BizTimes Milwaukee | November 7, 2022 by BizTimes Media

VETERANS HONORING ALL WHO SERVED

—— BUSINESS CARES ——

Building Comfort for Generations.

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Retirement redeﬁned. Plan with Annex Wealth Management.

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05 Leading Edge 05 NOW BY THE NUMBERS

06 IN FOCUS – Beyond Monet

07 FROM CONCEPT TO COMPLETION – Landmark Credit Union’s TYME machines 08 JUMP START – Wellacy Health

09 COFFEE BREAK – Christine Navia

11 GETTING THERE – Marco Morrison

12 THE GOOD LIFE – Craig and Michelle Felix BIZ POLL

13 Biz News

13 INGETEAM SHARES GROWTH PLANS

COVER STORY

14 MADE IN MILWAUKEE – CR Industries

16 Real Estate

Seeking a safer walk

Possible Brady Street closure puts spotlight on efforts to make Milwaukee more pedestrian friendly

39 Strategies

Special Reports

39 INNOVATION – Dan Steininger

40 FAMILY BUSINESS – Cary Silverstein

19 Real Estate & Development

In addition to the cover story, coverage includes a look at whether there is enough residential real estate development in the Milwaukee area and a preview of the annual BizTimes Media Commercial Real Estate and Development Conference. Coverage includes a report on strategies to support veterans in the workplace and profiles of Notable Veteran Executives working in the Milwaukee area.

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41 COACHING – Susan Wehrley

45 Biz Connections 45 NONPROFIT

31 Veterans in the Workplace

WISCONSIN’S BANK FOR BUSINESS®

34 Notable Veteran Executives

46 GLANCE AT YESTERYEAR COMMENTARY

47 5 MINUTES WITH… ACX Cinemas

MANUFACTURER Term loan

townbank.us/yourpartner Griffin Prochnow

Paul Schleicher

Courtney Broderick

BizTimes Milwaukee (ISSN 1095-936X & USPS # 017813) Volume 28, Number 13, November 7, 2022 – November 20, 2022. BizTimes Milwaukee is published bi-weekly, except monthly in January, February, March, July, August and December by BizTimes Media LLC at 126 N. Jefferson St., Suite 403, Milwaukee, WI 53202-6120, USA. Basic annual subscription rate is $108. Single copy price is $6. Back issues are $9 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 2022 by BizTimes Media LLC. All rights reserved.

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Contents

Leading Edge

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NOW

The HUB640 building, located on the corner of Vel R. Phillips and West Wisconsin avenues.

Fiserv will move its HQ to downtown Milwaukee By Andrew Weiland, staff writer Banking technology company Fiserv Inc. will move its corporate headquarters from Brookfield to the HUB640 building in downtown Milwaukee, according to an announcement. As part of its new headquarters project, the company plans to add 250 jobs there over five years. A $40 million investment will be

made in the building “contingent upon incentives currently being considered by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. and the city of Milwaukee,” according to a news release. According to a source familiar with the deal, those 250 jobs will be new to the region. Fiserv, a Fortune 500 company, will even-

BY THE NUMBERS Eight different cruise ships made 33 port calls in Milwaukee from May through mid-October, bringing

13,610 passengers to the city.

tually have 780 jobs at its new corporate headquarters in downtown Milwaukee. “Our new world headquarters location will be a dynamic hub of collaboration and innovation, bringing our people together in an inspiring workplace to create opportunity for energizing and career growth experiences, as we lead the industry forward on behalf of our clients,” said Frank Bisignano, president, chairman and chief executive officer of Fiserv. “We look forward to being a force for good, as we create positive and meaningful impact and grow our presence in the increasingly vibrant downtown Milwaukee community.” The company will occupy 160,000 square feet of space in the HUB640 building at 640 Vel R. Phillips Ave. The building was formerly occupied by Boston Store and the corporate headquarters for its parent company, The BonTon Stores Inc., which went out of business in 2018. The building is located in downtown Milwaukee’s Westown neighborhood, one of the hottest development areas in Milwaukee in recent years. Recent additions to the neighborhood include the new downtown office for Milwaukee Tool, Fiserv Forum and the Deer District, the Bradley Symphony Center, and the redevelopment of the former Shops of Grand Avenue

into The Avenue (located adjacent to HUB640), which includes a food hall, office space and apartments. And more development is coming to Westown. Menomonee Fallsbased Kohl’s plans to open a small-format store in the HUB640 building next year. In addition, Madison-based FPC Live plans to build a concert venue complex in the Deer District; a $420 million construction project to expand the Wisconsin Center is ongoing and will be compete in 2024; and the Iron District, a mixed-use development proposed for a site northeast of the Marquette Interchange, would bring a soccer stadium, a hotel, apartments and a concert venue to the neighborhood. “Fiserv adds to the forward momentum of downtown Milwaukee, where their name already boasts a rich presence at Fiserv Forum, the home of the Milwaukee Bucks,” said Lafayette Crump, commissioner of the Milwaukee Department of City Development. “The city is looking forward to Fiserv and its employees bringing talent, commitment and investment to Milwaukee.” The Fiserv headquarters will feature a client meeting and conference center, social and collaboration spaces and culinary programming, according to the news release. It will also include a dedicated employee entrance and covered parking. n biztimes.com / 5

Leading Edge

@BIZTIMESMEDIA – Real-time news

inf cus STEP INTO a dimly lit third-floor exhibition hall at the Wisconsin Center in downtown Milwaukee, and you’re transported to 19th-century Giverny, France, where world-renown impressionist painter Claude Monet spent the last two decades of his life producing some of his most iconic works. Make your way through the Garden Gallery to brush up on the artist himself before entering the exhibit’s main event: the Infinity Room. Here, you’ll see 400 of Monet’s masterpieces woven together over a 35-minute loop that is projected onto every surface of the space. “Beyond Monet: The Immersive Experience” is designed to make visitors feel as if they have stepped inside one of the impressionist’s paintings to experience the natural landscape of a water lily pond, a poppy field or a stack of hay – from his perspective. The multimedia display is set to an original score that helps tell the story of each scene. “It’s a really unique way of seeing his work,” said Fanny Curtat, an art historian with the exhibit. “We are used to seeing him on chocolate boxes and mugs and stuff like that, but there is so much more to him. … It’s about putting the audience in the middle. The gift of his work, he says, is self-abandonment.” The 50,000-square-foot travelling exhibit is expected to draw tens of thousands of visitors during its run through Jan. 8, according to the Wisconsin Center District. It follows the successful run of “Beyond Van Gogh,” which sold nearly 200,000 tickets over seven months last year, emerging as the highest grossing event in WCD’s history. n — Maredithe Meyer 6 / BizTimes Milwaukee NOVEMBER 7, 2022

MAREDITHE MEYER

“Beyond Monet” opens at the Wisconsin Center

from

CONCEPT

Landmark Credit Union goes back in TYME to

COMPLETION August 2021: As Landmark Credit Union planned to replace and upgrade its ATM machines, Brian Melter, chief experience officer, felt something was needed to differentiate the new machines from the older ones. He had an idea: Bring back the iconic TYME brand, tying Landmark to a classic Wisconsin brand with some nostalgic appeal while introducing new ATMs with modern features.

“Where’s the TYME machine?” For decades that was a phrase synonymous with many Wisconsinites and peculiar to most outsiders. TYME stood for “take your money everywhere.” Based in Brown Deer, TYME was one of the first electronic funds transfer networks in the country, serving Wisconsin, areas in Michigan and Florida and later expanded into Minnesota and Illinois. By its 25th anniversary, TYME had more than 27,000 ATMs and point of sale locations. In 2002, the TYME network merged with Discover’s PULSE network, and in 2004 it took the PULSE name brand. Now Brookfield-based Landmark Credit Union is bringing back the TYME brand for the new ATMs it’s installing across its branch network.

August - September 2021: Landmark Credit Union approaches the designated contact at PULSE, the owner of the TYME trademark. The designated contact at PULSE initially rejects Landmark’s request – twice.

October 13, 2022: Landmark Credit Union hosts a celebration and media event to announce it is upgrading its ATM machines and revitalizing the TYME brand. The event includes a 1980s-themed living room set up at Landmark’s Brookfield headquarters, a DeLorean car (like the time machine in the “Back to the Future” movies) and Wisconsin comedian Charlie Berens. During the next six months, Landmark Credit Union will replace all older ATMs at all of its branches with the new TYME Advanced ATMs and add additional machines at some higher-volume branches.

