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PRESENTS:
2018
Nonprofit Excellence Awards finalists 2018 Each year, BizTimes Media honors reader-nominated corporate citizens and nonprofits for their ongoing commitment to making Milwaukee a better place to live, work and play. BizTimes is pleased to announce this year’s finalists: Corporate Citizen of the Year • Cousins Subs • First Bank Financial Centre • Komatsu Mining Corp. Corporate Volunteer of the Year
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2018 7:30AM - 9:30am | Italian Community Center
• Marcell Jackson, GE Healthcare • Tim Stewart, DeWitt Ross & Stevens In-Kind Supporter • ManpowerGroup • The Marcus Corporation • Z2
Trauma’s Effect on Milwaukee’s Workforce Psychological trauma knows no boundaries, damaging individuals in urban and rural areas and harming the social and economic systems in which they live. In the workplace, trauma often translates to absenteeism, difficulty establishing professional relationships and poor decision making. Learn more about trauma from Dr. Mike Lovell, president of Marquette University and Amy Lovell, president of REDgen, and see how you can help guide our community toward solutions. Immediately following the Lovells’ presentation, we will present the Nonprofit Excellence Awards. Adrienne Pedersen, co-anchor at WISN 12 News This Morning, will emcee the awards presentation.
Next Generation Leadership • Erik Kennedy, Aurora Health Care • Christine Richards, Richards Group Allstate Nonprofit Collaboration of the Year • Dominican Center for Women Inc. and Hunger Task Force • Elevate Inc. • Outreach Community Health Centers Nonprofit Executive of the Year • Lynda Kohler, SHARP Literacy Inc. • Angela Mancuso, The Women’s Center Inc. • Ann Petrie, Ronald McDonald House Charities Eastern Wisconsin Nonprofit Organization of the Year-Large • Discovery World Ltd. • My Choice Family Care • Luther Manor Nonprofit Organization of the Year-Small • Cathedral Center Inc. • CORE El Centro
Dr. Mike Lovell
Amy Lovell
Adrienne Pedersen
• Literacy Services of Wisconsin Inc. • Northwest Side Community Development Corp. Social Enterprise • Brew City MKE Beer Museum • FEI Behavioral Health
PLATINUM SPONSOR:
• Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity Lifetime Achievement • The Klumb family, KS Energy
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BizTimes Milwaukee (ISSN 1095-936X & USPS # 017813) Volume 24, Number 15, October 29, 2018 – November 11, 2018. BizTimes Milwaukee is published bi-weekly, except monthly in January, July and December by BizTimes Media LLC at 126 N. Jefferson St., Suite 403, Milwaukee, WI 53202-6120, USA. Basic annual subscription rate is $42. Single copy price is $3.25. Back issues are $5 each. Periodicals postage paid at Milwaukee, WI and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS. NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: Send address corrections to BizTimes Milwaukee, 126 N. Jefferson St., Suite 403, Milwaukee, WI 53202-6120. Entire contents copyright 2018 by BizTimes Media LLC. All rights reserved.
Contents
Special Report
19 Business in Kenosha County In addition to the cover story, coverage includes an update on the nearby Foxconn Technology Group complex and profiles of the winners of the Kenosha Area Business Alliance’s Ovation Awards.
4 Leading Edge 4 NOW BY THE NUMBERS 5 IN FOCUS 6 REV UP 7 BIZTRACKER 8 THE FRANCHISEE 9 QUOTE/UNQUOTE 10 ON MY NIGHTSTAND BIZ POLL 11 FRESH DIGS
12 BizNews 12 SHIFTING REAL ESTATE LANDSCAPE TO BE DISCUSSED AT ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 13 HEALTH SYSTEMS PLAN SURGE OF NEW FACILITIES IN MOUNT PLEASANT. 15 THE INTERVIEW
17 Real Estate 38 Strategies 38 FAMILY BUSINESS David Borst 39 ENTREPRENEURSHIP Tom Still 40 A BRIEF CASE
42 BizConnections 42 NONPROFIT 43 PERSONNEL FILE 44 GLANCE AT YESTERYEAR COMMENTARY 45 AROUND TOWN 46 MY BEST ADVICE
NOW IN DOWNTOWN MILWAUKEE 731 N. JACKSON ST.
414-273-3507 | townbank.us
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The Marquette University campus.
JON ELLIOTT OF MKE DRONES LLC
NOW
BIZTIMES DAILY – The day’s most significant news → biztimes.com/subscribe
Marquette receives NSF grant for supercomputer By Lauren Anderson, staff writer Marquette University has received a $681,425 grant from the National Science Foundation to help fund a new supercomputer cluster on campus that will increase the university’s computational capacity for research.
The supercomputer cluster, a set of connected computers that work together effectively as a single system, will be about 60 times faster than the university’s current system, according to Qadir Timerghazin, associate professor
BY THE NUMBERS The Milwaukee Bucks have sold more than
10,000 full-season ticket packages for this season, a new record for the team. 4 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 29, 2018
of computational chemistry and principal investigator on the grant. The system is expected to be installed in early 2019. University officials did not disclose the total cost of the new cluster. The effort to secure the NSF grant was led by the late Rajendra Rathore, former Pfletschinger-Habermann Professor of Organic Chemistry at Marquette. Rathore was hospitalized in January, a few days before the grant application he had nearly completed was due. From his hospital bed, Rathore enlisted Timerghazin and chemistry professor Scott Reid to complete the application. Rathore died in February, a week after it was submitted. “It was his last major contribution to Marquette,” Timerghazin said. “It’s his legacy … For me, it isn’t just a computer. It’s the legacy of my friend.” The supercomputer cluster will be available to all Marquette researchers, along with researchers from outside the university. Marquette President Michael Lovell has set a goal for the university to double its research from 2015 to 2020. “It will definitely bring our research to a new level,” Timerghazin said. “With the current system,
there are just many research problems that we don’t have the computational horsepower to tackle.” The current system has contributed to about 200 research papers published by Marquette researchers, but technology has evolved significantly since it was installed about a decade ago. “Ten years is like an eternity in computers,” Timerghazin said. Marquette University is one of several Milwaukee institutions to invest in high-performance computing infrastructure. The Milwaukee School of Engineering plans to install a graphics processing unit-accelerated supercomputer in the new Dwight and Dian Diercks Computational Science Hall, which is currently under construction in the center of campus. MSOE officials have said the system will be used by students, faculty members and those in the industry for data analytics. In 2013, the Milwaukee Institute upgraded its high-performing computer cluster, making it the largest publicly accessible supercomputing resource of its kind in the state. The Milwaukee Institute system is made available to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Innovation Campus, along with several other local companies. n
inf cus
LILA ARYAN PHOTOGRAPHY
Habitat for Humanity deconstructs the Bradley Center MORE THAN 100 VOLUNTEERS teamed up with Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity in September to recover from the BMO Harris Bradley Center approximately 60,000 pounds – $50,000 worth – of reusable material donated by the Milwaukee Bucks. The effort is Habitat’s largest deconstruction project to date. The group, which included volunteers from Milwaukee Tool, Fiserv Inc. and We Energies, logged a collective total of 1,000 hours over eight days. The salvaged items were resold at the organization’s three Habitat ReStore locations in Walker’s Point, Greenfield and Wauwatosa. Proceeds from the stores help cover the cost of supplies and equipment needed for the organization’s homebuilding initiatives. Among the items recovered were cabinetry, which was re-priced at $150 per cabinet; luxury box seating re-priced at $30 per seat; and carpet squares re-priced at $2 each. In addition, Bucks lockers sold for $120 each, with Milwaukee Admirals lockers selling for $60 each. “A lot of this stuff does not belong in a landfill,” said Jake Weiler, Habitat’s deconstruction services manager. “It has a second life to it, and because of the deconstruction team, the volunteers and ReStore, the community has access to it and someone else is going to have a great product for years to come.” n -Maredithe Meyer biztimes.com / 5
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BIZTIMES MEDIA – Like us
HANKR
LILA ARYAN PHOTOGRAPHY
REV UP
LEADERSHIP: Dan Early, Dustin Halyburton, John Kuehl and Mark Roller, co-founders H E A D Q U A R T E R S: 161 S. First St., Milwaukee WEBSITE: hankr.com W H AT I T D O E S: Provides a visual food guide F O U N D E D: 2014 E M P L OY E E S: Three NEX T GOAL: Double revenue in 2019. Expand into new markets. REVENUE: $175,000
John Kuehl, CEO of Hankr.
Hankr visualizes opportunity in partnerships By Molly Dill, staff writer
6 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 29, 2018
MILWAUKEE-BASED visual food guide Hankr has partnered with rapidly growing Madison-based food delivery service EatStreet in a new initiative to offer its service in partnership with other businesses. Hankr’s app allows consumers to view photos of individual dishes at popular area restaurants to determine where to eat. The growing startup launched its public app in 2016, and has since expanded to about 700 restaurants nationwide, said John Kuehl, co-founder and chief executive officer. EatStreet, which was founded in 2010 and partners with restaurants to provide mobile ordering and delivery service, has expanded to more than 15,000 restaurants in 250 cities. Originally solely consumer-facing, Hankr recently made a strategic decision to focus less on app traffic and more on contracting with existing businesses in a partnership-as-a-service model, Kuehl said. “It’s a more direct path to revenue for our company,” he said. “Long-term, all of these partnerships, with the exception of the sports partnerships, they add content to our core product.” In the EatStreet partnership, Hankr is sharing its data EPI to funnel images from its website to the EatStreet database to provide visual aids when a customer is ordering from EatStreet. And Hankr is adding photos of dishes from popular restaurants in the EatStreet network nationwide.
Hankr has also partnered with the University of Wisconsin athletic department and concessions provider Levy Restaurants. Beginning this month, Hankr will integrate with the University of Wisconsin’s Badger Gameday app for concessions at the Kohl Center in Madison. “At the game, food is central to the experience, so we’re making a visual guide of all the food you can get at the Kohl Center,” Kuehl said. Fans can search by “bacon” or “comfort food,” for example, and see photos of matching foods, where those dishes are located and how much they cost. Four Wisconsin tourism organizations have also signed on with Hankr: Minocqua Chamber of Commerce, Visit Oshkosh, Visit Eau Claire and Cedarburg Chamber of Commerce. “It’s a turnkey, white-label guide to the restaurants in their area, and sometimes just the restaurants that are members of those organizations,” Kuehl said. While Hankr isn’t profitable yet, the company hopes to eventually be as big as restaurant review site Yelp. It plans to start by expanding farther into the tourism industry and adding properties that have multiple eateries, such as resorts and shopping centers. “We’re bootstrapped to this point,” Kuehl said. “Our decision on whether we need or want to take outside investment really depends on the growth that we see and the pace that we see in these different markets.” n
The latest area economic data.
3%
Wisconsin’s unemployment rate rose held steady at
in September.
The Milwaukee-area manufacturing index for September was
56.16
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
Any reading greater than 50 indicates growth.
2,850,875
Attendance at Milwaukee Brewers regular season games this year totaled
35
YEA RS OF
which ranked 10th highest in Major League Baseball.
Metro Milwaukee’s real gross domestic product increased
1.2%
in 2017, ranking 232nd out of 383 metro areas in the U.S.
6%
Home sales in the metro Milwaukee area were down
BGCMilwaukee.org/celebrating-girls
in September.
biztimes.com / 7
Leading Edge
BIZTIMES MEDIA – Connect
the
FRAN C H I S E E Sharon and Bob with their team.
SHARON AND BOB ERICKSON FIREHOUSE SUBS
A Firehouse sub.
THE FRANCHISE: Jacksonville, Florida-based Firehouse Subs is a fast-casual sandwich shop chain that was founded in 1994 by brothers and former firefighters Chris and Robin Sorensen. The company operates more than 1,135 locations in 44 states, Puerto Rico, Canada and Mexico. SUMMER 2015 Sharon Erickson had recently ended a 23-year career at Milwaukee-based Rockwell Automation Inc. and decided to pursue her longtime dream of opening a restaurant. After about two years of researching franchises, she and her husband, Bob Erickson, settle on Firehouse Subs. Bob still works at Rockwell.
