappointment and setbacks on your road to success. Thinking about your mindset and resilience is essential to succeed in the long run.

Resilience refers to the ability of a person or group to bounce back from hardship. Being re silient is crucial to success because you can adapt quickly when faced with change. How do you de velop resilience, and what are the most important traits for being resilient?

1. DEVELOP FLEXIBILITY

Try to be open minded about new things and business approaches and explore different view points on life issues with people who think dif ferently than you. Flexibility builds creativity, confidence and self-esteem, which will help us per severe in difficult times.

2. CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Practice changing how you view difficult times. For example, instead of focusing on the neg

ative consequences of a challenging situation, ask yourself what lessons you can learn from this ex perience.

Consider how there may be some good aspects, even though they may not always be easy to see. Changing your perspective can help you put any difficult time into perspective. You’ll still need to deal with the issue at hand, but it won’t feel like such a burden if you’re looking at the positive side of things.

MORE TIPS FOR BOUNCING BACK

Here are other ways you can be more resilient in difficult times:

» Practice mindfulness or meditation for 10 minutes each day.

» Increase your exercise by walking outside for 20 minutes daily. This will increase oxy gen flow to your brain and reduce stress.

» Monitor your thoughts without judging or allowing them to distract you from the task.

» Overly aggressive goals could be counter productive. Start small and then increase in scope and complexity.

» Identify what’s causing you pain, and find ways to release it. Let go of any expectations of perfectionism. They will only lead to frus tration and negative feelings about yourself and make it hard to get things done on time.

» Recognize when you’re feeling negative emotions, and don’t let them take over your life completely. Remind yourself that every one feels like this sometimes. But the feelings pass with time if you give yourself the space for reflection and the support you need.

» Spend time with friends who make you laugh!

RECOVER QUICKLY FROM SETBACKS

There will be setbacks for your company, staff, family and you. Develop a strategy for bouncing back through difficult times. Here are four tech niques:

1. Find meaning in the setback by asking yourself what was accomplished or learned. What did you do well?

2. Create an action plan to prevent similar set

backs from happening again. You might also want to change your work to be more pre pared the next time a similar problem occurs.

3. Get involved now with your support system that includes family, friends and church groups.

4. Take a step back. Breathe and relax. Many of the problems are not that significant. Re member the saying, “You’re making a moun tain out of a molehill.”

Business people must be able to deal with whatever life throws at them – demanding bosses, tough negotiations or intense workloads – while maintaining high productivity levels. Remember to focus on what’s essential: your family, friends and values.

When they read your eulogy, no one will men tion your bank account, the square footage of your house or the revenue from your business.

Mahatma Gandhi believed that if you couldn’t change the circumstances, you could change your attitude. He persevered through many adversities by being resilient. You can, too. n

JIM LINDELL

Jim Lindell is president of Thorsten Consulting Group, providing strategic and financial consulting, professional speaking, training and executive coaching. He is a Vistage chair and responsible for two CEO groups in the Milwaukee area. He can be reached at (262) 392-3166 or jim@ThorstenConsulting.com.

Tip Sheet

Strengthening your social media channels as a small business owner

Small business owners already have so much on their plate that spending any extra time on social media can often fall to the bottom of the priority list. But there are several simple strategies

you can use to easily increase engagement among your followers and even gain new ones. SCORE Association has several strategies that small busi ness owners can implement.

Respond to your audience

Followers can become disengaged when a so cial media account only shares pro forma posts. Use a call to action to get your followers involved. Ask them to like, share or comment on a post. And when they do, make sure to respond by replying to their comment or liking their tweet.

Use social media stories

Stories on platforms like Facebook and Insta gram are a relatively new feature but an increas ingly popular way for people to consume social media content. Businesses can use stories to give a behind-the-scenes look at their company or dayto-day life, or even ask polls or questions. You can

also use the “swipe up feature” to drive traffic to your website or landing pages.

Be selective

One common mistake business owners make is trying to be on all social media platforms at once. If you’re a B2B business, LinkedIn is for you. If you sell consumer goods, Instagram makes more sense. Find one or two social media platforms that make the most sense for your business and then dedicate your time to familiarizing yourself with them.

Collaborate with micro-influencers

Influencers can significantly impact the way brands market their products. Micro-influencers can give you access to niche communities and are easier to get in touch with than large influencers. They are often more open to working with small er businesses. You can also maintain a relationship with an influencer as their popularity grows. n

Are You Living a CEO’s Life of Climb? Take your business to new heights with an elite team of peers

The hardest climb is not Denali, K2 or Everest. The hardest climb is the mental climb, the internal struggle. It lies deep within you as a CEO or business owner. And to break new ground, you have to show up big every day — especially when the headwinds are strong and uncertainty lies around every bend.