4 January - September 2022: Landmark works internally and with other technology and hardware partners on getting a fleet of 60-plus next-generation ATMs integrated and tested for an early fall 2022 launch. In September, it quietly launches three new ATMs at its Oak Creek branch, minus the TYME branding, to get customer and employee feedback and make final enhancements and improvements prior to rollout at other locations.

October 2021 - January 2022: Melter reaches out to a business contact at PULSE. Landmark already had a partnership with PULSE for payment processing. Melter asks the contact to work internally at PULSE on Landmark’s request. That sets in motion a process that eventually leads to a deal. PULSE agrees to provide Landmark Credit Union exclusive licensing rights to use the TYME brand.

biztimes.com / 7

Leading Edge

WELLACY HEALTH LOCATION: Milwaukee FOUNDER: Marlon Ross FOUNDED: February 2022 SERVICE: Provides a health care software platform EMPLOYEES: 3 GOAL: Launch pilot platform EXPERIENCE: Financial services and investment banking

Marlon Ross

Wellacy Health seeks to improve health care outcomes for patients with chronic disease By Ashley Smart, staff writer

8 / BizTimes Milwaukee NOVEMBER 7, 2022

ACROSS THE UNITED STATES, racial and ethnic minority groups often experience higher rates of poor health and chronic conditions. This stems, in part, from a lack of access to quality health care and a lack of education about health-related issues. Marlon Ross, founder and chief executive officer of Milwaukee-based Wellacy Health, hopes his platform can help marginalized communities achieve better outcomes when trying to reach their health goals. Ross, a native of Chicago’s south side, recalls going to the doctor as a child with his mother – there were no childcare options for her – and the substandard care she received. “We were poor. I think that was key because I had a front-row seat to witnessing the devastating impact that poor access to health care can have on a community,” said Ross. Ross has created a software platform that aims to improve health care delivery and patient outcomes for those with chronic diseases like diabetes or obesity. Once a patient sees their health care provider, that medical professional can recommend they use Wellacy Health’s platform for further support. Using each patient’s diagnosis, a care team gives the user tailored feedback and explanations through an app to help them reach their health care goal. That care team is made up of

wellness professionals, such as health coaches. There is also a care team member focused on mental health. Ross had been bootstrapping the company until receiving a $100,000 investment through the Northwestern Mutual Black Founder Accelerator. “You have this issue in our health care system today where people don’t have the knowledge and tools to properly manage their conditions, and they don’t have personalized education to understand what’s going on with their own bodies,” said Ross. “We’re basically filling in that gap.” He always had a desire to build his own tech company and knew he wanted to come back home to the Midwest. Ross did a tour of the region in 2021 and decided he wanted to make Milwaukee his company’s headquarters. “The Midwest is making a really concerted effort to find, fund and cultivate very diverse tech ecosystems,” he said. Ross hopes to have the pilot version of the platform launched in quarter one of 2023. Wellacy Health’s platform will be piloted through a physician practice that has approximately 10,000 patients. “It’s literally an engagement platform that helps patients by providing them with resources they’ve never had access to before,” said Ross. n

COFFEE BREAK

Christine Navia

Vice president for inclusive excellence, Marquette University 1250 W. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee marquette.edu INDUSTRY: Higher education •

Chris Navia, Ph.D., stepped into her role as head of Marquette’s Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion in July, having previously served as chief diversity officer at Texas A&M University—Corpus Christi. Before that, she held leadership positions within the University of Wisconsin System, including associate VP for student success.

•

Broadly speaking, Navia is tasked with helping Marquette continue its work of becoming “an institution where everyone thrives.”

•

Born and raised in Chicago as the daughter of Mexican immigrants, Navia was first in her family to attend college. But because her parents understood the importance and “transformative power” of education, Navia knew from a young age what was expected of her. “It was never a question of ‘if’ I was going to go (to college), it was a question of ‘when’ and ‘where.’”

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After earning a bachelor’s at Carleton College in Minnesota, she went on to get her master’s and Ph.D. in higher education at the University of Michigan.

•

The position at Marquette was an opportunity to return home to the Midwest. But the real draw was the university’s substantive commitment to DE&I – one that goes deeper than “just the rhetoric” – along with its Catholic, Jesuit mission, which centers on the dignity of all people and looks at education through a ‘whole-person’ lens.

•

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OT OG

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She takes her coffee piping hot with “ample amounts” of cream and sugar.

Business Times

N YA

•

To Navia, it’s crucial to approach DE&I work with all demographics in mind. Diversity among students pertains not only to race and ethnicity, but also sexual identity, sexual orientation and religion. “Representation matters because it’s an invitation to learn from somebody who’s different than you are and walks through the world in different ways.”

Your Workforce Built Your Way

The federal State Apprenticeship Expansion (SAE 2020 Tier 2) grant is supported by the Federal Department of Labor. A total of $8,550,000, or 100 percent of this project is financed with federal funds.

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GETTING

THERE

Biggest goals for the organization? Ixonia Bank Welcomes

Steve McGuire

“One goal is to increase the awareness of the organization by highlighting the impact it has had on our scholars. I want all young people to know that we are here to help them along their journey from college enrollment to degree completion. I also want to see College Possible evolve to having career exploration and professional experiences as a fundamental component to what we offer.”

Why should the business community pay attention to College Possible’s work?

“I joined Ixonia Bank

to get back to my roots in community banking. Local decision making and the first-rate leadership team there made this an easy decision.”

“

— Steve McGuire Senior Vice President Commercial Banking

“The business community and College Possible share the same vision for a vibrant and healthy community. That starts with obtaining a higher education and developing the skills and critical thinking needed to be successful in the workforce. The scholars from College Possible are key to providing the business community with talented and diverse leaders who will hold key positions within their businesses one day. The education, experience and exposure that our scholars benefit from will bring added value to the businesses that call Milwaukee home.”

What’s kept you in Milwaukee? “The needs of Milwaukee have kept me here. Growing up here, I have seen a lot of our talented professionals leave Milwaukee to be change agents in other places. For me, it is about giving back to the city that raised me and making a difference for future generations. With this passion and commitment, I look to inspire and support young people to reach heights they may have not thought were attainable. Milwaukee developed me into the man that I am today. Therefore, Milwaukee is and will always be home to me.”

In your free time? “I like to travel. To me, it’s important to experience different ways of living and learning about other cultures.” n

To talk business, call Steve directly at 262.560.7325

MARCO MORRISON Executive director College Possible Milwaukee AGE: 43 HOMETOWN: Milwaukee

The Business Bank Run By Business People Member FDIC

611 E. Wisconsin Avenue | Milwaukee, WI 53202 414.763.2428 • IxoniaBank.com

EDUCATION: Bachelor’s in communication and sociology from the University of WisconsinParkside; master’s in educational administration from Eastern Illinois University PREVIOUS POSITION: Executive director at Operation Dream Inc. biztimes.com / 11

Leading Edge THE GOOD LIFE

Craig and Michelle Felix in St. Lucia.

Milwaukee couple finds early retirement in the tropics By Maredithe Meyer, staff writer

raig and Michelle Felix took the COVID-19 pandemic as a sign to retire early and trade Midwest winters for Caribbean sunshine, after she had spent 26 years teaching English at Milwaukee Area Technical College and he had spent more than 15 years as a full-time commercial photographer for Menomonee Falls-based Kohl’s Corp.

the

Good LIFE

In August, the couple moved from the Milwaukee area 2,600 miles south to the island of St. Lucia. The decision wasn’t as drastic as it sounds: Craig is originally from St. Lucia, and in the years since they married, the couple had visited the country together and with their children every 12 to 18 months. “It’s very familiar to us, and it’s a second home to them,” said Michelle, who continues to teach English as a second language part time for an online university based in Barcelona, Spain. Meanwhile, Craig tutors a woman from Mexico in conversational Spanish – via Google Meet – and

BIZ POLL

has landed a few local photography gigs. The semi-retired, island life for the couple consists of daily swims in the Caribbean Sea – either early in the morning or at sunset – the occasional beach day, enjoying the local cuisine and spending time with new and old friends. “It’s worked out that we have some leisure, but we also have enough work to keep us stimulated,” said Michelle. Using St. Lucia as their home base, the couple will spend the next few years travelling, whether that’s to other parts of St. Lucia or to neighboring island Martinique – just a ferry boat ride away – or voyaging further for longer periods of time. In February, they’ll head to Mexico, where they’ll stay for a couple months. “(Relocating) was a hard decision in that we had a full and happy life in Milwaukee … but it just seemed like we had an opportunity to do this. … And so far, so good,” Michelle said. n

A recent survey of BizTimes.com readers.