“We didn’t know which of the three locations we’d open first; it really depended on what was available first,” Sharon said. “A good location is sometimes very hard to come by.”
FALL 2015 After meeting with company founders and executives at its corporate headquarters, the couple signs an area franchise agreement to open three restaurants, originally in Mequon, Grafton and West Bend. JUNE 2016 The Ericksons sign a lease for a location in Brown Deer, after struggling to find real estate in Mequon and altering the franchise agreement. Contractors spend the next two months building out the 2,000-square-foot space. SEPTEMBER 2016 The Ericksons open their first Firehouse Subs at 9070 N. Green Bay Road in Brown Deer. MAY 2018 Firehouse Subs opens in West Bend at 516 W. Paradise Drive, the Ericksons’ third location in less than two years. They opened their Grafton location in March 2017.
Firehouse Subs in Grafton.
8 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 29, 2018
THE FRANCHISE FEE The initial fee to open a single-unit Firehouse Subs franchise is $20,000.
“The biggest thing about owning a restaurant is the relationships you have with your employees and with your customers,” Sharon said. “If I could cut myself into three and be at each one full time, that would be great, but you just can’t do that.”
“ QUOTE
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A A RO N JAG D F E L D
”
CH A I R M A N , PR E SI DEN T A N D CEO, GEN ER AC POW ER S YS T EMS I N C . Aaron Jagdfeld of Waukesha-based Generac Power Systems Inc. was recently a panelist at BizTimes Media’s annual Next Generation Manufacturing Summit at Generac’s corporate headquarters. After joining the company in 1994, Jagdfeld was named president and chief executive officer in 2008 and chairman in 2016. He has led the generator manufacturer’s expansion into global markets, and the company now employs about 5,700 people. n
“There’s a different manifestation in terms of just growing our brand in the communities here and the communities where we work, but really how to manage that growth.”
“When Mother Nature deals a blow to somewhere in the country or somewhere around the world, we have to be there. And we can’t be there a week from now or a month from now. We have to be there today, tomorrow, next week, the entire week.”
“Autocratic leadership doesn’t really scale very well.”
“Everyone wants to be proactive, right? Who wants to be reactive? But that’s the nature of our business. We can’t change what our business is about and what drives demand for our products, so we have to build a framework that operates within that.”
“You hear people talk about the player-coach mentality in leadership styles, and I was very much a player early on in leadership and now it’s definitely much more of a coach role. But I’d also be lying to you if I didn’t tell you I oftentimes crossed the line and went back to being a player. Playing the game sometimes is better than watching it, and sometimes that’s what’s called for, that’s what’s needed.”
biztimes.com / 9
Leading Edge
@BIZTIMESMEDIA – Real-time news
on my nightstand... TOM DAUGHERT Y Co-founder Containers Up LLC
‘Lessons from a Third Grade Dropout’ By Rick Rigsby IN “Lessons from a Third Grade Dropout,” author Rick Rigsby shares the lessons he learned from his father, who never completed the third grade but had simple, profound wisdom to share. Tom Daugherty, co-founder of Milwaukee mobile party bar company Containers Up and chief executive officer of Milwaukee cleaning solution manufacturer Cleaning Supply Generics LLC, recently read Rigsby’s book – and it stuck with him. “The most interesting thing was just the simplicity of how (easily) a
good thing can make the world a better place,” Daugherty said. For example, Rigsby’s father stressed the importance of being on time to demonstrate caring and leave a better impression on people. Another lesson: “You get to choose your attitude. If you’re upset, it’s you. You can choose to be happy.” Daugherty tries to apply some of the teachings from the book to his business by focusing more on the positives, and on being early to meetings. n
Join us at our new downtown office for Dave Stamm’s upcoming breakfast seminar series! 2 Dates
8:00 – 9 AM
Nov. 7th Protecting Your Business From IT Attacks Dec. 5th IoT In The Office – See All The Latest Tech Food and strong coffee will be provided. Please visit stammtech.com/events to register. Hope to see you there!!
1207 West Canal Street stammtech.com (414) 263–4260 10 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 29, 2018
BIZ POLL
A recent survey of BizTimes.com readers.
President Trump said the Federal Reserve has been “too aggressive” in raising interest rates. Do you agree?
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54% NO:
46%
Share your opinion! Visit biztimes.com/bizpoll to cast your vote in the next Biz Poll.
FRESH DIGS
CONTRIBUTED
FRESH DIGS
LAKELAND UNIVERSITY PROJ E C T: Renovation of the Younger Family Campus Center A RC H I T E C T S : Workshop Architects, Boelter (kitchen design) C O N T R AC T O R : The Boldt Co. C O S T S : $9 million C O M P L E T E D : August 2018
LAKELAND UNIVERSITY completed a significant renovation of its Younger Family Campus Center on its main campus in Sheboygan County in time for the 2018-’19 school year. The 54-year-old facility closed in the summer of 2017 as the $9 million project began. It included improvements to the food and drink options and the meeting/study/ lounge spaces. “Students are thrilled with the changes – stunned, actually,” said David Gallianetti, director of external relations for Lakeland University. “The changes were made to turn this into a focal point for student activity on campus, and that has happened.” Features of the renovated facility include the Leonard & Dolores
Gentine Center for Leadership & Community Outreach. The space has an Entrepreneur Studio and four flex rooms. The Lauer Center for Student Success & Development, also located in the building, is home to Lakeland’s student success coaches, career development and the Cooperative Education office. The Daily Grind coffee shop moved to a larger space and includes expanded food options, a wide selection of drinks and a large bar area. The Pub is an expanded bar/grill in the building. Also, university dining services has a new kitchen in the building and lunch and dinner options have been expanded. n – Andrew Weiland biztimes.com / 11
BizNews EVENT PREVIEW
A new purpose Shifting real estate landscape to be discussed at annual conference By Corrinne Hess, staff writer BROOKFIELD SQUARE, once one of the state’s most vibrant indoor shopping malls, is undergoing a dramatic facelift. As economic and technology shifts have altered the way consumers approach buying, building owners, too, have had to alter their thinking. Chattanooga, Tennessee-based CBL & Associates Properties Inc., which owns Brookfield Square, began contemplating this shift several years ago. Today, with the absence of anchor stores Boston Store and Sears, the mall is adding entertainment to its line up. CBL is currently demolishing
the former Sears store space and will replace it with a Marcus Theatres BistroPlex, a Whirlyball entertainment complex and food establishments. The City of Brookfield is partnering with a developer to build a $32 million, 54,000-square-foot conference center and a 168-room Hilton Garden Inn hotel linked by a glass walkway in the former Sears Auto Center parking lot at Brookfield Square. Daniel Ertl, director of community development for the City of Brookfield and Eric Griffith, vice president of mall leasing for CBL Properties, will be among the
Ertl
Fisher
Goldman
Griffith
Mooney
Eppli
featured presenters at the annual BizTimes Commercial Real Estate and Development Conference on Friday, Nov. 16. The event will take place from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. at the Italian Community Center, 631 E. Chicago St. in Milwaukee. “Attendees of this annual event rely on the fact that the topic is unique each year and is based on the most current trends in the industry,” said Dan Meyer, publisher of BizTimes Milwaukee. “This year is no different, with a look at adaptive reuse of space, certainly led by economic and technological shifts and a changing workforce, which are disrupting all forms of commercial real estate.” Panelists will discuss how the changing economic landscape, driven largely by Amazon, the changing workforce and other new technological innovations, is forcing business owners, property
U N I T E D W AY O F G R E AT E R M I LW A U K E E & WAUKESHA COUNTY
owners and real estate investors to adjust. Attendees will also learn how these national trends are having an effect on the southeastern Wisconsin commercial real estate landscape. Joining Ertl and Griffith as speakers at the conference are Douglas Fisher, director of the Center for Supply Chain Management at Marquette University, Scott Goldman, principal of Chicago-based real estate development firm Baum Revision LLC and J. Michael Mooney, principal, chairman and co-founder of Brookfield-based MLG Capital. The event will be moderated by Mark Eppli, director of the Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For more information or to register, visit biztimes.com/ creconference. n
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FEATURE
Health systems plan surge of new facilities in Mount Pleasant By Lauren Anderson, staff writer THE THREE LARGEST health care organizations in southeastern Wisconsin are all planning to build in a high-growth corridor in Racine County. Since May, Advocate Aurora Health Inc., Ascension Wisconsin and Froedtert South have each unveiled plans to build new facilities along Highway 20, east of I-94, in Mount Pleasant. Those plans include an Advocate Aurora Health hospital, two medical clinics and an office building; a new Froedtert South hospital and medical office building; and an Ascension medical center. By adding the new facilities, which will be located just miles from Foxconn Technology Group’s huge Mount Pleasant manufacturing campus that is under construction, each system stands to gain market share in an area that is expected to attract thousands of new jobs and residents in the coming years. It follows a trend of southeastern Wisconsin-based health care providers expanding their footprints in Wisconsin’s southeastern corner, a region that has attracted major developments in recent years, including Amazon’s fulfillment center in Kenosha and Uline Inc.’s growing corporate headquarters campus in Pleasant Prairie.
Before Foxconn announced its plans for southeastern Wisconsin, Ascension Wisconsin leaders already had their eye on Racine County as an area for expansion. “Our plan was in place,” said Bernie Sherry, senior vice president and ministry market executive for Ascension Wisconsin. “We had planned to do this even before the Foxconn announcement. As we looked at care delivery, we did an assessment early on.” Ascension Wisconsin in August announced it plans to build a $42 million medical center in Mount Pleasant, the first of the system’s planned $100 million investment in the Racine area over the next three years. The 83,000-square-foot medical center, planned for the northeast corner of Highway 20 and Highway H in Racine County, will include primary and specialty care, an imaging center, urgent care, rehabilitation and an ambulatory surgery center. For health systems, building more facilities allows them to capture more market share and strengthen the pipeline of patients that will use their main facilities and specialists. That’s the strategy behind Ascension’s planned medical center. “We’re excited about the eco-
Advocate Aurora Health officials recently celebrated the groundbreaking for the system’s new $130 million ambulatory surgery center and physician office building in Pleasant Prairie.
nomic development happening in the region; no doubt about it,” Sherry said. “We know that there’s going to be more people moving here for jobs, which is great. So we’re trying to build a health care delivery system that gives people the most convenient access possible.” Leaders of Ascension Health, the largest Catholic health system in the country, have charted a national strategy of shifting away from inpatient and hospital facilities, where care is typically more expensive, and into outpatient clinical sites and telemedicine. “As we looked at the triple aim of quality, experience and affordable cost, on the experience side, we wanted to bring more services closer to where people live,” Sherry said. “...We looked to where the population is, where the neighborhoods are. We decided to bring services you would traditionally see sitting on a hospital
campus out to a neighborhood. What services can be off (a hospital) campus and brought to closer to home? That’s the focus in the Racine (County) market.” The largest of the recently-announced Mount Pleasant health care projects, Advocate Aurora Health unveiled plans in May to build a $250 million health care development on a 96-acre site northeast of I-94 and Highway 20. The development will include a new hospital, two clinics and a medical office building, which will provide the full spectrum of inpatient services, along with primary care and various primary and specialty physician services. Construction could begin later this year, with an expected opening in 2021. The project, which was the first significant development announced following Advocate and Aurora Health Care’s merger, came on the heels of another. Advocate
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Aurora Health recently broke ground on a $130 million ambulatory surgery center and physician office building on a 64-acre parcel at the northwest corner of 104th St. and 120th Ave. in Pleasant Prairie, just south of German gummy bear maker Haribo’s planned new production facility. It’s expected to open in summer 2020. “The new and expanded services at this location will enhance patient access for the growing number of residents and employers in this region,” said Lisa Just, president of Advocate Aurora Health’s Racine/Kenosha/ Lake County patient service area. “We’re excited to see the continued progress of our expansion efforts focused on bringing bestin-class care close to home.” For Advocate Aurora Health, the developments just north of the Illinois border will allow the system to connect the territorial market of legacy Aurora facilities to Advocate’s, creating a contiguous network stretching from Green Bay to downstate Illinois Froedtert South, the health care organization formerly known as United Hospital System, this month disclosed plans for a new development on a 41-acre parcel located on the northwest corner of Highway 20 and Highway V in Mount Pleasant. Initial plans call for a two-story, 65-bed hospital, with the option to expand to four stories and 98 beds in the future, along with a freestanding 50,000-square foot medical office building.