Living a Life of Climb demands your best. It requires resourcefulness and the courage to make tough decisions. It calls for a relentless drive to push forward past every challenge and obstacle. It means you lift as you rise to elevate everyone around you along the way.

Peak Performers Don’t Climb Alone.

As the world’s largest CEO peer advisory and executive coaching organization, Vistage has helped guide high achievers along their leadership journey for 65 years — brave leaders running small and midsize businesses against all odds. They climb with a trusted team of peers and an accomplished guide who knows the lay of the land. It’s a proven approach that’s helped 100,000+ business leaders around the world plant ags on their greatest dreams and ambitions.

If you’re ready to reach new summits in business and in life, the path starts here.

JOIN THE CLIMB Learn more at Vistage.com/iClimb

BIZ UPDATE – BIZ PEOPLE

ACG WISCONSIN ANNOUNCES OUTSTANDING GROWTH & LEADERSHIP AWARDEES

Cathy Jacobson, President & CEO, Froedtert Health.

Milwaukee Tool’s impressive growth, innovation and dedication to their team and customers, are among the many reasons they were selected for this year’s ACG Wisconsin Outstanding Corporate Growth Award.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Bradley E. Kussow Joins Vrakas CPAs + Advisors

The public accounting and business advisory firm, Vrakas CPAs + Advisors., is pleased to announce the addition of Bradley E. Kussow as shareholder.

MEDIA & MARKETING

Radio Milwaukee Names Public Media Leader Maxie C. Jackson III as Executive Director

ACG Wisconsin is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2022 ACG Wisconsin Outstanding Corporate Growth Award and the 2022 ACG Wisconsin Outstanding Leadership Award.

Milwaukee Tool has been selected to receive the Outstanding Corporate Growth Award and the recipient of ACG Wisconsin’s Leadership Award is

TOURISM

VISIT Milwaukee hires Hallie Hayes Marketing Manager

Hayes will assist the sales team in executing their marketing strategy. Hayes is responsible for the management and implementation of marketing projects that support positioning Milwaukee as a meetings, conventions, events and leisure destination.

INSURANCE

Cathy Jacobson’s dedication to leadership and innovation, especially during the pandemic, make her a well-deserving recipient of ACG Wisconsin’s Leadership Award.

The complete press release can be viewed at acg.org/wisconsin/ news-trends/acg-wisconsin-news

Brad Kussow joined its Brookfield office in October with 25 years of public accounting, private industry, corporate finance, and consulting experience.

At Vrakas, Brad will manage audit engagements and provide specialized audit, review, and consulting services in the construction, manufacturing & distribution, professional services, and real estate industries.

Public media leader Maxie C. Jackson Ill was named executive director of non-commercial Radio Milwaukee (WYMS-88.9FM). With over three decades of experience, Jackson is responsible for the station’s management and leading the organization.

TOURISM

VISIT Milwaukee hires Ian Thompson Senior as Communications Manager

As Senior Communications Manager, Thompson is responsible for the management of VISIT Milwaukee’s communications strategy, media relations, community outreach and copywriting.

TOURISM

VISIT Milwaukee hires Amira Ennis Marketing Project Manager

Ennis will play an essential role in creating and executing key projects, initiatives, and community collaborations for VISIT Milwaukee as the Marketing Project Manager.

LEGAL SERVICES

von Briesen welcomes Attorney Denisha A. Renovales

Denisha is a member of the Business Practice Group in the Firm’s Milwaukee office. She focuses her practice on corporate law, mergers and acquisitions and transaction matters. Denisha received a J.D., with distinction, from the University of Iowa.

LEGAL SERVICES

von Briesen welcomes Attorney Hannah L. Chin Hannah is a member of the Government Law Group and the School Law Section in the Firm’s Milwaukee office. She focuses her practice on county and municipal governance and school law. She received a J.D., cum laude, from Marquette University.

West Bend Mutual Insurance announces Rob Jacques promotion to president

Jacques has been with the company for 22 years and is a senior officer leading West Bend’s Commercial Enterprise. As president, he will continue to support the company’s corporate strategies and operating principles.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Robert Grede delivers $26,000 in medical supplies to Ukraine military through Rotary International

MONTHS INTO Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Robert Grede made it his mission to meet a need for critical first aid supplies for the Ukrainian military and injured civilians.

Upon learning that medical supplies and volunteers were in short supply, Grede recruited two friends to join him in an effort to fundraise, purchase and ensure that necessary supplies were de livered to Ukraine’s front line.