Will the USL Championship league pro soccer team coming to downtown Milwaukee be successful? Yes:

67%

No:

33%

Share your opinion! Visit biztimes.com/bizpoll to cast your vote in the next Biz Poll. 12 / BizTimes Milwaukee NOVEMBER 7, 2022

BizNews FEATURE

Mark Obradovich, right, greets state and federal officials. Obradovich is managing director of Ingeteam’s Milwaukee facility.

Ingeteam sees path to finally surpassing original job goal Ashley Smart, staff writer

SPANISH COMPANY Ingeteam, a manufacturer specializing in energy conversion, could soon surpass its original goal of having 275 employees at its Milwaukee facility. Ingeteam opened its $15 million Milwaukee facility, located in the Menomonee Valley at 3550 W. Canal St., in 2011. Generators and converters for wind turbines and solar power inverters are manufactured there. While the company was slow to add jobs in the years following the opening of the facility, the addition of two new production lines within the next year could double Ingeteam’s current Milwaukee workforce of approximately 150 people. When it was first opening the facility, the company received $1.6 million in federal stimulus tax credits, a $500,000 loan from the state and $4.5 million in state tax

credits to locate in Wisconsin. Ingeteam also received a $2 million forgivable loan from Milwaukee’s Redevelopment Authority in June 2010 to finance the construction of its Milwaukee facility. A condition of that loan was that the company reach 275 employees by 2015, a date that was later pushed back to 2020. Ingeteam only reached 164 employees by 2020 and had to repay part of its forgivable loan, according to Department of City Development officials. “There’s this hunger right now to make Milwaukee the capital of the renewable energy revolution,” said Garan Chivinski, human resources manager at Ingeteam, during an interview with BizTimes Milwaukee. During a meet and greet in late October, Mayor Cavalier Johnson, County Executive David Crowley, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, U.S.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin examines a part on Ingeteam’s shop floor.

Rep. Gwen Moore and Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh visited Ingeteam’s Milwaukee campus to learn more about the company’s plans to use Inflation Reduction Act tax credits to expand its operations. “At the end of the day, this is the largest investment in clean energy that we’ve ever had in this country,” said Walsh. “It’s really significant what this bill’s going to do for this country.” Walsh said the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS and Science Act, were all aimed at lowering everyday costs and supporting local governments. “What you’re seeing here in Milwaukee is what we want to see around the rest of the country,” said Walsh. “We want to see these kinds of opportunities and this type of growth happen.” INCREASED PRODUCTION IN MILWAUKEE Chivinski said Ingeteam plans to return one of its production lines to the U.S. as well as one other new production line. “We have 50% of the facility that is used to build the wind

turbines. In the past, we had built small numbers of converters and inverters for solar fields. We will be bringing production back from Spain for that in the coming year,” said Chivinski. “We’ll be able to also bring our production of the EV charging stations here as well.” Ingeteam has also signed a long-term contract with Fincantieri Marinette Marine to build a special kind of turbine that will be installed within naval ships. The company will start building those turbines for Navy ships next year. “If you put all those (production lines) together, we could theoretically double our headcount (in Milwaukee),” said Chivinksi. “We have a lot of really new, exciting energy here.” Mark Obradovich, managing director at Ingeteam’s Milwaukee facility, believes funding from the Inflation Reduction Act will allow Ingeteam to become more competitive. “It will allow our customers to consider purchasing locally, and it will make us more cost competitive when they’re looking at things that are purchased elsewhere,” said Obradovich. n biztimes.com / 13

BizNews

CR Industries provides metal fabrication services for the restaurant industry CUDAHY-BASED CR Industries Inc. is a metal fabrication shop undergoing a complete transformation. Founded by Clarence Weisflog in 1985 as a family-run business, CR Industries started with just two employees and three machines. Over the course of the next 37 years, Weisflog and his two sons grew the company to 45 employees and 44,000 square feet of space. The company, which was recently acquired by former Lucas-Milhaupt Inc. leaders Rich Ballenger and Erik Thompson, manufactures fabricated metal components for various industries. CR Industries has found success in creating parts for point-of-purchase displays, including drive-thru menu boards. The company’s boards are then finished by Brookfield-based The Howard Company. “If you’ve been in a drive-thru, there’s a good chance you’ve sat in front of a menu board that we’ve made,” said Ballenger. “We make the metal component, and then our customers finish it and sell it to McDonald’s or Sonic.” CR Industries also does a lot of business with Town of Genesee-based Generac, making safety vents and muffler clamps for generators. “While we are a metal fab shop, our core business is repeat parts,” said Thompson. “It’s a little bit different than a traditional metal fab shop. Traditional metal fab shops are making a bunch of different parts.” Following their acquisition of 14 / BizTimes Milwaukee NOVEMBER 7, 2022

CR Industries, both Ballenger and Thompson have been working to transform the company into a full-service metal design and fabricating shop with welding, powder coating and packaging capabilities. They’ve already committed six figures of capital toward new equipment as part of their 90-day transformation plan. “One of our big things here is that we can start at laser cutting and go all the way through powder coating,” said Ballenger. Thompson said both his and Ballenger’s experience make them the best fit to lead the company into the future, as they both have high-level professional management skills but still have a “blue collar” attitude. Ballenger has a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School; Thompson has a master’s degree in business administration from Carnegie Mellon University. “Hard work and getting dirty is part of our DNA. When you look at traditional metal fabrication businesses, generally speaking, they’re smaller and family-owned, which means that they don’t have a professional level of management, which both Rich and I bring,” Thompson said. Both Thompson and Ballenger have been focused on getting rid of operational and clerical inefficiencies at the business. They’ve also been rearranging the plant to provide more space for employees. Ballenger said a lot of the work they’ve done is to make sure employees feel like they are

A CR Industries employee welds one of the company’s drive-thru menu boards.

CR Industries workers powder coat parts for Generac.

CR INDUSTRIES

5757 S. Pennsylvania Ave., Cudahy INDUSTRY: Metal fabrication EMPLOYEES: 45

crifabricators.com

working for a real, professional company. Whether that be replacing tools with the latest devices available or providing a stipend to purchase steel-toed boots for the shop floor, Thompson and Ballenger have emphasized supporting their workers. A new break room will also be constructed to free up space on the shop floor and give workers a clean, updated place to relax. A new website for CR Industries is set to launch in the coming weeks and an updated logo and signage is also in the works. “We’re lean manufacturing kind of people. So, how can we make better, faster, higher-quality parts. That’s a lot of the innovation we’re working on,” said Ballenger. n

ASHLEY SMART Reporter

P / 414-336-7144 E / ashley.smart@biztimes.com T / @Biz_Ashley

R E A L E S TAT E Q & A

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THE CURRENT CRE MARKET FROM A COMMERCIAL BANKING PERSPECTIVE

By Pat Lawton, Senior Vice President and Manager, Wisconsin Commercial Real Estate Group, Johnson Financial Group WHAT TYPES OF PROJECTS DOES JOHNSON FINANCIAL GROUP GET INVOLVED IN? Johnson Financial Group is an active construction lender in all sectors with a heightened emphasis on the multi-family and industrial segments. We also work with companies on refinancing and funding acquisitions for all types of properties. ARE SUPPLY CHAIN PRESSURES EASING? There has been some relief in certain materials such as lumber, but other items such as electrical components remain difficult and expensive to obtain. Supply chain problems are resulting in both cost and timing issues on new developments. Developers are reacting by purchasing crucial items far in advance. One of our multi-family developers recently bought the windows for an entire project more than a year in advance of planned installation. WHAT ABOUT LABOR AND THE OVERALL COST PICTURE? From the developer’s perspective, declining material costs may be overshadowed by increasing labor costs— and, potentially even worse, lack of labor availability. Now, rising interest rates create further challenges,

especially for low to moderate-income housing where rents often are limited based on county median incomes. Fortunately, there are grants and other funding options available for these developments, but that process takes time, and many builders are scrambling to begin construction amidst escalating costs and interest rates.

sector, who may want to harvest equity and increase liquidity from the sale of their properties at today’s attractive industrial real estate prices. A business that owns and operates its own building can sell to investors with an agreement in place to lease the space for, say, 10-15 years.