“That corridor seems to be exploding,” said Tom Duncan, chief operating officer of Froedtert South. “We initially started planning last February with not only the announcement of Foxconn, but all of the growth along the corridor on (I-94). That helped push us in the direction of wanting to be part of that growth and meeting the needs of those patients closer to home.” The Froedtert South brand emerged last year as a partnership between Wauwatosa-based Froedtert Health and the former United Hospital System. It currently operates Kenosha Medical Center and St. Catherine’s Medical Center campus in Pleasant Prairie, along with four physician clinic locations. Froedtert South has made several other recent investments in its facilities in Kenosha and Racine counties. It is nearing completion on a major expansion at St. Catherine’s Medical Center Campus in Pleasant Prairie – a four-story, 239,977-square-foot addition that will house an advanced outpatient surgical wing. It also plans to open a four-story, 50,000-square-foot medical office building located at the new Main Street Market development in Pleasant Prairie. The influx of health care facilities will meet a need in the area for more health services, said Ling Li, assistant professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, noting Racine County’s low physician-to-patient ratio. According to the most recent
Commercial Aviation
County Health Rankings report released by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Racine County’s physician-to-patient ratio is 2,140:1, compared to the state average of 1,250:1. Kenosha County’s ratio is 2,250:1. “With Foxconn’s arrival and the projected population growth, there will be a higher need for health care service,” Li said. “A new health care facility could meet the potential increasing demand for health care.” Once shovels hit the ground on the new projects, the race to capture new patients will begin, said Allan Baumgarten, a Minnesota-based health care analyst who examines Wisconsin’s payer and provider markets. “They each are going to do a major PR push to show how consumer-friendly and appealing their facilities are,” Baumgarten said. “I think they will also have to figure out how to communicate with the families that are coming to work at Foxconn and perhaps moving into the area. They definitely will want to be in-network to whatever insurance companies that Foxconn will work with for employee benefits.” In addition to bringing care “closer to home,” an often-cited reason when health providers expand into markets, the amenities of new facilities are effective at drawing in patients, Baumgarten said. “New and shiny facilities have their own attraction,” he said. “If
vs
a (health system) builds these out in attractive ways, with maternity suites and a spa-like atmosphere and comfortable beds for dad to sleep in and all private rooms, the new facilities have a certain appeal, especially if they are designed to the desires of the current population.” Baumgarten said the questions of capacity and overbuilding raised by the surge of new health care facilities in Mount Pleasant are reminiscent of those that emerged in 2010 when Aurora opened a hospital in Summit, just miles from ProHealth Oconomowoc Memorial Hospital, and a medical center in Grafton, about 10 miles from Columbia St. Mary’s Mequon hospital. “Some of the businesses in those areas said this is going to be costly; there is already more than enough capacity here,” Baumgarten said. “They took out full page ads in local newspapers encouraging local authorities to not approve the new hospitals. But local authorities looked at these proposals for new hospitals … and see lots of good paying jobs, they see new investments that don’t pollute. And there’s reason to believe that the intersection of commercial development and health care has gotten more closely connected in recent years.” In both the Grafton and Oconomowoc areas, Aurora has collected more market share, reporting strong utilization and profitability, he said. n
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the
Interview
WHITEFISH BAY NATIVE Elizabeth Rees is a third-generation member of
her family’s printing business, Kubin-Nicholson Corp., which is headquartered on Milwaukee’s west side. She’s also the founder of popular removable wallpaper startup Chasing Paper, which she established in New York in 2013 and moved to Milwaukee last year. The company’s modern designs, printed at Kubin-Nicholson, come in 2-foot by 4-foot pieces at $30 each. Chasing Paper has gained traction among apartment dwellers, as well as homeowners decorating transitional rooms such as nurseries. How did you come up with the idea of removable wallpaper? “It really just came out of a personal need. I was doing a project for a friend in New York at the time who runs a very successful company called Birchbox. They were in some transitional work offices and they needed something because they were presenting to investors and editors. We created these wraps to cover their beams. “When I really started looking into the category, I found that there was very low design printed on an inexpensive material like vinyl. And then there was very high end. There wasn’t really anything in the middle.”
How many designs do you have? “Currently, it’s around the 120 mark, which is where we try to keep it. We’re working on a lot of product extensions for 2019. We want to get more into other products that are for your walls and wallpaper-adjacent.”
How did you get in the door at big retailers like Pottery Barn Kids? “We’ve been really lucky. Removable wallpaper’s so big right now, and also we worked so hard those first couple of years. They actually reached out to us. I think large companies find that small businesses have great stories (that resonate with consumers). “Obviously we’ve had a lot of people do copycat stuff and the buyers at those places know where those originated and want to go to the source. “We’ve doubled revenue year-over-year every year. This year we might do a little bit more than that.”
What have you learned about entrepreneurship?
LILA ARYAN PHOTOGRAPHY
“I think the big takeaway is … it’s really easy to get caught up in what everybody else is doing and looking at other companies, whether it’s in your category or outside your category. “Before I started Chasing Paper, I was working on it for six or nine months. The great advice I got was, ‘Nobody’s bought it until they give you their credit card.’”
Elizabeth Rees Founder Chasing Paper Employees: Three chasingpaper.com
Why did you decide to move the company from New York to Milwaukee? “About 18 months ago I recognized that there was an inflection point where we were overselling our sales goals and doing really well. I needed to hire more people and get a bigger studio space and in New York it was going to be a real uphill battle and I felt coming to Milwaukee, I could employ more Midwestern people. “Just really in the last five to 10 years, it’s incredible the change and shift that’s happened here. I wanted to be part of that. I wanted to create jobs for young, creative people in the city. “With retail being down and the consumer experience being so much online, a lot of people, myself included, crave that IRL experience. We have a studio base that we’re calling Third Branch Creative Studio down in Walker’s Point (at 133 W. Pittsburgh Ave.). We want to be a resource for the community.” n biztimes.com / 15
The Opioid Crisis – Understanding its Impact December 14, 2018 – Italian Community Center – 7:00-9:30am
The Milwaukee County Opioid-Related Overdose Report, indicates that opioid-related deaths increased from 144 in 2012 to 337 in 2017. It’s also reported that for every death, there are approximately five additional people who experienced an overdose and survived. Please join us on Dec. 14th as we host a conversation about the opioids crisis facing our region, which is having an impact at work, at home and in the community. You’ll hear from a survivor who is in recovery and a panel of experts who will share their insights and ideas for mitigating this health crisis. Speaker: Adam Kindred, Director of Prevention Programming for Elevate, Inc., Person in long-term recovery (1) Opioid Panel: • Beth Dejongh PHARM.D., BCPS, BCPP, Associate Professor, Concordia University (2) • Ken Hartenstein, MS, LPC, SAC, Licensed Professional Counselor-Medication Assisted Treatment IOP, Rogers Memorial Hospital, Brown Deer (3) • Kenneth Harris Jr., PhD, Program Director - Master of Science in Organizational Leadership and Administration, Concordia University Wisconsin (4) Following the panel discussion, you will meet this year’s Health Care Heroes awardees in the categories of Advancements in Health, Behavioral health, Community Service, Corporate Achievement, Executive Leadership, First Responder, Health Care Staff, Nurse, Physician and Volunteer. (1)
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Ted Matkom, Wisconsin market president at Gorman & Co., stands outside the Fifth Street School Apartments
Redevelopment projects boost Harambee neighborhood
TWO HISTORIC rehabilitation projects of vacant buildings added 107 affordable apartments to Milwaukee’s Harambee neighborhood in October. The former Nunn Bush shoe factory at 2812 N. Fifth St. and 2821 N. Vel R. Phillips Ave. has
been transformed into the Welford Sanders Historic Lofts & Enterprise Center. The $21 million project includes 59 housing units for job-seeking veterans. The project is a joint venture between Martin Luther King Economic Development Corp. and Wisconsin Redevelopment LLC. Adjoining the property is the second project, the redevelopment of the former Fifth Street School, which was purchased by Oregon, Wisconsin-based Gorman & Co. in 2015. The building, a former three-story school which opened in 1888 and received additions in 1908 and 1958, presented a perfect opportunity for an adaptive reuse project, said Ted Matkom, Wisconsin market president for Gorman & Co. The 67,795-square-foot property hadn’t been used as a school since the late 1970s. It was later leased to the city’s health department and a portion of the building was used as the Isaac Coggs Community Health Center until 2006. Gorman’s $9.7 million project preserved the building’s exterior
FEATURED DEAL: T H E TA N N E R Y
ADDRESS: 700 W. Virginia St., Milwaukee BUYER: R2 Cos. SELLER: Sara Investment Real Estate LLC PRICE: $25.4 million
Chicago-based real estate developer and investor R2 Cos. purchased The Tannery building complex in Walker’s Point with plans to renovate the property. The firm, which also owns the downtown Milwaukee Post Office building, purchased the approximately 250,000-square-foot, multi-building Tannery office complex from Madison-based Sara Investment Real Estate LLC for $25.4 million in early October, according to state records. Improvements are planned for all common areas, restrooms and lobbies, said Max Meyers, principal and chief investment officer of R2 Cos. “We plan to turn The Tannery into the premier creative office campus in Milwaukee,” Meyers said. “We believe that Walker’s Point offers the best mix of character retail, market-leading hospitality and affordable housing stock, which are the pillars of a great creative office market.” biztimes.com / 17
Developer New Land Enterprises LLP is proposing a 21-story apartment tower in downtown Milwaukee that the company says would be the tallest mass timber structure in the Western Hemisphere. The 410,000-square-foot building, to be called Ascent MKE, would include 201 luxury apartments. It would be built at the site formerly occupied by an Edwardo’s restaurant at the northeast corner of North Van Buren Street and East Kilbourn Avenue. Mass timber buildings are more environmentally friendly because they have a smaller carbon footprint than concrete or steel. New Land plans to begin construction in fall 2019, with the building being completed in spring 2021. OWNER: New Land Enterprises SIZE: 21-story tower BUILDING: Structure will be built using mass timbers
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Romanesque Revival style created by prominent local architect H.P. Schnetzky. The interior has been transformed into 48 affordable housing units with a mix of studios, one- and two-bedroom apartments for low-income seniors. “We specialize in schools and we like adaptive reuse, but this one was special because we’ve never worked on a building this old before,” Matkom said. “It was an interesting design and construction experience, but we love the architecture.” The Fifth Street School Apartments is Gorman & Co.’s fourth conversion of a former school. In 2013, Gorman transformed the former Jackie Robinson Middle School at 3245 N. 37th St., Milwaukee, into the Sherman Park Senior Living Community. The 118,754-square-foot former school in the Sherman Park neighborhood was built in 1926 and closed in 2005. It now provides 68 apartment units for low-income seniors. Gorman & Co. has completed similar projects in Sheboygan, with the Washington School Apartments, and in Moline, Illinois at a former high school. “(Older) schools (were) designed to be located in a densely-populated neighborhood,” Matkom said. “So the housing works perfect as an infill because people are already living there. It’s a great concept.” Estelle Bridgewaters, a member of Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, which shares a parking lot with the Fifth Street School Apartments, praised the project and the Welford Sanders Historic Lofts for bringing more life into the neighborhood. “I think this is a great opportunity for the neighborhood,” she said. “It will be terrific to not have the buildings as eyesores anymore.” Gary Gorman, who started Gorman & Co. in 1984, said his first historic rehab project was in the small town of Evansville, Wisconsin. It was a 24-unit project called Seminary Park Apartments, which the company still owns. “The complexity was ridicu-
lous,” Gorman said. “It was the first (tax increment financing) in Evansville. We had 35 investors. I think I made $1.50 an hour. But I didn’t care. We established the credibility of being able to get something done.” The Fifth Street School Apartments is Gorman’s 116th project in seven states. “The reason I left my law practice is I wanted to have a career where at the end of the day, I could say I make a difference,” Gorman said. “Doing projects like this, you change communities. You improve people’s lives, and you make a living at the same time. It’s as good as it gets.” Rocky Marcoux, commissioner for the Milwaukee Department of City Development, said the Fifth Street School Apartments is another example of Gorman & Co. taking on a tough development project in terms of putting together a complex capital stack that involves historic buildings and doing what is right in the community. Marcoux also pointed to the 500 homes in the central city Gorman has purchased and redeveloped over the past 10 years. “These are very challenging properties and they buy them clustered within neighborhoods for maximum impact,” Marcoux said. “Wherever Gorman has worked, the company has brought a lot of value to the community.” n
CORRINNE HESS Reporter
P / 414-336-7116 E / corri.hess@biztimes.com T / @CorriHess
THESE COMPANIES DESERVE A
STANDING OVATION.