“Twenty-five percent of hu manitarian aid coming in from the West lands on the black market, it just does not get to where it’s supposed to, and I wanted to be able to assure my donors that 100% of what they donated was going to land at the front line and help the people who needed it most,” said Grede.

Leveraging his membership in Rotary International, Grede made contact with fellow Rotar ians in eastern Poland, including Zbigniew Dziedzic, the district

governor of the Rotary Club of Jaroslow, Poland, who helped connect him with two Rotary clubs in Ukraine.

In May, the trio flew into Vi enna, Austria, where they rented a box truck and loaded nine suitcases – filled with everything from syringes and energy bars to feminine hygiene products and Israeli compression bandages –seven boxes of military clothing and three, six-foot-tall pallets of medical supplies purchased in Vi enna. Then, they drove 10 hours north to the eastern border of Poland and Ukraine, where they handed the supplies off to two Ukrainian Rotary members who were responsible for delivering the supplies directly to military medics in Bakhmut.

All told, $15,200 in medical supplies was delivered to the Ukraine military, with an additional $4,400 in supplies delivered to refugees in Poland. Grede and his two friends covered all their own

travel and personal expenses.

Grede made a second voyage in September, this time delivering $6,000 in medical supplies. As the war drags on and other events dominate the news cycle, it no longer makes front-page head lines. As a result, donations have slowed to a trickle, said Grede.

Still, he continues to fundraise – through donations and poten tial grant funding from Rotary – in hopes of returning.

In the meantime, Grede has set up a website where people can purchase a specific item, such as a package of tourniquets, compression bandages or burn gel, to be shipped via Amazon di rectly to Grede’s Rotary contacts in Jaroslow and then delivered to the front line. For context, a $100 donation buys 64 individual burn gel dressings; $50 buys 14 com bat tourniquets; and $40 buys six Israeli compression bandages.

For Grede, who is now semi-retired, he said the mission

is all about giving back.

“I’m lucky, I was born in the United States, and I was born free,” he said. “… I was born with an education, and I was born with the means to be able to help people. So, now that I have the time and the means and the passion, I want to exercise that. I want to make my life count.” n

MAREDITHE

Robert Grede Author Former president The Grede Company (sold in 2020)

Grede (fifth from left) and Rotary volunteers unload boxes of medical supplies in Jaroslow, Poland, near the Ukraine border.

GLANCE

VOLUME 28, NUMBER 11 OCT 24, 2022

126 N. Jefferson St., Suite 403, Milwaukee, WI 53202-6120

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EDITORIAL

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MANAGING EDITOR

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ASSOCIATE EDITOR Maredithe Meyer maredithe.meyer@biztimes.com

REPORTER

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Strike at Nash Motor Co. in Kenosha

This April 10, 1934, photo shows a growing crowd of protesters outside the Nash Motor Co. plant in Kenosha amid a strike that also included plants in Racine and Milwaukee. The strike led to higher wages and the rehiring of 200 workers laid off in January of that year.

Independent & Locally Owned Founded 1995 —

COMMENTARY

Time to finally build a casino in Kenosha

A RECENT POLL shows strong support for the proposed casino, hotel and entertainment complex development that the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin and Hard Rock Inter national want to build in Kenosha.

Of course, those poll results should be taken with a grain of salt since the poll was commissioned by the Menominee tribe. Never theless, previous plans for a casino in Kenosha also had significant support, so it stands to reason this project does as well.

This is the second time the Menominee and Hard Rock, which is owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, have tried to build a casino develop ment in Kenosha. Previously they planned an $800 million development that included a casino, a 400-room hotel, a 5,000-seat entertainment venue and 50,000 square feet of retail space at the former Dairyland Greyhound Park site.

Those plans were rejected by then Gov. Scott Walker, who said the state’s gaming com

pacts with other tribes, including the Forest County Potawatomi (which has a massive hotel and casino complex in Milwaukee) put the state at risk of losing “hundreds of millions of dollars” if a casino was approved in Kenosha. A bipartisan group of 10 state lawmakers – most from the Kenosha and Racine area – asked Walker to reconsider, but he refused.

In Wisconsin, only native American tribes are allowed to operate casinos. If they want to operate one on a site that is outside of their reservation, they need to obtain approval from the federal government (a lengthy process) and the governor.

The Potawatomi opposed plans for a Keno sha casino to protect its southeastern Wiscon sin monopoly. Some of its patrons come from Illinois and a Kenosha casino could attract many of those and cut into Potawatomi’s market share.