ARE THERE ANY EMERGING TRENDS IN MULTI-FAMILY HOUSING? “Build-to-rent” communities have proven successful in Arizona, Florida and elsewhere and are now coming to Milwaukee and the Midwest. A typical project consists of up to several hundred units in one- and two-residence structures. These are whole low-density communities built for renters rather than homeowners. One big question mark is how maintenance will work on all these individual units over time with individual roofs, garages, walkways, etc. in a more varied—and colder—climate, like Wisconsin.

ANY ADVICE TO COMMERCIAL BORROWERS IN TODAY’S MARKETPLACE? Start the process early and build a strong relationship with your financial partner. Together, you can work through the current unpredictable, uncertain economic environment we’re facing to keep your goals on track. Search for a partner, like Johnson Financial Group, that is well capitalized, provides local decision-making and knows your market inside and out.

WHAT ABOUT BUSINESS PROPERTY OWNERS—ARE THERE TRENDS YOU’RE SEEING THERE? Sale lease-backs are proving attractive to many business owners, particularly those in the industrial

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Real Estate

Goll Mansion apartment tower project gets a reboot

AFTER HITTING the pause button three years ago, Madison-based Willow Partners wants to reboot its plans to build an apartment tower behind the Goll Mansion at 1550 N. Prospect Ave., on Milwaukee’s East Side, this time with plans it says are aimed at making for

Willow Partners has revived plans to construct a 192-unit apartment tower (tallest structure in rendering) behind the Goll Mansion at 1550 N. Prospect Ave. on Milwaukee’s East Side.

a better building and happier neighbors. In its first iteration, the apartment tower was slated to be 28 stories, 301 feet tall and about 83 feet wide. This time around, plans call for a building with a slightly reduced height, slimmer shape and greater setback. While the new building is expected to still have 192 units, it will be 25 stories, 277 feet high and roughly 74 feet wide. The new building will also be set back farther from 1522 On the Lake, the 18-story condo tower immediately to the south of the Goll Mansion. While the original design called for a 51-foot distance between the two structures, the new one has them at 60 feet apart. The $69 million, high-end apartment building is slated to have six floors devoted to indoor parking, providing 210 spaces for residents and guests. The building’s gross square footage would total 228,002. That’s about 20,000 square feet less than what was originally proposed in 2017. The building will feature a mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments as well as a few three-bedroom units.

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16 / BizTimes Milwaukee NOVEMBER 7, 2022

Construction of the 44-story Couture apartment tower is progressing. Contractors have finished pouring half of all Level 1 decks, including the public transit corridor, which will house stops for the streetcar and the Milwaukee County Bus Rapid Transit system. Work has also included the installation of metal floor plates for stairs and landings. The building’s core, which includes the elevator shafts, has climbed above Level 4. Work has moved above ground after construction crews spent more than a year building a high-tech basement for the skyscraper, which is located at 909 E. Michigan St., near the lakefront in downtown Milwaukee. The tower is being developed by Barrett-Lo Visionary Development, and the lead contractor is J.H. Findorff & Son Inc. Construction began in the spring of 2021. The building is expected to be complete in early 2024, with partial occupancy expected by late 2023.

Plans still call for moving the historic Goll Mansion 36 feet closer to the street, but there will no longer be underground parking constructed below the home. REDESIGN The idea with the redesign is to try to “create better externalities” for the building in an effort to make it a better fit for the neighborhood, said Chris Houden Jr., managing partner at Willow Partners. The new version of the project is being designed by Devon Patterson, a principal at Solomon Cordwell Buenz of Chicago. Patterson was hired to revamp the design following the 2019 death of the project’s original architect, Tom Miller, who was a principal with Milwaukee-based Kahler Slater. Patterson helped design the 7Seventy7 apartment tower at 777 N. Van Buren St. in downtown Milwaukee and the Hines apartment tower, under construction at 333 N. Water St. in the city’s Historic Third Ward. While Willow could move forward and build with the project’s original design, which has been approved by the city, Houden said the new design will be more attractive to neighbors and city officials. “We will provide a more sustainable building, (that) ultimately will have a better tax impact on the city and will just be more conscientious,” Houden said. He added that the new design is still being tweaked to make it more amenable to neighbors. For instance, some balconies on the south side have been recessed, while some on the north side have been removed entirely. Asked for his thoughts on the project, Ald. Bob Bauman, who voted against the original building proposal in 2017, said the changes are an improvement, especially the increased distance between the adjacent structures. The Goll Mansion is in his district. “They are working on a few more details as well,” Bauman said, noting that he won’t take a position on the project until he

sees the final design. “It’s not in its final form – some of the detailing may not yet be known – but the neighbors understand that this is an improved project and that (the developers) could (go ahead with the other plan if they want to).” LOCATION AND COMPETITION The revival of the project itself comes as the city has seen a boom in high-end apartment tower development. The 25-story, 259unit Ascent at 700 E. Kilbourn Ave. welcomed its first residents in July. The 44-story, 322-unit Couture, currently under construction at 909 E. Michigan St., is slated for partial occupancy by late 2023. The 32-story apartment tower being built by Houston-based Hines will have 333 units. Asked about the addition of so much supply to the luxury apartment market in the downtown area, Houden said that while potential market saturation is always a factor to consider when moving ahead with high-end projects, he is “very confident the market has the depth to absorb (the) asset” and that it will ultimately be “very successful.” What sets the Goll Mansion project apart from the other highend apartment towers is location, Houden said. “The walkability score is in the upper 90s. But ultimately, it is being on that bluff. It’s getting 360-degree, uninhibited views of the lake and the cityscape,” he said. n

FEATURED DEAL: WILDE AUTOMOTIVE GROUP SELLS DEALERSHIP PROPERTIES FOR MORE THAN $42.8 MILLION Wilde Automotive Group, one of Wisconsin’s largest auto dealers, sold its dealerships last month to Medford, Oregon-based Lithia & Driveway. The real estate was sold for more than $42.8 million, according to state property transfer records. The sale included five dealership locations, in Waukesha, West Allis and Madison. The dealerships will retain the Wilde brand but will be operated by Lithia, which owns and operates 296 dealerships in the U.S. and 14 in Canada. PRICE: $42.8 million SELLER: Wilde Automotive Group BUYER: Lithia & Driveway ADDRESSES: Wilde Toyota, 3225 S. 108th St., West Allis; Wilde Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM, 1710 Highway 164, Waukesha; Wilde Subaru, 1710 Highway 164, Waukesha; Wilde Honda, 1603 E. Moreland Boulevard, Waukesha; Wilde East Towne Honda, 5555 High Crossing Boulevard, Madison

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COVER

STORY

Nomad World Pub's outdoor seating area "Brady Beach" takes over a portion of North Warren Avenue.

Seeking a safer walk Possible Brady Street closure puts spotlight on efforts to make Milwaukee more pedestrian friendly BY CARA SPOTO, staff writer

If you’ve ever been on East Brady Street on a warm summer night on Milwaukee’s East Side, you might have experienced the precarious, often-dangerous mix of impatient motorists and ebullient bar and restaurant goers. Following a September hit-and-run accident that claimed the life of 32-year-old pedestrian Arne Bast, the Brady Street Business Improvement District announced it would study pedestrianizing the street and closing it to vehicular traffic. As the Brady Street BID considers whether or not it wants to see the street, or a part of the street, closed to vehicles, some business owners and city officials say more needs to be done to make all of the city’s commercial districts safer for and more inviting to pedestrians. Advocates for making Milwaukee more pedestrian friendly say that approach would not only make the city safer, but also more vibrant and would help attract more businesses and development.

This doesn’t have to mean barring traffic on all or even a portion of roads that serve those commmercial districts, they say, but it does mean putting pedestrians at the center of a reimagined streetscape.