! s n o i t a l u t a Congr
K
enosha County is home to a growing number of successful compa-
nies and business leaders. The Ovation Awards, presented annually by the Kenosha Area Business Alliance in partnership with BizTimes Milwaukee, recognize 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 BizTimes Milwaukee, provides a fantastic opportunity to learn about the companies and people that are moving Kenosha County’s economy forward.
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This year’s award winners definitely deserve a standing ovation! 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 innovating and striving for excellence. On behalf of our sponsors, Johnson Financial Group, the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Centerpoint Properties, CliftonLarsonAllen and our supporting sponsors Bear Real Estate Group, CG Schmidt, Dooley & Associates, Insperity, The Prairie School, Vrakas CPAs & Advisors and Wegner CPAs, we are proud to recognize and celebrate their collective achievements. Congratulations and best wishes for much continued success!
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STORY COVER
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20 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 29, 2018
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2018
OVATION AWARDS
BUSINESS OF THE YEAR:
GOOD FOODS GROUP
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or many people, beer, brats and cheese are the staples of Wisconsin food and beverage manufacturing. Some might add cranberries, kringle or even ginseng or soy sauce, but surely not guacamole, right? The reality is in just five years in Wisconsin – and 10 years in business – Pleasant Prairie-based Good Foods Group LLC developed a line of healthy dips, dressings and juices – led by its flagship guacamole – that consumers can find at major retailers. “They kind of came out of nowhere and their growth trajectory has been really fascinating to watch,” said Shelley Jurewicz, executive director of FaB Wisconsin, a food and beverage industry organization based in Milwaukee. Good Foods moved from Chicago to Pleasant Prairie in 2013, bringing about 50 jobs when it bought a 57,000-square-foot facility in the LakeView Corporate Park. The company received a $127,000 loan from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. and was expected to create 21 new jobs and make a $7.25 million capital investment. In 2015, Good Foods made an additional investment, adding 40,000 square feet of production space. Through the end of 2017, the company had beyond exceeded the jobs target and invested more than $32 million, prompting WEDC to forgive the loan. Today, Good Foods has around 600 employees and is considering another facility with additional cold storage and office space to accommodate its growth. The Kenosha Area Business Alliance named Good Foods its business of the year for 2018. The company will be among those recognized during the annual Ovation Awards ceremony Nov. 1 at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. “They know the industry they’re in very well,” said Todd Battle, KABA president, adding the company understands its customers, has a strong team and has successfully introduced new products. “I think all those things have added up.”
BY ARTHUR THOMAS, staff writer Food manufacturers in general have been expanding in Wisconsin in recent years. Eight of the 20 largest tax incentive packages WEDC awarded during the last two fiscal years have gone to food producers. That includes $21 million in tax credits for German gummy bear maker Haribo to set up a production facility in Pleasant Prairie. “It directly speaks to the fact we have this incredible strength here for this industry,” Jurewicz said.
GROWTH PLANS Even with double-digit revenue growth over the past several years, Good Foods founder and chief executive officer Kurt Penn says the company’s efforts have put the building blocks in place to take its growth to even greater heights. “I can see within the next 18 months we’ll have another facility internationally and we will be selling to Europe and Asia, as well,” Penn said. Good Foods already sells into Canada and has a facility in Mexico, where it will also begin selling in the near future. Danyel O’Connor, executive vice president of marketing and sales at Good Foods, pointed out global distribution is not an easy task for the manufacturer, which makes a perishable product with limited shelf life. “It’s not like shipping grains across the world,” she said. “This is fresh prepared food that has no preservatives.” The lack of preservatives is key to Good Foods’ growth. The company uses high pressure processing to pasteurize food without additives, preservatives or high temperatures. It uses cold water at high pressure and proprietary temperatures, depending on the product, to essentially scramble spoilage organisms and kill salmonella, e. coli and listeria pathogens. HPP is a technology that was first developed for combiztimes.com / 21
STORY COVER
mercial food uses in the 1990s. When Good Foods was founded in 2008, the company was among the first to integrate it into its food manufacturing processes. More recently, Good Foods was among the founding members of the Cold Pressure Council, an industry effort to organize messaging related to the technology and its benefits. “The nutrition, the kitchen fresh ingredients, all these things resonate with consumers today because people want better-for-you choices, they want clean labels, they don’t want chemicals or preservatives in their food anymore,” Penn said.
FOUNDED WITH A MISSION Penn founded Good Foods, but he was quick to point out he had a lot of support from friends and family. It also isn’t his first experience as an entrepreneur, having previously founded Penn Valley Farms, which specialized in natural and organic chicken sausage and deli products, in 1994. The company was eventually sold to what is now Perdue Farms Inc. The idea behind Good Foods was to take Penn’s food industry experience in creating fresh products and combine it with HPP technology and a mindful approach to product development. “Our mission is to, in fact, give people better choices, whether they’re in New York City or in the middle of Kansas,” Penn said. “We’re not the only ones doing it, we’re just part of the movement. That movement is actually going across the entire food industry. We just feel like we’re on the forefront.” Consumers are expecting more transparency about the ingredients in their food. A 2016 Nielsen survey found 71 percent of respondents in North America were concerned about the long-term health impact of artificial ingredients and 67 percent wanted to know everything that goes into their food. Jurewicz said Good Foods has been in the right place at the right time to take full advantage of shifting consumer preferences. “I would say it’s baked in at this time,” she said of the healthy eating trend. “People are looking for authentic food.” People looking for Good Foods’ products can find them at major retailers like Walmart, Target, Costco, Walgreens and Fresh Thyme Farmers Market. “We’ve been able to convince them that what we’re doing is the right thing for their consumer and for their businesses,” Penn said of major retailers. The products come in single-serving containers, grab-and-go packages that include chips, and larger party-size offerings. In addition to guacamole, which comes from a Penn family recipe, Good Foods offers dips like artichoke jalapeno, caramelized onion, Greek yogurt ranch and feta cucumber. Salads include cranberry chicken and chickpea quinoa. “I think a lot of our consumers love, like me, (that) you can cheat, you can put that guacamole or our caramelized onion dip or feta cucumber 22 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 29, 2018
dip in a bowl and everybody that comes to your house for entertaining feels like you made it because it really has that high of a quality standard to it,” O’Connor said. In addition to major retailers, the company also sees opportunities with food service providers and meal kit companies. Penn’s previous experience gave him a blueprint for growing Good Foods and he knew he needed the right products, but he also needed the right people. He’s often turned to people with industry experience to fill out the team. Having a mission focused on healthy foods means many of the people who come to work at Good Foods embrace healthy eating in their own lives. That, in turn, helps spur innovation for the company because the team has a passion for that lifestyle. Most recently, the passion has shown up in a line of plant-based dips launched in October. “When we talk about transparency and being authentic and being reliable, that’s something we live and breathe and do here across all levels of the company,” said Mandy Bottomlee, Good Foods creative director. “I think as we grow, those values just continue to grow.” O’Connor said even with its rapid growth, Good Foods has been able to retain Penn’s entrepreneurial approach, while Bottomlee added Penn has empowered employees to take action throughout the organization. “Where I’m excited about the future is we’ve already done the hard work of building the organization and now we’re building a brand that people will continue to hopefully support and appreciate,” Penn said. Good Foods has been developing a marketing campaign in recent months to help amplify the work it does to develop quality products, including vendor visits and other due diligence with suppliers. “It’s a story that we’re finally getting to tell,” Bottomlee said. “It’s a practice that’s been in place from the beginning and now we’re actually telling people about all those things we’re doing on their behalf so that they can feel good about what they’re eating and what they’re feeding their families.” While Good Foods is looking to grow its brand,
Good Foods Group founder Kurt Penn and his wife, Heather.
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Food Packs are loaded into high pressure processing equipment at Good Foods Group.
don’t expect to see commercials for the company popping up on television. O’Connor said Good Foods has been a grassroots company and will use digital platforms to talk to consumers where they are comfortable talking back to the company.
A SAFETY FOCUS Growing the brand is important as more peers see the competitive advantages of healthy food. As the company’s profile and size has grown, Penn said it has also been important for Good Foods to
continue to meet customer expectations with a product that tastes good. “That’s not easy to actually do across a wide variety of products that are so sensitive because they are in fact so fresh,” he said. When Good Foods moved to Pleasant Prairie, the company was using basic food safety practices. Penn said the company’s managers made a decision “to be the best in the world at what we do.” Two years later, Good Foods achieved SQF Level 3, the Safe Quality Food Institute’s highest standards.
“I think for all food companies, food safety is job one; otherwise, people aren’t going to come back for your products,” Jurewicz said. Mistakes happen, even with high standards, and in April of this year Good Foods issued its first product recall. About 130 pounds of 32-ounce deli cups filled with curry chicken salad were mislabeled as artichoke and jalapeno dip, meaning the ingredient label did not disclose the presence of cashews. “It’s that simple and that silly, but it is real,”
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ADVISORS
SO IN SYNC,
THEY CAN
FINISH YOUR sentences. You’ve got better things to do than waste time repeating yourself. Because, if you’re not moving forward, neither is your business. Share your future with those who get it. We’re listening.
Penn said. “In the grand scheme of things it’s like, ‘Man, I can’t believe that just that one little mistake costs you a little bit of your reputation.’” Jurewicz said it is important that food producers have the processes in place to conduct a recall within hours and to also have a full contingency plan. The Good Foods recall was issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture a day after the issue was discovered and less than a week after the products were packaged. “We evaluated how that happened and put new controls and new processes in place and retrained employees to understand the severity of such a simple, small mistake,” Penn said.
INVESTING IN TRAINING Like any fast-growing company, Good Foods has run into challenges as positions evolve and formal business structures develop. Penn’s response to overcome those challenges “was to invest in our people and invest in our processes.” “We’ve invested a lot of time and effort and money in our training programs, from the very top through our managers down to the leads and supervisors,” Penn said. Good Foods partnered in late 2017 with Gateway Technical College on organized training first for a group of eight managers and directors, and
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STORY COVER then for 10 leads and supervisors. The goal was for employees to learn to trust each other and work cross-functionally to have more visibility across the business and push towards collective goals. “The more visibility that you have cross-functionally with each other, the more you respect and appreciate the tasks that everybody is doing,” O’Connor said. “It’s easy when you’re very busy and wear a lot of hats to get kind of tunnel vision and feel like you’re working really hard and working alone, but having that cross-functional visibility really brings people together.” Penn knew he needed to put the right team in place for Good Foods to execute on its mission, but he’s also not disengaged from the business. “You recognize your strengths and you understand some of your weaknesses,” he said. “I know that my strengths are really about leadership and are about vision and driving the messaging through the business from a culture standpoint. Then, ultimately, I do understand the food production systems and what you need to advance to the next level.” Part of the next level includes international growth, based on the idea that people everywhere want healthy food. The same Nielsen survey that found North
Kurt Penn meets with farmers who supply vegetables to Good Foods Group.