But plans for several other casinos are moving forward in Illinois to tap into that market. Construction recently began for a Hard Rock casino and hotel in Rockford. Plans are also moving forward for a casino in Waukegan, which Potawatomi wanted to build, but a differ ent developer was selected for the project by the city. Potawatomi was so upset about that decision, the tribe sued the city.

SALES & MARKETING

DIRECTOR OF SALES

Linda Crawford linda.crawford@biztimes.com

SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Christie Ubl christie.ubl@biztimes.com

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Paddy Kieckhefer paddy.kieckhefer@biztimes.com

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Dylan Dobson dylan.dobson@biztimes.com

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Christy Peterson christy.peterson@biztimes.com

SALES ADMIN Gracie Schneble gracie.schneble@biztimes.com

ADMINISTRATION

ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR Sue Herzog sue.herzog@biztimes.com

PRODUCTION & DESIGN

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Alex Schneider alex.schneider@biztimes.com

In addition, the Ho-Chunk Nation plans to build a casino in Beloit.

So competing casinos are emerging near southeastern Wisconsin, whether Potawatomi likes it or not.

Now, seven years after its plans were reject ed by Walker, the Menominee tribe and Hard Rock are trying again in Kenosha, with a new site and a smaller project, acknowledging that the area’s casino landscape has changed with new competition coming to Illinois and Beloit that will cut into demand.

Good idea or not, it’s time to finally let the Kenosha casino plans move forward. It’s not too much to ask Potawatomi to accept a com petitor 33 miles away. Hopefully the approval process with the federal government moves along expeditiously, considering a similar proj ect had already been approved, and whoever is elected governor grants approval. n

courtesy Historical Photo Collection/Milwaukee Public Library

5 MINUTES WITH…

JORDAN BRIGHT

Managing partner, Food Fight Restaurant Group

MADISON-BASED Food Fight Restaurant Group will open its first Mil waukee restaurant, Il Cervo – or “the deer” in Italian – on the top floor of The Trade hotel in downtown Milwaukee’s Deer District. With nearly 1,000 employees across 18 properties in Madison and one in Manitowish Waters, Food Fight is partnering with the hotel’s developers, Middleton-based NCG Hospitality and the Milwaukee Bucks, on its newest, Italian concept.

BizTimes associate editor Maredithe Meyer caught up with the group’s man aging partner Jordan Bright to get the details.

WHAT’S THE STORY BEHIND THE PARTNERSHIP WITH NCG?

“We didn’t have any previous formal relationship with NCG, but ob viously we’ve known them, and they’ve known us for quite a while, and I think there’s just been a lot of mutual respect from both of our teams. Madison is a smaller community, and within our hospitality industry there’s a lot of overlap between hotels and restaurants. … We’re very like-minded and aligned in our focuses on hospitality and creating mem orable experiences, and we do that through our people. And when you see that play out in a hotel that has been very successful here in Madi son, (NCG’s) AC Hotel and the restaurant in that location, it made a lot of sense when the opportunity came up. … We were hungry coming out of the pandemic to focus on a big, exciting project and a project outside of our market for the first time.”

IMPACT ON OPERATIONS

“As far as operational challenges, we know there’s going to be a learning curve to a certain extent. Milwaukee and Madison are much closer neighbors than I think we all give them credit for. It’s an hour drive down a single road, and we spend a lot of time in Milwaukee both for dining and entertainment as a group as it is, so we feel really comfort able tackling that little bit of challenge with some distance.”

FITTING THE CONCEPAT TO THE LOCATION

“When you look at how luxurious (NCG’s) spaces are, we knew it was going to be high-end to fine dining. But then the flip side is looking across the street at the Fiserv Forum and knowing that you’re going to have a lot of business, and it’s going to be a lot of business all at once, so how can you provide a great experience quickly and conveniently so that our guests can get to the game or their show? Looking at those two factors, we landed on Italian because it’s something we’re comfortable with in Madison. We do have two Italian concepts – Bar Corallini and Cento. Cento, specifically, sits across the street from the (Overture Cen ter for the Arts) here in Madison. It’s a very show-oriented restaurant that has some of the same challenges we expect Il Cervo to have, and we’ve been really successful in that concept with a similar dining style.”

FUTURE GROWTH PLANS FOR MILWAUKEE?

“We don’t have any concrete plans for anything beyond (Il Cervo) in Milwaukee, but obviously it would make sense. … I, of course, see many fits throughout the city of Milwaukee, and it’s a community that we’re really excited to be a part of, so although we don’t have any immediate plans, it’s certainly something we’re going to be looking at now that we’re in the market.” n

Read the full conversation at biztimes.com/ilcervo

Jordan Bright

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