Open to change Unlocking her bike from a Brady Street parking meter on a recent Tuesday, 19-year-old Giselle Candelaria said it would be nice to feel as free biking around Brady Street as she did on partially pedestrianized State Street while living in downtown Madison. Originally from the south side, the Milwaukee native recently moved back home, settling around Brady Street, and said pedestrianization of the street might bring something new and interesting to the neighborhood. “Living on State Street, it was really nice to just be able to bike around and not worry about cars,”

Calendaria said. “I feel pedestrianizing Brady Street would modernize things.” Cutting through the heart of the city’s eclectic and historic Lower East Side, Brady Street is no State Street – a downtown Madison artery sandwiched between a bustling state capitol and a flagship university with more than 70,000 students and staff – but the Milwaukee thoroughfare is the heartbeat of a neighborhood it has helped to shape over the past 160 years. Running roughly ten blocks, or just over a half a mile, from North Farwell Avenue to North Van Buren Street, Brady Street draws thousands of people to its many bars, restaurants and independently owned retail shops. While the Brady Street BID’s leadership and members of its board of directors declined to comment about the study or even provide their overall thoughts, more than half a dozen Brady Street business owners and employees interviewed by biztimes.com / 19

JOSH WANKOWSKI

STORY COVER

Pedestrians and pets roam the street during the annual Brady Street Pet Parade in early October.

BizTimes Milwaukee said they were open to some kind of pedestrianization of the street, especially if it only involved certain blocks or certain times of the week. At least two business owners, Tiara McGee of Black Ink Milwaukee tattoo shop at 1117 E. Brady St., and Brian Kirk, co-owner of Lilliput Records on North Farwell Avenue (but still located within the BID), would back closing the busiest parts of Brady Street to traffic on weekend nights. “We get a lot of walk-ins, so I don’t think it would be that big of an impact. Parking would be hard, but parking is already hard to find,” McGee said. A man who works at one of Brady Street’s most popular watering holes said he thinks shutting down the street to traffic on weekend nights would go a long way in preventing collisions between vehicles and pedestrians. “I do see crazy drivers a lot, and people, when they get drunk, walking across the street, are not very vigilant, so it is just asking for problems to occur,” said the employee, who asked to remain anonymous.

Reduced parking, increased visibility Other options to improve safety could also be considered. 20 / BizTimes Milwaukee NOVEMBER 7, 2022

Eliminating parking on one or both sides of Brady Street – especially as a way to make Brady Street’s narrow sidewalks wider – could give pedestrians more room to maneuver, while also increasing their ability to see traffic coming and going as they prepare to cross the street. Drivers coming down the street would also be able to see pedestrians better, said Gard Pecor, senior market analyst at CoStar Group and a local urbanist. “Especially with the size of cars these days, if you are … leaving Jo-Cats, and you can’t see over the Ford F-150 (parked) next to you, by the time you peek your head out to look, your head is already in traffic,” Pecor said. He also noted that there really isn’t that much parking on the street to begin with. “From Walgreens to (North) Humboldt (Avenue) there’s only about 68 parking spots total on both sides of the street combined,” Pecor said, adding that Milwaukeeans have very unrealistic parking expectations in general. Taija Brown, owner of Economy Clothing Co., 1338 E. Brady St., noted that parking is already scarce on the street, so losing a few more spaces to pedestrianization wouldn’t have a big impact on her business. “There are only so many spots and usually people are parking away from the street anyway,

so I don’t think parking really matters in this case,” Brown said.

What about retail? Some business leaders, including longtime Milwaukee commercial real estate broker Bruce Westling, managing director at Newmark’s Milwaukee office, worry that barring traffic on Brady Street in any major way could hurt its retail shops, turning the street into a place where only bars and restaurants could survive. “Brady Street is on people’s traffic patterns. When you’re dropping down into downtown from the Upper East Side or Whitefish Bay area, you come down Farwell to hang a right on Brady Street to drop down to Water Street,” Westling said. “People tend to drive that way. So, if you take that away, their eyes aren’t on the retail (as they drive by). They aren’t looking at the new vintage shop, or the florist that just went in. They are not seeing them, so they are out of mind, and they will create new habits.” Michael Glorioso, general manager at Glorioso’s Italian Market, which has called Brady Street home for more than 75 years, feels similarly. “I am not in favor of the idea, as it is not practical for a grocery store to operate and survive on Brady Street without (vehicle) access throughout the day every day,” Glorioso said in an email. “I think that

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STORY COVER

The sun sets on a recent Friday evening on East Brady Street.

the street needs to remain open as a major eastwest thoroughfare 24/7.” Brown at Economy Clothing, on the other hand, thinks pedestrianization would help the street draw more daytime businesses and shoppers. “I started in March, and all of my business has been from passersby. I haven’t done any advertising, so I’m hoping, with a street closure, it will bring a little more consistency, especially in the day time, just because Brady is currently branded as kind of a bar street,” she said. Tim Drury, manager of Art Smart’s Dart Mart, helped open the shop at the corner of Humboldt Avenue and Brady Street in 1985. He said he doesn’t think closing all or part of Brady Street to traffic would hurt business at the store, which sells darts and disc golf supplies as well as a variety of novelties. “I think people drive too fast on Brady. There’s been a rash of hit-and-runs lately. Anything to control traffic would be a good thing as far as I’m concerned,” Drury said.

A real problem When it comes to eliminating traffic fatalities on Brady, closing the street to traffic at night might be the quickest way to get there, said Robert Schneider, a professor and chair of the Department of Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “Three quarters of all pedestrian fatalities in the U.S. occur at night, in darkness,” Schneider said. “Thinking about a place where there is a lot of pedestrian activity at night – Brady Street, for exam22 / BizTimes Milwaukee NOVEMBER 7, 2022

ple – is a place where if you were to pedestrianize it you could reduce that risk at night.” According to a recent city report, 17 pedestrians were hit and killed in Milwaukee in 2021. Another 72 were seriously injured that year due to being struck by motor vehicles. A cyclist was also killed last year in a car crash, and 10 cyclists were seriously injured. In 2020, crashes took the lives of three cyclists. “Pedestrian safety and overall traffic safety probably aren’t mentioned in a lot of other cities as the motivation for pedestrianizing a location, but there was a pedestrian killed on Brady Street (in a hit-and-run) this year, and we really do have a traffic safety problem in Milwaukee,” Schneider said. Incoming Ald. Jonathan Brostoff, who will represent Brady Street on the Common Council after he is sworn in on Nov. 16, said that while he’s waiting to see the results of the BID study, achieving true, long-term safety on Brady Street, and across the city, is a key goal.

Plenty of options While temporary closures of the busiest parts of Brady Street – say from North Humboldt Avenue east to North Farwell Street – is an obvious option, Schneider, urbanists and city officials are quick to note that there are other ways to redesign the street to make it safer for everyone. Options include installing curb extensions or bump-outs at the end of street corners to prevent reckless drivers from doing what’s become known as the “Milwaukee Slide,” which could be defined as using the parking or bike lane to pass cars ahead of

A pedestrian walks past Nomad World Pub as cars and public transportation buzz by.

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CITY OF MILWAUKEE’S GATHERING PLACES FEASIBILITY STUDY

STORY COVER

them, or whipping around a corner so quickly that they don’t have time to even see, let alone stop, for pedestrians and other drivers. Across town in the Bay View neighborhood, the city recently used American Rescue Act Plan funds to help pour pinned-on curb extensions along a section of East Oklahoma Avenue, in an effort to slow traffic. The investment was part of the city’s overall aim at curbing reckless driving. “(Streets like Oklahoma Avenue) happen to be state and county trunk highways that bisect through Milwaukee, but they shouldn’t function in Milwaukee the same way that they do in less densely populated areas,” said Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson. Closer to Brady Street, the city plans to use tax increment financing district funds to pay for a transformation of North Van Buren Street, from East Wisconsin Avenue to Brady Street, which could include implementation of protected bike lanes, curb extensions, pedestrian refuge islands, intersection modifications and transit enhancements. Other possible fixes for Brady Street include raised crosswalks, Schneider said. “Think of a speed bump on a residential street, but instead of using that speed bump just to purely slow traffic, put the speed bump where the crosswalk is and have it serve two purposes: One, indicating that the pedestrian has priority, and two, slowing down cars because they have to go over a hump,” he explained. Commissioner Lafayette Crump, who heads the Department of City Development, and Commissioner Jerrel Kruschke, who leads its Department of Public Works, also point to the many street redesign projects aimed at curbing reckless driving, especially those that are a part of its Complete Streets program. “With the city’s Complete Streets program, the goal is to make a driver feel uncomfortable driving down the road,” Kruschke said. “It’s not to make them get into a crash, but it’s to make them slow down enough so that if a child kicks a ball into the middle of the roadway, they’re not driving 40 miles per hour. They’re going 10 miles an hour, so there is enough time to react.” In addition to several million dollars in ARPA funds earmarked to address reckless driving, the city is using $10.8 million of TID funding for public infrastructure projects to address reckless driving, provide safe routes to school, create streetscape amenities, and add ADA compliance features and bike lanes, with the vast majority of the projects being in communities of color, Crump said. “Safer neighborhoods promote development, and development can in turn promote safer neighborhoods,” he added. Johnson also noted efforts to target reckless drivers themselves, including towing the vehicles 24 / BizTimes Milwaukee NOVEMBER 7, 2022

A rendering of the proposed pedestrian mall on East Ivanhoe Place on Milwaukee's East Side.

of known reckless drivers, partnering with the Wisconsin State Patrol to increase traffic safety patrols and suing reckless drivers who routinely menace city streets.