American consumers seeking transparency and expressing concerns about artificial ingredients found similar results around the world. In Asia-Pacific, for example, 80 percent of respondents were concerned about the long-term health impact of artificial ingredients and 77 percent wanted to know everything in their food. O’Connor said the sizing of products might
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need to change to reflect different shopping habits, but Good Foods doesn’t anticipate changing products to accommodate international opportunities. Penn said large customers with international footprints are already pushing the company to sell beyond the U.S. and Canada. “We’re seeing that there is demand for these products just beyond our borders,” Penn said. n
2018
OVATION AWARDS
SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR:
CHIAPPETTA SHOES
6821 39th Ave., Kenosha INDUSTRY: Footwear retail EMPLOYEES: 12 chiappettashoes.com
Tony and Nick Chiapetta spent much of their childhood helping out at their family’s longtime shoe store, Chiappetta Shoes. Now, the two brothers serve as chief executive officer and chief operating officer of the Kenosha-based company, currently in its third and fourth generations of family ownership and leadership. The retailer sells premium men’s and women’s footwear, pedorthics and custom orthotics, and offers shoe repair services at its 6,500-square-foot storefront.
It carries almost 50 brands of footwear, including Birkenstock, Dansko, Pikolinos and Saucony, available both in-store and on the company’s newly redesigned e-commerce site, which launched in June. Chiappetta Shoes was founded in 1921 by Tony and Nick’s great-grandfather, Pasquale Chiappetta, an Italian immigrant. He opened a small shoe repair shop right next to his home in a Kenosha neighborhood about five miles away from the company’s current location, and a few years later, the cobbler
Tony, Fred, Lori and Nick Chiappetta.
Good TEAM We couldn’t do it Good WORK without our team Good FOODs & community!
2018
OVATION AWARDS
began selling shoes. Today, Chiappetta Shoes is owned by the family’s third generation, Fred Chiappetta and his wife, Lori. Fred, who is a certified pedorthist, took over in 1985. He succeeded his mother, who had run the company since 1970, when her husband unexpectedly passed away. The retailer operated out of its original location until 1990, but since then has relocated twice, each time quadrupling in operational size. It moved into its current storefront in 2000, which allowed the company to increase its pedorthic and orthotic production and hire more employees. It currently has 13 full-time employees, including the four family members. Tony and Nick each officially joined the company after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2008 and 2010.
“It’s cool to be a part of something that has been around for so long,” Tony said. “I’m grateful for that, but I know it can also go away in a season, so you have to keep working at it.” Despite the recent launch of its new e-commerce site, the company continues to rely on its brick-andmortar sales as its main revenue source, he said. “From a local standpoint, (e-commerce) hasn’t drawn a lot of sales, but we joined Google Shop, and it’s nice because we’re selling products all over the country,” Tony said. “It offers opportunities to expand.” Developing a digital presence for the store was one of Tony’s main focuses upon joining the company full-time, he said, but it’s been a slow process. It took about three years just to convert the company’s informational website to e-commerce.
The Chiappetta family with company employees.
In the meantime, Chiappetta Shoes used, and still uses, e-commerce platform Amazon Marketplace to sell products that are discontinued. The company aims to expand its offerings on Amazon as it sets its sights on continued online growth, Tony said, but he knows that growth is limited by big name e-commerce competition such as Zappos and Shoes.com. Tony and Nick also plan to launch a YouTube channel this winter to post product reviews and information and
offer their podiatry expertise. “We are banking on online to be an important part of the puzzle,” Tony said. Chiappetta Shoes also plans to relocate again to a larger space. Details are not yet finalized, Tony said, but plans include an expanded sales floor and experiential amenities, including a wine and coffee bar and a runway for fashion shows. Its shoe repair area will be situated in the front of the store and will be more visible to customers. n
Introducing a new venture THESE COMPANIES DESERVE A
STANDING OVATION.
Thursday, November 1, 2018 at the University of Wisconsin - Parkside Learn more:
kaba.org/ovation-awards
The Ovation Awards, presented annually by the Kenosha Area Business Alliance, 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.
“Teamwork is more powerful than talent.”
Congratulations! 2018 OVATION AWARD WINNERS
Crystal Miller
2018 Ovation Awards
Entrepreneur of the Year
Business of the Year: GOOD FOODS GROUP
sponsored by
Small Business of the Year: CHIAPPETTA SHOES Entrepreneur of the Year: CRYSTAL MILLER, FRONTIDA ASSISTED LIVING Forward Awards: CLARK DIETZ FIVE STAR FABRICATING FROEDTERT SOUTH GATEWAY TECHNICAL COLLEGE
media sponsor
28 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 29, 2018
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A
company
A
company 10/1/18 1:36 PM
2018
OVATION AWARDS
ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR:
CRYSTAL MILLER
FRONTIDA INC.
8322 14th Ave., Kenosha INDUSTRY: Senior living EMPLOYEES: 160 frontidacare.com
By Lauren Anderson, staff writer What would have been a crisis moment for many families turned out to be the very push that led Crystal Miller to find her professional passion. While six months pregnant, Miller was laid off from her job on Nov. 30, 2004, the very same day her husband, Steve, had planned to be the final day at his own job. Over the few years prior to that, the couple had “softly stepped” into acquiring real estate. Now both jobless, they decided it was time to dive in fully. On April 1, 2009, they launched Frontida Inc. with three senior living facilities in Milwaukee. Initially, the Millers managed the financial side of the business and hired an administrator to oversee operations. Within a few months, however, they realized the administrator didn’t share their same values and they needed to get involved in the dayto-day affairs of the business or it would fail. Steve decided to stay home with their three young children, allowing Crystal to commit fully to Frontida. The early days were challenging. In January 2010, surveyors with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services visited one of Frontida’s three facilities. They ultimately issued a list of 17 violations. On Feb. 22, Frontida’s administrator quit, leaving Crystal entirely in charge of the business. “We were scared,” she said. “We received the email at 5 a.m. on my birthday; it was really exciting and really scary. But now we celebrate it as the day we took over our own company. We call it ‘Frontida Day.’”
The Frontida team celebrates the ribbon cutting of Azalea Place in Kenosha.
Crystal Miller, owner and president of Frontida Assisted Living.
Frontida Azalea Place in Kenosha is an assisted living home for those with physical disabilities and older adults affected by mental illness.
With Frontida’s probationary license set to expire, Crystal worked day and night to support her team and correct the violations over the course of three weeks. “I worked my tail off; we were so determined not to fail,” she said. When surveyors returned, they confirmed they saw “substantial compliance” and granted Frontida its license. Within a few months, Crystal discovered how much she enjoyed the work of leading a team of employees. “I realized I was truly born for this,” Crystal said. “I loved putting a team together and was passionate about helping our caregivers to be successful. I didn’t have any clue that was a part of me.” Since then, Crystal and Steve have added several locations to their portfolio, including homes in New Berlin, Fond du Lac, Racine, Kenosha and Kimberly.
In 2016, Frontida opened Azalea Place in Kenosha, a 20-bed facility serving older adults with mental illness. This year, Frontida added a facility in Frontida’s leadership team. Kimberly, which provides memory care and specialized assisted living in two feel important. It required a small separate buildings. change in our thinking.” Crystal said it’s important for Since beginning to monitor Frontida to maintain the environFrontida’s retention more than two ment of a family-owned and -run years ago, the company has seen business by valuing the input of all a 100 percent increase in one-year employees. employee retention. “We want to get buy-in from Crystal attributes the compaeveryone on the team,” she said. ny’s success in part to acknowlThe company has worked to edging when she doesn’t know combat the high turnover rate in the answer and seeking it out from the senior living industry. someone who does. “It was about five years ago “It’s being willing to ask for when we realized that if we don’t feedback and accept it, even care for caregivers, we’ll lose the though I’m in charge,” she said. talent war,” she said. “We began “There is so much I can learn from to do small things to make them our caregivers and leadership.” n biztimes.com / 29
2018
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CLARK DIETZ INC.
FIVE STAR FABRICATING 36728 89th St., Twin Lakes
625 57th St., sixth floor, Kenosha INDUSTRY: Engineering EMPLOYEES: 119; 13 in Kenosha clarkdietz.com Clark Dietz, a multidisciplinary consulting engineering firm with offices in three states, has had a presence in Kenosha since 1994. But since the company relocated to downtown Kenosha in 2016, Clark Dietz has truly become part of the fabric of the community. Clark Dietz relocated to the historic Kenosha National Bank building’s newly renovated sixth floor two years ago, signifying the firm’s commitment to being a part of invigorating the city’s downtown business district. The office, at 625 57th St., won a Wisconsin Main Street Award for “Best Upper Floor Rehabilitation” project from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. “As part of this effort, we transitioned
INDUSTRY: Racing bodies and
polycarbonate windows EMPLOYEES: 160
The staff of Clark Dietz’s Kenosha office.
into a full open concept office by removing all cubicle walls, providing staff with Lake Michigan views and encouraging collaboration,” according to the company. “Our relocation to downtown has provided us with the ability to be a larger part of the Kenosha community and the ability to participate in downtown Kenosha activities.” Since the move, several Clark Dietz staff members began participating in various Kenosha events, such as membership in the Kenosha Area Business Alliance, the Kenosha Area Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Kenosha Inc. In the coming year, Clark Dietz plans on helping to support the Boys & Girls Club of Kenosha.
fivestarbodies.com The products made by Five Star Fabricating move fast, literally. The company is the exclusive supplier of composite car body parts for NASCAR’s Xfinity Series, the second-highest level of stock car racing in the country. “Little by little, they’re realizing the advantages of composites,” said Carl Schultz, Five Star president and chief executive officer. NASCAR began introducing the composite body parts for the Xfinity Series in 2017 after using it in previous years at lower levels. The composite parts replace steel pieces that were welded onto the chassis. Composite pieces are bolted on, making them easier to replace. Five Star actually got its start making
The Five Star campus in Kenosha County.
sheet metal fenders for stock car racing. Nearly 40 years later, the company has grown to occupy more than 300,000 square feet across six buildings in Twin Lakes. The latest addition to the company’s campus is a 120,000-square-foot, $13 million project that will be home to Five Star’s window and coatings operation. Moving those operations to the new facility will make room in the existing buildings for the continued expansion of race car body manufacturing. The project is scheduled to be complete in early 2019. Beyond racing, Five Star is also seeing growth in polycarbonate material replacing glass on products like heavy equipment, passenger buses and motorcycles.
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Play the Canal Street bingo game now through Dec. 13, and help raise funds for children’s charities. CIVIL/ENVIRONMENTAL • TRANSPORTATION • MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Kenosha • Milwaukee • Wausau 30 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 29, 2018
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2018
OVATION | FORWARD AWARD WINNERS AWARDS
6308 Eighth Ave., Kenosha INDUSTRY: Health care EMPLOYEES: 2,200
froedtertsouth.com
A rendering of Froedtert South in Mount Pleasant.
Froedtert South’s presence in the Kenosha community traces back more than a century, but in recent years, the nonprofit health care system has been in major expansion mode. Froedtert South, formerly United Hospital System, includes two hospital campuses and four physician clinic locations. United Hospital System merged with Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2017, creating the Froedtert South name and brand. The two organizations now share an electronic health records system, and Froedtert South has adopted Froedtert & MCW’s quality protocols and best practices. The system recently unveiled plans to build a two-story hospital and four-story medical office building near a growing corridor in
GATEWAY TECHNICAL COLLEGE RILEY CONSTRUCTION
FROEDTERT SOUTH INC.
Mount Pleasant, northwest of Highway 20 and Highway V. Initial plans call for a two-story, 65bed hospital, with the option to expand to four stories and 98 beds in the future, along with a freestanding 50,000-square foot medical office building. Froedtert South is also nearing completion on a 322,000-square-foot expansion and renovation of its St. Catherine’s Medical Center Campus in Pleasant Prairie to house an advanced outpatient surgical wing. Froedtert South expects to employ 100 to 125 additional people as a result of the expansion. It has also announced plans for a four-story, 50,000-square-foot medical office building at the new Main Street Market Development in Pleasant Prairie.
3520 30th Ave., Kenosha INDUSTRY: Education EMPLOYEES: 617 full-time,
850 part-time gtc.edu In 1911, Gateway Technical College became the first publicly funded continuation school in the U.S. Since then, the Kenosha-based school has continued to lead the way, establishing business partnerships, including industry certifications in its curriculum, and providing students with hands-on skills training. GTC has also grown to three campuses, in Kenosha, Racine and Elkhorn. And it has adapted to meet business needs over time, most recently by launching two associate degree programs – advanced manufacturing and supply chain management – to train employees for the Foxconn Technology Group complex development in nearby Mount Pleasant. In order to help more high school stu-
dents attend college and pursue a career path, GTC launched its Gateway Promise program in 2017 to provide three years of free tuition to eligible students in Kenosha, Racine and Walworth counties. Once federal and state aid have been applied, the Gateway Technical College Foundation’s Gateway Promise endowment scholarship fund covers tuition, provided the student meets certain requirements. More than 150 students took part in the first cohort of Gateway Promise. “Certainly it’s an honor to receive recognition from the Kenosha Area Business Alliance,” said Bryan Albrecht, president of GTC. “They have always valued and helped support the role that education plays in building a strong workforce.”
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gtc.edu/gateway-promise biztimes.com / 31
Special Report BUSINESS IN KENOSHA COUNTY
Progress continuing on Foxconn project, even as opinions remain unchanged A LOT HAS CHANGED in the year since Foxconn Technology Group announced the selection of Mount Pleasant as the home for its planned $10 billion LCD manufacturing campus. Millions of cubic yards of dirt have been moved, miles and miles of roadway have been torn up and the company’s first building has emerged from the ground. Foxconn has also changed its plans to allow more flexibility in deciding which products to produce in Wisconsin. Outside of Mount Pleasant, Foxconn has announced its North American headquarters in Milwaukee; a $100 million venture capital fund with Johnson Controls International plc, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. and Advocate Aurora
ARTHUR THOMAS
BY ARTHUR THOMAS, staff writer
Crews put aggregate in place for the Foxconn fabrication facility in early October.
Health Inc.; a smart cities contest for Wisconsin college students; and plans for a series of innovation centers around the state, in Green Bay, Eau Claire and downtown Racine. Thousands of acres of land in Mount Pleasant have been acquired by the village, with hundreds already transferred to Foxconn. The site is in the southern portion of Racine County, just north of the Kenosha County line.
At the same time, lawsuits have been filed over the acquisition of land and a fine has been levied over storm water discharge The only thing that seems not to have changed is public views of the Foxconn project. In polling by Marquette University Law School, a majority of respondents have consistently said the project will improve the economy in the greater Milwaukee area and a plurality have said
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the state is paying too much. The one trend in polling is a slight increase in the number of respondents throughout the state who expect businesses near them to benefit from Foxconn, although a majority do not expect to see a benefit in their area. Here’s an update on some of the project’s major components in southeastern Wisconsin:
ROADWAYS There is no more obvious reminder of Foxconn’s arrival in Wisconsin than the ongoing construction to widen I-94 in Racine County. With the Foxconn deal in place, the project shot to the top of the state’s road construction priority list after being delayed for years. In June, Wisconsin received a $160 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to help fund the project. The grant was enough to allow the state to move ahead with $252 million in bonding included in the Foxconn legislation, but it was less than the $246 million Wisconsin officials requested. State officials said the remaining funds would come from cash balances created by a favorable market for the state’s transportation bonds. Plans call for all lanes of I-94 to be open by Me-
morial Day 2020, with full completion by 2021.
CONSTRUCTION SITE Crews had been moving dirt at the Foxconn site for nearly two months by the time President Donald Trump came to Mount Pleasant in late June for a ceremonial groundbreaking. In late April, local officials made a point of highlighting the arrival of construction equipment at the site, pointing out it was just one year from the first meetings at the White House between Gov. Scott Walker and Foxconn chairman Terry Gou. Since the beginning of construction, crews have moved 3.5 million cubic yards of dirt to prepare the site. Construction is well underway on a 120,000-square-foot multi-purpose building that will serve as construction offices during construction before transitioning to other uses for Foxconn. Crews have also begun putting the structural fill and aggregate in place for the first LCD fabrication facilities, with foundations to be poured in the second quarter of next year. There are around 400 people working on the site daily, plus another 150 trucks hauling aggregate to the site. When construction begins on the fabrication facilities next year, the number of workers
on site is expected to reach into the thousands. While officials say the project is on schedule, not everything has been smooth sailing. In mid-October, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources fined Foxconn’s Wisconsin subsidiary $1,200 for failing to fully construct a storm water basin to contain heavy rains that caused flooding at the site over the Labor Day weekend.
CHANGING PLANS AND HIRING One of the biggest changes in the Foxconn project came earlier this year when the company confirmed it planned to build a Generation 6 LCD fabrication facility instead of a Generation 10.5. The change allows the company to make smaller panels, giving it more flexibility in choosing which products to produce from the Wisconsin facility. Critics have pointed to the changing plans as a sign the company is not really committed to the state and questioned whether Foxconn will meet its job and investment targets. For its part, Foxconn has repeatedly said it is still committed to investing $10 billion and creating 13,000 jobs in the state. The company also set a target of hiring 3,000 veterans and launched a nationwide recruiting effort to reach that goal. Ex-
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ecutives have toured the state as part of recruiting events at the state’s colleges and universities, and a series of job fairs were held over the past month. Alan Yeung, Foxconn director of U.S. strategic initiatives, said in September the company planned to hire “a few hundred” employees in two or three months. He declined to say how many employees Foxconn had in Wisconsin. In June, the company had around 100. Foxconn needs at least 260 full-time employees in the state at the end of the year to earn any of the $9.5 million in tax credits available to it this year. The company needs 1,040 to earn the full amount.
INNOVATION CENTERS Another major development in the Foxconn project during 2018 has been the company’s plans for innovation centers around the state. One of the centers will be in downtown Milwaukee, where Foxconn is establishing its North American headquarters at the 611 Building on East Wisconsin Avenue. Other centers were announced in Green Bay and Eau Claire, and most recently the company announced it would buy One Main Centre in downtown Racine for a fourth innovation center. The Milwaukee building is the only one on
which Foxconn has closed its purchase through mid-October, but the company has issued requests for proposals to design firms to begin renovating the facilities. The Racine center will serve as a hub for Foxconn’s Smart Cities initiative. Executives said the location would allow researchers to use the A recent aerial photo of the Foxconn site in Mount Pleasant. City of Racine to test new technologies in real-world situations. Foxconn announced its Smart Cities-Smart particularly those interested in acting as a supplier. Futures competition earlier this year for stu- Foxconn and the Wisconsin Economic Developdents, faculty and staff at Wisconsin higher ed- ment Corp. partnered to hold a number of supply ucation institutions. The company is offering $1 chain events throughout the fall. million in cash and prizes, including $200,000 Foxconn officials and consultants emphasized available this year. that the company wants to localize its supply chain Foxconn has also announced a $100 million whenever possible, but also added the relationships donation to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. have to make business sense. Potential suppliers And the company will contribute $25 million to a can go through Foxconn’s vendor readiness pro$100 million venture capital fund with Johnson gram, which rates companies based on core capaControls, Northwestern Mutual and Aurora. bilities, quality and customer data and their focus on innovation. SUPPLIER OPPORTUNITIES The arrival of additional Foxconn suppliers from Information is also emerging on how other Asia is expected to come later in the construction Wisconsin companies can work with Foxconn, process as the fabrication facilities are completed. n
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Strategies FAMILY BUSINESS
The family council Independent advice can be valuable IMAGINE 96 SHAREHOLDERS in a company, all related, with both a share in the company financially and a say in how that business operates. Chaos might reign supreme, but this is the fate of the Halas McCaskey football family that owns the Chicago Bears. If the results of recent seasons are any indication, that structure has not helped their cause. Thank goodness they have a succession plan all worked out or they would have too many voices and too many people looking to get paid. This is the fate of the family business if it isn’t managed properly. After a third generation, the family in the family business can mushroom to exorbitant levels. Take a couple in business together with two children and, say, five grandchildren. Right there is nine people, but add spouses, cousins, aunts and uncles…you get the picture. To combat the problem of too many people with too many ideas and too many hands in the cookie jar, many family businesses have turned to an elected family council. This council meets on a regular basis and may include additional people to listen in on the machinations of the family business but not to add their two cents. One family I work with meets with the entire family and then breaks down into the working group of current owners and the next generation. There are some complicating factors. One is divorce. When the ex has a piece of the family firm, or received it as part of the divorce settlement, things can get ugly. This is why a good 38 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 29, 2018
council would encourage prenuptial agreements before wedlock can even be considered. Good practice for family councils includes getting away from the office and going to a place that is recreational and conducive to thinking and relaxing. One family rents a home via Airbnb, and takes the whole family away. Getting away from the company is crucial, as it avoids interruptions. Taking away cell phones is an equally good idea if you really want to get anything done. This same family used the most recent council meeting as an opportunity to talk about family compensation. It got heated. There were differences between what some made and what others received, but the owners – the current generation – were prepared for those queries. They had studied the material on what was best industry practice and compensation for specific jobs. After a minor blood-letting, they agreed it was just for all. Most owners say the most difficult thing to discuss is financials and specifically who makes what. Most next-gen folks say that the greatest barrier for them is when the current generation doesn’t share financials with them. So the next question is: When is the best time to share that information? A regular board of directors would want to see at least quarterly information, so why should a family business be any different? If there is an annual family gathering or council meeting, this is also a good time to bring up the numbers. It might also be a good time to bring in an outside facilitator should things go badly. One of the most intense family council meetings I am familiar with took place over selling the company to an outside firm. The multigenerational family firm was being pursued by a listed corporation. All of the assets would be transferred to the new entity, including the name of the family. Family members would have stock and could check their stock price daily to see what they were worth. Everything went well until the stock price started to fall. By that point, no fam-
ily member was involved in the formerly family business, but it didn’t matter…someone needed to be blamed. The stock plummet prompted a bitter feud and split in the family, which to this day has not been repaired. From this scenario, you can see that rules and structure are very important to avoid chaos. Even with that in place, however, it is almost impossible to avoid problems. When money is involved with family, sadly, rational thought is thrown out the window. Having an outside-the-family council helps but, again, nothing can prevent bitterness from sinking in if people are inclined that way. In spite of the dour cases provided here, the family council can go a long way to heading off problems inherent in the family firm. Steps can be taken for the best results, but no outcome can be guaranteed. The only guarantees are death and taxes. n
DAVID BORST David Borst, Ed.D., is executive director and chief operating officer of the Family Business Legacy Institute, a regional resource hub for family business. He can be reached at david@fbli-usa.com.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
They pay to attend Startups smart enough to decide for themselves if pitch event is worth it
“ They’re smart entrepreneurs, not neophytes to be coddled or protected.”