Reimagined Streets Part of the change that needs to happen in Milwaukee and other cities – where planners in the latter half of the 20th century redesigned streetscapes in deference to cars – is to remember what the public portion of streets were originally meant to do: Bring residents and visitors together, said Schneider. “We have so many streets here in Milwaukee that did have that original historic character, but then as motorization really picked up, planners and engineers started saying, ‘Well, we need to move the cars through here fast,’” Schneider said. “I don’t think those planners necessarily realized the impact that would have on the neighborhoods themselves, and that some of them would lose that cohesiveness in their business districts. What we are trying to do now is to get that cohesiveness back through design.” For Crump and Johnson, redesigning the city’s streetscape to make it safer and more inviting for pedestrians is a key goal. “One of our priorities at (DCD) is to foster walkable urban neighborhoods that spur economic development, promote vitality and increase safety,” Crump said. “Whether it’s pedestrianizing a specific street or trying to create other places where people can gather and people can feel safe, I think everything has to be on the table.” While both Crump and Johnson say they would support a move to pedestrianize a portion of Brady Street if the BID study determines that is a viable option, Crump said the administration’s goal for creating a more pedestrian-friendly city will most certainly be evident in the soon-to-be-released update to the Downtown Area Plan.

“That downtown plan is probably going to make recommendations for a fairly radical transformation of key downtown streets, including creating new shared streets, which are designed to slow traffic speeds and encourage pedestrian activity,” Crump noted. While the plan might not call for the full pedestrianization of any streets downtown, there will be recommendations for “improvements that are going to repurpose what perhaps are unneeded portions of streets and right of ways,” Crump said.

Other spaces Exactly what the new area plan envisions for downtown remains to be seen, but one possible example of an unneeded portion of a street – at least as far as vehicular traffic goes – is the block of East Ivanhoe Place that lies between North Farwell and North Prospect avenues on the East Side. That’s according to developer Tim Gokhman, managing director of New Land Enterprises. Its Crossroads Collective food hall is located on the block. Gokhman has advocated for the entire block to be pedestrianized, or even just a half-block portion east of Farwell between the food hall and Hooligan’s tavern. The move would create a public plaza between the two businesses and connect Black Cat Alley. The proposal recently gained backing from the East Side Business Improvement District, said Gokhman, who added that he is encouraged to finally see some movement within the city toward making the project happen. “There is clearly a desire for gathering spaces,” Gokhman said. “We have a lot of parks, definitely, but cities like Denver, Des Moines and even Detroit have found ways to create these really great gathering spaces. People want public spaces like these in an urban setting.” Local urbanists have also touted Broadway in the Historic Third Ward as a Milwaukee street that

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STORY COVER

Outdoor seating extends onto the street outside of Malone's on Brady.

could be pedestrianized. Other than cars slowly jockeying for a coveted angled parking spot, the stretch of roadway sees little traffic. West St. Paul Avenue near the Public Market would also be a good candidate, Schneider said “I always think about St. Paul, where the streetcar stop is right in front of the public market. That short section of street seems like it could really be a great pedestrian space,” he said. Off of Brady Street, a block of Warren Avenue has been transformed from a minimally used street into a beer garden known as Brady Beach. The brainchild of Nomad World Pub owner Mike Eitel, the outdoor seating area grew in popularity and prominence during COVID-19 as diners were looking to eat and drink outside, and the city was pushing its Active Streets program. The effort helped restaurants and bars provide more outdoor seating by allowing them to use a greater portion of the right of way. “It’s just reduced a lot of reckless driving,” Eitel said of the Brady Beach project, especially since it gave unruly motorists one less way to access the street. “If we can create more of those little pockets, I think the impact will be incredibly noticeable.” 26 / BizTimes Milwaukee NOVEMBER 7, 2022

Eitel added that he would be a supporter of whatever solutions the Brady Street study uncovers. Urbanists, officials and Schneider also pointed to commercial districts in places outside of the popular Third Ward and East Side neighborhoods that would make for great pedestrian plazas. Schneider said he had his students look at possibilities for creating a pedestrian plaza for the one block of West Forest Home Avenue that sits between South 13th Street and West Historic Mitchell Street. A six-block stretch of Mitchell Street was turned into a pedestrian mall between 1975 and 1995, but that effort – aimed at competing with shopping malls – ended up hurting retail business on the street and, like many U.S. pedestrian malls created during the 1970s and 80s, was later removed and the street was reopened to traffic. Turning a block or two of North 36th Street off of Villard Avenue on the North Side into a pedestrian mall could also work, Schneider said, noting that this idea, as well as the Forest Home Avenue idea, have already been highlighted in the Gathering Places Feasibility study that Johnson spearheaded this March while still an alderman.

That study also mentions North Arlington Place – a one-block street off of Brady Street – as having potential for becoming a pedestrian plaza. While these plans may still just be ideas on paper, Crump describes them as a lodestar. “Some of these things have happened organically in some cities, but we don’t want to just hope for the best,” he said. “That is why we are very intentional about our plan.” “We’ve all had experiences in other cities, where people say, ‘Oh, go here,’ and we ask, ‘Well, what is there to do? And they say, ‘Oh, just hang out. It’s beautiful.’ Maybe there are vendors, or food trucks. But it’s not an area where you have to spend money just to enjoy yourself. In a city that belongs to all of us, we have to have places where people feel comfortable doing just that.” Over time, as gathering places or pedestrian plazas become more prominent, Schneider believes people will be more likely to see city streets as community-oriented public spaces and not immediately default to thinking about how any changes might impact motorists. “These are our public spaces,” he said. “We can ultimately choose how we want them to be.” n

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Special Report REAL ESTATE & DEVELOPMENT

Construction is underway on the massive Lakeshore Commons residential project on Oak Creek’s lakefront, which includes apartments, townhouses and single-family homes.

Milwaukee-area residential real estate development lags demand, experts say BY ALEX ZANK, for BizTimes A LOCAL realtors group says the Milwaukee area is building too many apartments and lacks enough new single-family homes, while other experts contend more residences of all types are needed in the area, including “non-traditional” forms of housing. The metro Milwaukee housing market has fallen back to Earth after a historic 2021, when a record 23,800 units were sold in Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington and Ozaukee counties, according to the Greater Milwaukee Association of Realtors. However, sales through the third quarter are off just 8.6% year-over-year, and the market is still performing well compared to recent years prior to the pandemic, which sent demand into overdrive. “The only reason we can’t repeat (2021) is we don’t have enough listings (of homes for sale),” said Mike Ruzicka, president of GMAR. In a recent housing market update, Ruzicka’s group contended that an overbuilding of apartments and lack of single-family home and condominium construction is a “systemic problem” for the Milwaukee area. If the region does not build more single-family homes, “thousands of would-be homeowners will be forced into rental units, foregoing the opportunity to build wealth through a home’s equity and all of the other benefits of homeownership,” GMAR argued in its market update. But the region’s apartment construction also lags renter demand, said Gard Pecor, senior market analyst at Washington D.C.-based real estate data company CoStar Group. At 3.3%, Milwaukee has one of the lowest apartment vacancy rates in the country and the lowest rate among a dozen Midwestern peer cities, according to CoStar Group data. Meanwhile, the Milwau28 / BizTimes Milwaukee NOVEMBER 7, 2022