IN HER OCT. 15 COLUMN in BizTimes Milwaukee, Kathleen Gallagher of the Milwaukee Institute raised the question of whether startups should “pay to pitch” at events such as the Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium, which is produced by the Wisconsin Technology Council. Great question… except that entrepreneurs do not “pay to pitch” at the Early Stage Symposium. They pay to attend, at one of several discounted rates, a high-value conference with a lot more going on than brief investor pitches. The Early Stage Symposium, which will take place Nov. 7 to 8 at Madison’s Monona Terrace convention center, has operated under its current
name for nearly 15 years and under other titles since the early 1980s. Companies that have presented over that time rank today among some of the state’s most successful tech-based companies, creating jobs and economic activity. Long before the Tech Council began managing the conference in the early 2000s, people paid to attend. Why? Because they have come to expect a quality experience that includes hearing from leading industry experts, watching top-flight companies explain their products and services, mingling with credible investors and generally walking away with information, insights and inspiration. Scores of companies apply each fall to pitch in one of two symposium tracks – the Tech Council Investors Network segment and the Elevator Pitch Olympics. They can also meet one-on-one with investors during another speed-dating segment, regardless of whether they are selected to pitch. If companies or individual entrepreneurs aren’t selected to pitch or meet with investors and choose not to attend, we offer refunds. They’re smart entrepreneurs, not neophytes to be coddled or protected. They can and do make their own informed decisions about whether to show up. By the way, almost all show up. Rarely do companies that apply to present to or meet with investors decide not to attend. Why? They understand the overall value of the conference, the behindthe-scenes work that goes into it and how it stacks up to similar events. For example, general registration for the oneday Minnesota Venture Conference in November costs $395, with a startup rate of $195. The upcoming FUND conference in Chicago has a $395, non-refundable rate that applies to everyone. Comparable rates for the two-day Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium are $269 for general admission, $179 for emerging companies and startups and $60 for students, who may be starting companies or learning how to do so. If cost is a
concern, we can offer some startup “scholarships” courtesy of our sponsors. Finally, investors themselves want to know that young companies aren’t just showing up to pitch and run without putting any skin into the game. A five-minute presentation is only the start of a much longer and deeper relationship that may begin with an on-stage introduction, and which evolves over time as investors and entrepreneurs get to know one another and find mutual value in the relationship. Wisconsin has an ecosystem for entrepreneurs and young companies that is growing stronger by the year, and the Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium has been a sustainable part of that process for more than a generation. The market has validated the event and the business model over time, as have the emerging companies themselves. n
TOM STILL Tom Still is president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, which holds events in Madison, Milwaukee, Appleton, Ashland, Eau Claire and other Wisconsin cities.
biztimes.com / 39
Strategies A BRIEF CASE
How do I create fanatical customers?
Justin Dopierala President and founder DOMO Capital Management “At DOMO Capital, we know about fanatical customers because we built this business for them and because we are growing through them. Our 400 percent growth over the last three years was almost completely driven by client referrals. We know that our customers invest with us due to our portfolio’s results of over 18 percent a year, after fees, since inception in 2008. In our industry, product quality must be excellent! “We’ve found focus essential in our business, and with customers this means understanding, meeting and exceeding expectations. Specifically, our clients are typically most interested in results, but they also must believe in and trust us to show integrity in managing their assets. Next, and this is vitally important, we consistently communicate to demonstrate and remind our clients how we are exceeding those expectations. Building a strong presence on social media platforms with easily sharable content that effectively highlights the work we do is the key that unlocks the value of building fanatical customers. Finally, a personal relationship with our clients creates a bond that goes beyond an economic transaction. “Through exceeding expectations, consistently communicating results and building personal relationships, we’ve found our customers become exceptionally loyal.”
40 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 29, 2018
Lisa McKay Executive chef and owner Lisa Kaye Catering LLC “Lisa Kaye Catering is known for our outstanding presentation and delicious food. We work hard to provide awesome service and exceed expectations, time and time again. We want to wow our customers, as well as their guests. “Why do we put so much time into delivering the perfect customer experience? Simply put, our customers are our best marketing tool. The majority of new business comes from word of mouth. People who have had a great experience recommend us to others – they are our fanatical customers! “Over the years, they have opened new doors for our business, become our biggest cheerleaders and ultimately brand ambassadors for Lisa Kaye Catering. This did not come overnight; it is the direct result of our company’s mission to provide dependable, consistent service, synonymous with the Lisa Kaye Catering name.”
Ane Ohm Co-founder and CEO LeaseCrunch “With LeaseCrunch being software-as-aservice, we rarely have the opportunity to meet our clients in person. Earlier this month was an exception, when we traveled to San Diego to speak about the new lease accounting standard at one of our clients’ conferences. This client was using a different technology solution before they found us and yet seemed eager to switch to LeaseCrunch. “I assumed it was due to our superior technology (of course!) and the client agreed that is a big factor. But to my surprise, equally important is that they believe we care about solving their problems. ‘I was on the phone for three hours with our current technology (provider) and he was too busy defending his software to solve my problem. Every time we talk to you, you welcome feedback and we work together to find an answer or you agree to make an enhancement.’ “In other words, it’s not about doing everything right, it is about how we deal with problems when they occur. What a powerful reminder for us!” n
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BizConnections NONPROFIT
nonprofit
VOCES DE L A FRONTER A P L A N S TO B U Y F O R M E R FOREST HOME LIBR ARY Wisconsin immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera Inc. plans to purchase the former Forest Home Library building from the City of Milwaukee to convert it into its new Milwaukee office. The city has set a purchase price of $450,000 for the former library branch, a one-story, 14,500-square-foot building at 1432 W. Forest Home Ave. in Milwaukee’s Historic Mitchell Street neighborhood, according to plan commission documents. The city offered the property for sale through a request for proposals process. The move will allow Voces de la Frontera, which rents its current office at 1027 S. Fifth St. in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neigh-
SPOTLIGHT
borhood, to expand its services, the plans said. The organization would invest about $100,000 in building renovations. It plans to maintain the building’s current exterior. The organization will also lease two small office spaces within the building. Christopher & De León Law Office and Aurora Walker’s Point Community Clinic have each submitted letters of interest to lease space, the plans said. The former Forest Home Library branch closed in 2017. It was replaced by the new Mitchell Street Branch, which is part of a mixed-use development at 906 W. Historic Mitchell St.
— Lauren Anderson
c alendar The Women’s Fund of Greater Milwaukee will host The Power of Philanthropy from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 1 at The Garage at Harley Davidson Museum, 540 W. Canal St. in Milwaukee. Joan Marie Johnson, a historian, author and storyteller, will deliver the keynote address. More information is available at womensfundmke.org. Artists Working in Education Inc. will host its signature event, “20 Years of AWE,” from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Nov. 10 at InterContinental Milwaukee, 139 E. Kilbourn Ave. AWE alumni artists from both the Truck Studio and Artist-in-Residence program will be on hand with live artmaking demonstrations. Tickets and more information are available at awe-inc.org. Pathfinders will host a discussion about the state of youth homelessness as part of its Milwaukee Youth in Crisis series from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Nov. 7 at the Pfister Hotel, 424 E. Wisconsin Ave. More information about the event is available at pathfindersmke.org.
D O N AT I O N R O U N D U P Milwaukee-based Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan received a two-year grant totaling $60,000 from the Otto Bremer Trust to support the Positive Avenues Daytime Resource Center in Eau Claire. | In Tandem Theatre received a $10,000 grant from the Herzfeld Foundation for general operating support of the 2018-’19 season’s artistic programming. | Cousins Make It Better Foundation awarded a $4,000 grant to Reach-A-Child for its Milwaukee Fire Department program, which will allow each of its 38 fire department vehicles to carry a backpack filled with new, vetted children’s books. | Kohl’s donated more than $1 million to fund field trips for schools in Dodge, Jefferson, Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Sheboygan, Walworth, Washington, and Waukesha counties during the 2018-’19 school year.
42 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 29, 2018
I N TA N D E M T H E AT R E
628 N. 10th St., Milwaukee (414) 271-1371 | intandemtheatre.org Facebook: facebook.com/intandemtheatre | Twitter: @intandemtheatre
Year founded: 1998 Mission statement: In Tandem Theatre is committed to creating innovative, exciting live theater designed to inspire, enlighten, provoke and entertain a diverse audience through comedy, drama, musicals, classics and new works. Primary focus: In Tandem’s programming is created to appeal to a wide variety of patrons, from teens to the elderly, economically challenged to the wealthy, accessible and welcoming to all. Show topics run the gamut from lighthearted comedies to inspiring dramas. In Tandem proudly produces the work of local playwrights – more than 20 productions in its 21 seasons. The organization serves as a bridge between small fringe theaters and large established theaters, providing opportunities for emerging artists to work in paid positions alongside seasoned professionals. Other focuses: In Tandem Theatre supports local artists by hiring, on average, 50 actors, designers and technicians each season. In Tandem’s spacious lobby doubles as the 10th Street Gallery, featuring exhibits from local visual artists for each In Tandem show. Employees at this location: Five Key donors: United Performing Arts Fund, Herzfeld Foundation,
Milwaukee County Arts Fund, City of Milwaukee Arts Board, Wisconsin Arts Board Executive leadership: Jane Flieller, producing director; Chris Flieller, artistic director Board of directors: Ellen Maxey, Dennis Kois Sr., Maureen Black, Dan Glaser, Sheena Carey, Richard Ippolito, Toby Peters, Paul Glysz, Greg Kliebhan and Deb Revolinski. Is your organization actively seeking board members for the upcoming term? Yes. What roles are you looking to fill? We seek individuals who will commit to fostering awareness of In Tandem Theatre, supporting its mission, nurturing its growth, and overseeing its financial health. Ways the business community can help your nonprofit: Businesses can consider support through sponsorships of an In Tandem Theatre season or individual productions. In-kind donations (i.e., marketing assistance, printing, graphic design, products, etc.) are always welcome. Key fundraising events: Second Annual Chef’s Table, 6-10 p.m. on Jan. 26, 2019. In Tandem Theatre Bi-Annual Gala on April 6, 2019.
PERSONNEL FILE ACCOUNTING
BUSINESS SERVICES
EDUCATION
NONPROFIT & PHILANTHROPY
SVA Public Accountants, Brookfield
Waukesha County Business Alliance, Waukesha
LUMIN Schools, Milwaukee
Prevent Blindness Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Jelacic
Lilley
SVA Public Accountants has promoted both Peter Jelacic and Bonnie Lilley to principal. Jelacic is a principal with SVA Plumb Wealth Management LLC. With more than 30 years of experience in the financial industry, Jelacic provides personalized comprehensive financial planning and investment management that helps his clients reach their goals. Lilley is a principal and member of Business Advisory Services in Milwaukee. She has more than 23 years of experience performing and managing audits, reviews and compilations.
ARCHITECTURE
Kahler Slater, Milwaukee Kahler Slater has hired Peter Ogden as senior brand designer. Ogden has more than 15 years of experience as a design strategist, brand activator and industry educator. Prior to Milwaukee, Ogden lived and worked in Australia, London, New York and Chicago. Most recently he was a senior designer at Gensler in Chicago, serving as the creative lead on multidisciplinary design teams. His role encompassed brand strategy, design direction and production.
BANKING & FINANCE
Prudential Financial Inc.,Wauwatosa Prudential Financial Inc. has hired Roy Carrera as a financial advisor. Carrera has 13 years of experience and will be helping clients meet their needs with a broad range of financial products and services.
Waukesha County Business Alliance has named Annie Hagy as the new manager of business and education partnerships. Hagy will focus on developing partnerships between businesses and educational institutions to address the workforce shortage and build a skilled pipeline of talent.
BANKING & FINANCE
Waukesha State Bank, Waukesha
LUMIN Schools has hired Rebecca Ehlers to its leadership team as its vice president of marketing and communications. In this role, Ehlers will develop strategies and tactics to grow brand awareness, deepen family engagement and increase enrollment within LUMIN’s network of six schools and 1,300 students. Her efforts will also support LUMIN’s fundraising initiatives and future expansion.
LEGAL SERVICES
Fox, O’Neill & Shannon S.C., Milwaukee
Kees
Rosenwald
Waukesha State Bank has hired Kyle Kees as vice president – commercial banking officer and David Rosenwald as vice president – commercial banking team lead. Kees has more than 10 years of financial experience, specializing in commercial lending. Prior to joining Waukesha State Bank, he worked for the State Bank of Chilton as vice president. Rosenwald comes to Waukesha State Bank from First Federal Bank of Wisconsin, where he served as chief lending officer. He has more than 25 years of experience, which includes commercial, residential and consumer lending as well as credit administration and management.
Fox, O’Neill & Shannon S.C. has hired Robert Ollman Jr. as an associate attorney in its business group. Ollman’s practice focuses on commercial transactions, real estate matters, organizing and servicing corporations and limited liability companies, and drafting and implementing operating agreements.