kee market is building new apartment units at a rate that equals 4% of its overall existing inventory, putting it in the middle of the pack among its peers. “There’s quite a bit more room for construction growth in the Milwaukee market, especially when you’re looking at what some of our peers are doing,” Pecor said. It’s also true that the lack of single-family home listings has created “a new type of renter” in the Milwaukee market, Pecor said. This group consists of dual-income households, younger married couples and higher earners, who all typically lean toward buying homes. “That’s really led to a push toward demand for some of the higher-end and luxury inventory being developed in the multi-family side,” Pecor said. Each housing type has its own challenges. Homebuyers are not struggling as much to secure a home as last year, but they still encounter some headaches, said Courtney Stefaniak, a real estate agent with The Stefaniak Group. “The challenges buyers are facing right now … are the lack of supply, and then the increasing mortgage rates,” she said. No longer are buyers competing with a dozen or more offers on a single home, and they don’t need to waive contingencies to make their offers more competitive. But rising home prices means buyers may have difficulty finding something they can afford. Rising interest rates have not taken many homebuyers out of the market, Stefaniak said. Rather, they have to scale back the price range of the homes they’re looking at. New-home construction in the metro area has recovered a bit since the low during the Great Recession of 2008, according to building permit

records compiled by the Wisconsin Builders Association. But it’s still a far way off from the pre-recession highs that reached back into the 1990s. There is not much land available for new subdivisions in many communities. Where there is land, lots are expensive to buy and develop, said Ruzicka. A labor shortage has long plagued the building industry, and construction materials are increasingly expensive. Renters face consequences when there’s a lack of new apartment development. For example, the city of Wauwatosa’s slow growth of apartment supply relative to demand has led to some of the highest growth in rental rates throughout the metro area, Pecor said. Communities like Franklin and Oak Creek, which tend to be receptive to residential projects, still see strong lease rates, he said. The market in Oak Creek favors multi-family developments – or what the city’s director of community development Doug Seymour called non-traditional residential projects – including attached single-family residences, duplexes or buildings with just a handful of units. Part of the reason is the lack of large parcels suitable for new subdivisions, said Seymour. City leaders have also helped usher in projects such as the dense, mixed-use Drexel Town Square. Oak Creek’s latest ambitious development, F Street Development’s Lakeshore Commons, consists of hundreds of new units along the lakefront, including single-family homes, townhouses and apartments. A variety of housing types offers a wider range of affordability while also addressing the needs of residents, both today and into the future, Seymour said. “We still realize there’s a lot of work to be done to make sure that there are options that are more affordable, but we didn’t want it to be a situation where you were either in a subdivision or you’re in an apartment,” said Seymour. “That’s not what everybody wants or needs, and we want to be responsive to the population that’s transitioning into Oak Creek.” n

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Special Report REAL ESTATE & DEVELOPMENT

Kasselman

Lindsay

D’Arcy

Crump

Hunt

Experts see choppy, yet manageable waters ahead for Milwaukee’s CRE market BY MAREDITHE MEYER, staff writer AS THE DUST of the past couple of years settles on a post-pandemic commercial real estate market, industry leaders face ongoing uncertainty due to macroeconomic headwinds heading into 2023. In September, the Federal Reserve again increased the federal funds rate, to the 3.0%-3.25% range, in an effort to combat rising inflation, as prices increased 6.2% year-over-year in September. Those factors have stoked fears about the economy being in, or heading into, a recession. Meanwhile, disruptions to the global supply chain continue to persist, and workforce expectations continue to evolve. “In 2023 and 2024, and perhaps longer, there will be choppy economic waters rather than the smooth sailing we’ve recently been accustomed to, but the waters will still be navigable for the most part,” said Geoffrey Kasselman, partner and senior vice president of workplace strategy for St. Louis-based commercial real estate development and investment firm CRG. Kasselman, who works in the firm’s Chicago office, will deliver the keynote address at the annual BizTimes Media Commercial Real Estate and Development Conference, set for Thursday, Nov. 17, from 7 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. at the Italian Community Center in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward. Kasselman provides clients “future-proofing” strategies for their real estate holdings and work30 / BizTimes Milwaukee NOVEMBER 7, 2022

places. An innovation-minded business futurist, his remarks will focus on how the big trends in the U.S. and global economies will shape the commercial real estate market in Milwaukee and the Upper Midwest. “There are some indications the supply/demand equation is coming back into balance while interest rates are on the rapid rise to help tame inflation. Yet employment metrics remain strong, and consumer spending, the most critical component of our domestic GDP, remains defiantly buoyant even as it tails off a bit,” Kasselman said. He argues that a possible recession will be different than others in the past: “Choppy but manageable.” Kasselman is one of a few speakers from outside of the southeast Wisconsin region who will provide an outsiders’ perspective on how macroeconomic headwinds will impact commercial real estate in the Milwaukee area – thus the title of the conference, “From the Outside Looking In.” A panel discussion – moderated by Andy Hunt, Vieth director for the Marquette University Center for Real Estate – will feature Thomas D’Arcy, senior managing director at Houston-based Hines, which is building a 31-story apartment tower in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward. D’Arcy predicts the uncertainty of 2023 will see commercial real estate leaders delaying long-term decisions and major capital investments, especially in the office

market. “Office users are trying to sort out inflationary pressures on cost of goods and services, escalating wages, higher interest expense and what the hybrid office looks like,” said D’Arcy. He expects the rising cost of goods to level out but not go down and warns that high interest rates and a conservative lending environment will “make starting all but the very best projects very difficult.” Despite broad-scope challenges, D’Arcy and Hines are bullish on Milwaukee, calling it a “stable and attractive Midwest market.” Joining D’Arcy on panel will be Tony Lindsay, principal of asset management at Chicago-based North Wells Capital LLC, which owns the HUB640 building in downtown Milwaukee. In the past six months, that building at 640 Vel R. Phillips Ave. has added the names of two local Fortune 500 companies to its tenant roster. Most notably, Fiserv Inc. recently announced plans to move its corporate headquarters there from Brookfield. As part of its new headquarters project the company plans to add 250 jobs there over five years, and a $40 million investment will be made in the building. In July, Menomonee Falls-based Kohl’s Corp. announced plans to open a 40,000-square-foot store on the ground floor of the HUB640 building, which was formerly occupied by Boston Store and the corporate headquarters for its parent company The Bon-Ton Stores Inc., which went out of business in 2018. The Kohl’s and Fiserv lease deals along with the Hines development are just a few of the many projects moving forward in downtown Milwaukee despite macroeconomic uncertainty. And that’s part of the reason why civic leaders remain confident in the city’s ability to attract investment. “Milwaukee is the economic engine of the state, boasting an active manufacturing sector and innovative colleges and universities that are producing diverse, talented graduates. We are home to an extraordinary amount of legacy and developing capital,” said Lafayette Crump, commissioner for the Milwaukee Department of City Development and the event’s third panelist. “There is more work to do to navigate the effects of the pandemic and DCD stands ready to advance development,” said Crump, noting initiatives like the affordable housing portion of the Iron District, a proposed $160 million mixed-use development northeast of the Marquette Interchange downtown that includes a soccer stadium, a hotel, 140 apartments and a concert venue. Marquette and the Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin are partners with the annual event, and the conference is sponsored by Building Advantage, CliftonLarsonAllen, Husch Blackwell and Johnson Financial Group. Innovative Signs is an exhibit sponsor. n

VETERANS IN THE WORKPLACE

Geisler

Marine veteran Bradley Curtis is pictured during his retirement celebration at Advantage+.

Local companies lean on different workplace strategies to support their veterans BY ASHLEY SMART, staff writer

SOMETIMES it may seem like veteran and civilian workers are speaking two different languages. That’s to be expected when a person has served years of their life within an organization that is truly like its own world. But that doesn’t mean that companies should be daunted by the possibility of integrating veterans into their workplace. There are a number of different strategies business owners can use to both support and better understand their veteran workers. Hartland-based Batteries Plus Bulbs introduced a new way to support veteran workers this past spring with the creation of a business resource group. Cory Geisler, national commercial sales effectiveness coach for Batteries Plus and an Army veteran, said the company’s veteran-specific BRG gives employees a space to raise any work issues they might have while keeping them engaged. It also provides other employees the chance to better understand the mindset of a veteran. Non-veteran workers, or “allies,” can attend BRG meetings to bet-

ter understand the challenges veterans might face in a civilian work environment. “The average civilian doesn’t quite understand the military mindset,” said Geisler. “It’s really helped veterans within the workplace. And even veterans, it’s helped us understand civilians in the workplace and what they think.” The first step to getting a veteran BRG started within any company is to first identify who’s served in the military. This is a trickier task than it may seem. Geisler said there are a lot of veterans who won’t let employers know about their military service for fear of not being considered for a job. “Unfortunately, there’s a little bit of stigma that goes with someone who has served in the military,” said Geisler. “(Employers) may be worried they’re somehow broken.” Once an employer has managed to identify its veteran workers, the next step is to figure out who might be up to the task of taking on a leadership role, which is often going to be someone who’s had a longer tenure with a company. Veterans