MANUFACTURING
Perlick Corp., Milwaukee Perlick Corp. has appointed Richard Palmersheim as its new president and chief executive officer. Palmersheim replaces Paul Peot, who after more than six years with the company recently announced his retirement. Palmersheim has more than 35 years of experience in executive management, strategy, operations, international business and innovation. Most recently, he was principal at Woodcrest Associates LLC.
Prevent Blindness Wisconsin has hired Alex Roth as program director. She is responsible for providing leadership to develop and implement statewide programs and services that fulfill Prevent Blindness Wisconsin’s goal for each Wisconsin resident to have healthy vision at every stage of life.
RETAIL
Cascio Music, New Berlin Cascio Music, New Berlin, has hired Brandon Zunker as director of procurement. Zunker comes to Cascio Music after directing sales and procurement at Kraft Music in all product categories. Additionally, Zunker has expertise on the vendor side of business operations as a previous district manager for Yamaha Corporate of America and other distributors, as well as retail and online experience.
SENIOR CARE
Heritage Senior Living, Milwaukee Heritage Senior Living, Milwaukee, has appointed Leslie Hyland as executive director of its newly constructed and soon-to-open senior living community, located at S64 W13780 Janesville Road in Muskego. Hyland has been with the organization since 2017 and was previously the executive director of Aspire Senior Living, another Heritage property located in Kimberly.
biztimes.com / 43
BizConnections VOLUME 24, NUMBER 15 | OCT 29, 2018
GLANCE AT YESTERYEAR
126 N. Jefferson St., Suite 403, Milwaukee, WI 53202-6120 PHONE: 414-277-8181 FAX: 414-277-8191 WEBSITE: www.biztimes.com CIRCULATION: 414-336-7100 | circulation@biztimes.com ADVERTISING: 414-336-7112 | ads@biztimes.com EDITORIAL: 414-336-7120 | andrew.weiland@biztimes.com REPRINTS: 414-336-7100 | reprints@biztimes.com PUBLISHER / OWNER Dan Meyer dan.meyer@biztimes.com
SALES & MARKETING
DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS Mary Ernst mary.ernst@biztimes.com
EDITORIAL EDITOR Andrew Weiland andrew.weiland@biztimes.com MANAGING EDITOR Molly Dill molly.dill@biztimes.com REPORTER Lauren Anderson lauren.anderson@biztimes.com REPORTER Corrinne Hess corri.hess@biztimes.com REPORTER Maredithe Meyer maredithe.meyer@biztimes.com REPORTER Arthur Thomas arthur.thomas@biztimes.com
— This photo is from the Milwaukee Public Museum’s Photo Archives collection.
COMMENTARY
Morningstar raises another red flag FOR THE SECOND TIME in the past year, Morningstar Credit Ratings has raised major concerns about loans on a prominent commercial real estate property in the Milwaukee area. We ought to be paying attention. Last year, Morningstar issued a report about a dozen shopping malls in the United States that had large loans and were anchored by BonTon stores. The report expressed concern for the loans on those malls because The Bon-Ton Stores Inc., the parent company of Boston Store which was based in Milwaukee and York, Pennsylvania, was having significant problems and had not turned an annual profit since 2010. One of the malls Morningstar cited in the report was Southridge Mall in Greendale. The mall’s owner, Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group Inc., had $119.6 million in debt on Southridge, which had already lost its Sears store and was due to lose its Kohl’s store. It 44 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 29, 2018
could ill afford to lose its Boston Store as well. But since then, Bon-Ton declared bankruptcy and has been liquidated. All of its stores, including the Boston Store location at Southridge, were closed. Simon Property Group is working to attract new tenants to keep Southridge viable. Dick’s Sporting Goods and Golf Galaxy stores just opened at the mall. A Round1 Bowling and Amusement center will open there next year. It will be interesting to see if Simon can attract even more tenants, and hold on to its remaining inline stores, at Southridge or if the loss of Sears, Kohl’s and Boston Store will be too much to overcome. Recently, Morningstar issued another report of concern to the Milwaukee area. It placed a $51.9 million loan for the 100 East office tower in downtown Milwaukee on its watch list “because of a high amount of space available for lease and sublease.” The 37-story office tower, built in 1988 at 100 E. Wisconsin Ave., was once one of downtown’s premiere office properties. But it is facing new competition from new buildings, including the 833 East building and the BMO Tower, which is under construction. Law firm Michael Best & Friedrich plans to move from
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Molly Lawrence molly.lawrence@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE David Pinkus david.pinkus@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Maggie Pinnt maggie.pinnt@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Christie Ubl christie.ubl@biztimes.com INSIDE ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Amanda Bruening amanda.bruening@biztimes.com SALES INTERN Tess Romans tess.romans@biztimes.com
ADMINISTRATION ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR Sue Herzog sue.herzog@biztimes.com
Washington Park Zoo This photo, taken by Sumner Matteson circa 1910, shows birds at Washington Park Zoo. The Milwaukee County Zoo was established in 1892 as a miniature mammal and bird display in Milwaukee’s Washington Park, and by 1900 had grown to about 800 animals on 23 acres. It moved to its current 200-acre location on the far west side of Milwaukee in 1958.
DIRECTOR OF SALES Linda Crawford linda.crawford@biztimes.com
PRODUCTION & DESIGN GRAPHIC DESIGNER Alex Schneider alex.schneider@biztimes.com
Independent & Locally Owned
ART DIRECTOR Shelly Tabor shelly.tabor@biztimes.com
— Founded 1995 —
the 100 East building to the BMO Tower, which will open in late 2019. In addition to Michael Best, Morningstar’s report raised concerns about the possibility of The Marcus Corp. and Wells Fargo moving out of the 100 East building. Meanwhile, the former John Hawks Pub restaurant space there has been vacant for two years. The $51.9 million loan on the 100 East building matures in 2026. Net cash flow on the building is down 21.6 percent since underwriting, according to Morningstar, which estimates the value of the building has fallen 35.8 percent since underwriting, to $53.7 million. The 100 East building was sold in 2016 to Santa Monica, California-based Hertz Investment Group LLC, which is going to have to work to attract new tenants. We all should be keeping an eye on how things turn out at Southridge and 100 East. n
ANDREW WEILAND EDITOR
P / 414-336-7120 E / andrew.weiland@biztimes.com T / @AndrewWeiland
2018 Next Generation Manufacturing Summit
AROUND TOWN
BizTimes Media recently held its annual Next Generation Manufacturing Summit at Generac Power Systems Inc.’s corporate headquarters in Waukesha.
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RICK RIESTERER of Plastic Components Inc., JEREMY JOECKS of GPS Education Partners and JEROME ERDMANN of Property Advisory Group Ltd.
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KEITH COURSIN of Desert Aire Corp., DAVID TOWNSEND of Laser North and CATHY HENDRICKS of Somerville Inc.
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ROXANNE BAUMANN of Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership and KAT GOETZ of TLX Technologies LLC.
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MATT ZIEHLSDORF of Apache Stainless Equipment Corp. and SHELLY ZINDA of BDO USA LLP.
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RHONDA MATSCHKE and AARON JAGDFELD, both of Generac Holdings Inc.
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HEATHER NELSON of Spring Bank and MAUREEN SMITH and THEA TREIBER, both of Walsh Cos.
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ERIC HAWKINSON of ManpowerGroup, CHELSEA ZHAO of CliftonLarsonAllen LLP and PETER STEINKE of Briggs & Stratton Corp.
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DUSTY WEIS, NICOLE HALLADA, DENNIS SLATER and LARRY BUZECKY, all of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers.
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Photos by Maredithe Meyer
MLG Capital headquarters grand opening MLG Capital recently held a grand opening celebration for its new corporate headquarters in Brookfield. 9.
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TOM HAGIE and GARY LAKE, both of the Town of Brookfield, with STEVE and SUSAN KOHLMANN of Kohlmann Management Group.
10. CRAIG HENES of Associated Bank, ANDY BRUCE of MLG Capital and BRAD AMUNDSEN of Associated Bank. 11. SAM MORRIS and ANDREW JUMBECK, both of MLG Capital, and MITCHELL STARCZYNSKI of NAI MLG Commercial.
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12. RONDA ARNDORFER of Movement Center Pewaukee and FRANK ARNDORFER of Quad/Graphics (retired). 13. JOE MUDLAFF of WaterStone Bank and CHRIS BEIDEL of Charter Capital Management. 14. LEAH KNOX and HEATHER COLLIGANCLARKE, both of Creative Business Interiors. 15. MIKE MOONEY of MLG Capital and RYAN MARKS of Ryan Cos.
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16. TIM CASEY of the Waukesha County Center for Growth Inc. and DAVID BINDER of MLG Capital. Photos by Corrine Hess biztimes.com / 45
BizConnections MY BEST ADVICE
be afraid to take risks.”
LILA ARYAN PHOTOGRAPHY
“ Don ' t
JAMES BORRIS President and chief executive officer
Zilber Ltd. Milwaukee Industry: Real Estate zilber.com Employees: 300
“I STARTED with Zilber Ltd. in 1986. Joe Zilber (the late founder of Towne Realty, which later became Zilber Ltd.) was such an engaging and interesting man who was also a successful entrepreneur. One of the things he always said to me was, ‘Don’t be afraid to take a risk, but make sure you understand the risk you are taking.’ “It might sound intuitive, but what it meant to Joe was take a deep dive of what could go wrong and the variables. Joe’s thought was: business is about risk; but be measured. Take the time to evaluate the scenarios, and judge how a relationship or a deal could go. That is something that stuck with me.” “Another thing that has stuck with me is when I first met Joe, he wasn’t really interested in my education or business accomplishments – he just wanted to know who I was as a person. He wanted to know my personal passions. That’s how he truly screened people. It was a good lesson for me when bringing on a new board member or employee. Understanding the person is just as important as their business accomplishments.”
46 / BizTimes Milwaukee OCTOBER 29, 2018
AGE: 61 PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Borris holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He worked for seven years at Arthur Andersen & Co., in both its Milwaukee and Orange County offices, before joining Zilber Ltd. 32 years ago. Borris is a board member of Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin and Chicago and a member of the Greater Milwaukee Committee. He served as a co-chair of the 2018 United Performing Arts Fund’s fundraising campaign. IN THE NEWS: Zilber is currently planning a corporate park on a 70-acre site just west of Uline Inc. in Kenosha. The company has also purchased a 145-acre site in Germantown for the development of Germantown Gateway Corporate Park, which will be anchored by a 706,000-square-foot distribution facility for Briggs & Stratton Corp. n
Presents:
Friday, November 16, 2018 | 7:30 - 9:30 AM | Italian Community Center
A NEW PURPOSE
CONFIRMED SPEAKERS:
• Daniel F. Ertl, A.I.C.P., Director of Community Development, City of Brookfield (1) • Douglas Fisher, Ph. D, Director of the Center for Supply Chain Management, Associate Professor of Practice - Management, Marquette University (2) • Scott Goldman, Principal, Baum Revision, LLC (3) • Eric Griffith, VP - Mall Leasing, CBL Properties (4) • J. Michael Mooney, Principal, Chairman & Co-Founder, MLG Capital (5)
ADAPTIVE REUSE: JUST LEFTOVERS, OR A NEW MAIN COURSE? Economic and technological shifts are impacting the demand for commercial real estate and some building owners have had to adapt by seeking new uses for vacant spaces. At the annual BizTimes Media Commercial Real Estate and Development Conference real estate industry experts will discuss how the changing economic landscape, driven largely by Amazon, the changing workforce and other new tech innovations, is forcing building owners to adjust. Attendees will learn how these national trends are impacting southeastern Wisconsin.
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Supporting Sponsor:
COUSTECH S U P P LY I N C. Exhibit Sponsors: COUSTECH S U P P LY
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• Mark Eppli, Director of the Graaskamp Center for Real Estate, School of Business, University of Wisconsin - Madison (6)
Register now: biztimes.com/creconference Sponsors:
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