Elton

Berrien

approaching other veterans will have more of an impact than an employee getting another email from management. It’s also important for businesses to become active in veterans’ events, whether that be through outside fundraising activities or meetings through other veterans’ organizations. This lets current veteran employees know what a company’s priorities are and can help attract other veteran workers. “If you’re going to have a veterans’ business resource group, make sure you start getting involved,” said Geisler. Batteries Plus has also introduced lunch-andlearn events to allow both segments of the workforce to better understand one another. The company is currently considering implementing a veteran-specific mentoring program, so as a veteran enters a new work environment, they have someone who understands their unique challenges. CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Bill Berrien, chief executive officer of New Berlin-based Pindel Global Precision, believes continuous opportunities for advancement and professional development are key in keeping veteran workers challenged and engaged. Berrien is a former U.S. Navy SEAL officer who sees similarities between the military and manufacturing environments. biztimes.com / 31

Special Report About 10% of Pindel’s employees are veterans. “I’ve found that advanced manufacturing has a lot of parallels to special operations. At the heart of it, both are about small, highly cohesive, highly trained teams enabled by advanced technology and trying to punch above their weight,” said Berrien. When he looks to bring on a new hire, he makes sure a potential candidate will blend well with current Pindel employees and the environment that’s already been established. When a veteran candidate pops up, Berrien said he knows that person likely has the right “DNA” and attitude for his company. He has found the veterans he has hired have learned skills just as quickly – if not faster – than other new employees. “The fact that they’ve done well and enjoyed a military environment is really a positive indicator,” said Berrien. When onboarding a new veteran hire, and after that process is complete, it’s a priority at Pindel to provide employees with career-long development opportunities. The company has implemented a professional development program that includes six levels for machinists and four levels for quality technicians and industrial maintenance workers. Within each level, workers complete online classes and earn credentials through the National Institute of Metal Working Skills.

“For veterans, and employees in general, we try to pull them into our professional development program and give them structure,” said Berrien. “It’s something they can join onto and grow with.” Pindel is applying to become a “skill bridge” employer through the Department of Defense. The program allows transitioning military members to spend the last few months of their service gaining experience at a civilian employer of their choice. This eases their move to the private sector. “Honestly, having an open-minded attitude about what the individual can contribute and not trying to craft the role they’re going to be in (is important),” said Berrien. “Try not to be in this confining niche and offer some exposure to different areas.” Brookfield-based Advantage+ has also found that focusing on professional development is key in supporting veterans. Mike Elton, president and CEO of Advantage+, didn’t go out seeking veterans looking for work; they came to him organically. The 22-person company has helped train five veterans in the past five years. “We didn’t necessarily go through a veterans’ organization. It just sort of happened. We recognized that they were veterans, and we went out of our way to help them and accommodate them,” said Elton. “We were just trying to do the right thing.”

u o Y k n a h T

VETERANS HONORING ALL WHO SERVED

—— BUSINESS CARES ——

Building Comfort for Generations.

Advantage+ has hired veterans through Harrigan Development Services, a Grafton-based firm that works with at-risk individuals or those with a disability to help them move forward in certain aspects of their life, including gaining employment. One of the most recent veterans to pass through the Advantage+ office was Bradley Curtis, a Marine who served for more than 20 years. Elton said he wanted to make sure he gave Curtis all the tools he needed to succeed, regardless of where he ended up working. Curtis eventually had to retire due to health issues. “We brought on Bradley, who had been battling health problems for years. We welcomed him in and helped him get the computer skills he needed to get up to speed on some of the things we wanted him to do,” said Elton. “He just always treasured the work and appreciated the opportunity.” The last two veterans Advantage+ brought on had never been exposed to an office setting before. Elton said he brought on people with good work ethic who he knew could handle the needed training. “It’s just about understanding that they have sometimes special training needs depending on where they came out of the military,” said Elton. “I feel like veterans have the work ethic and the grit to make a really good, loyal worker.” n

DONATED BY BIZTIMES MEDIA

HOMETOWN HEROES INC. (CAMP HOMETOWN HEROES, CAMP REUNITE AND TURNING RIVERS) camphometownheroes.org campreunite.org turningrivers.org Address: 1000 Badger Cir, Grafton, WI 53024 | Phone: 414-405-3135 Facebook: facebook.com/camphometownheroes | Twitter: @camphometown Year established: 2009 Total Employees: 5 Mission and Vision Statement, and Services Provided:

Hometown Heroes Inc. serves as the umbrella organization for camping programming serving children facing extreme trauma. Camp Hometown Heroes welcomes children, ages 7-17, who embody the statement “Freedom is not free.” They have made the ultimate sacrifice of losing a loved one who has served in the armed forces and died fighting in combat. Serving children from all over the country, including Hawaii and Alaska, at a vast camp location in Campbellsport, WI (known as Turning Rivers), the campers are taken through a journey of healing through play, therapy and bonding. Many come back year after year, and some have transitioned from camper to counselor after much healing over the years. Hometown Heroes Inc. has recently expanded its programming to serve children who have an incarcerated parent in the Wisconsin Criminal System, and through trauma-based and art therapy, and have worked to curtail the cycle of incarceration. This program is known as Camp Reunite and serves children ages 8-16. Goals:

Executive Leadership:

» » » » » »

Jim Kacmarcik, co-founder and board president Neil Willenson, co-founder Kenzie Gonzalez, executive director Liz Braatz, director of development Deb Paschke, director of outreach Andrew Gappa, director of camp operations

The Camp Hometown Heroes staff seeks to provide an atmosphere that is physically and emotionally safe for campers of all ages and abilities by offering a wide variety of activities that push camper(s) to develop skills, friendships and resiliency. The Camp Reunite staff provides a sanctuary for children to openly discuss separation from a parent who is incarcerated and meet other children in similar situations to serve as support systems. Further, this camp serves as a place where the children can restore

broken relationships with their incarcerated parents while also experiencing traditional camp activities. Giving opportunities:

» Support for Campers and Operational Costs: • We need operational underwriting to cover the large costs of providing airfare, lodging, food and trauma-care for children throughout the camps. Please note: we run programming throughout the summer months and run a winter camp between Christmas and New Year’s. » Capital Expenditures: • The camp is located at Turning Rivers Camp in Campbellsport and is over 50 years old. The space is currently in need of facility upgrades and with gracious support, can serve our audience more effectively and efficiently with facility upgrades. » In-Kind Support Needs: • New or gently used tractor or Bobcat • New or gently used drivable scissor 25’ lift • Art and craft supplies • 240 new mattresses » Ways to Give: • Donate online: donatenow. networkforgood.org/ hometownheroes?code=HHWebDonatePage. • Mail donation to: Hometown Heroes, Attn: Development, 1000 Badger Cir, Grafton, WI 53024

Volunteer Opportunities: Volunteers

are always welcome throughout the year to help support campers in having a safe, fun and valuable experience. Please contact Andrew Gappa at gappa@hometownheroes.org to learn more.

TOM PETTIT

NOTABLE

CHIEF OPERATIONS AND SUPPLY CHAIN OFFICER

VETERAN EXECUTIVES

XYLEM INC. SERVED FOUR YEARS IN THE U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS

BizTimes Media is proud to present its second showcase of Notable Veteran Executives, spotlighting U.S. military veterans who are accomplished professionals in the greater Milwaukee area. The leaders profiled here were nominated by their peers at work and in the community and showcase the diversity of talent in our region. BizTimes Media wishes to honor veterans for their service to our country and recognize the contributions they are making to their companies and their communities. METHODOLOGY: The honorees did not pay to be included. Their profiles were drawn from nomination materials. This list features only individuals for whom nominations were submitted and accepted after a review by our editorial team. To qualify for the list, nominees must be based in southeast Wisconsin. They must be currently serving in a senior-level role at their firm, and must have served in a branch of the U.S. military.

Tom Pettit, the new chief operations and supply chain officer at Pewaukee-based Xylem Inc., has made supporting veterans a regular part of his career. A 1991 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Pettit served four years in the Army Corps of Engineers, reaching the rank of Captain. As the chief executive officer of a military construction engineering company, he served as chief operating officer of an organization of about 140 employees. Pettit supervised three junior managers in construction and overseas projects, and a maintenance staff of 25 responsible for 80 construction vehicles. He managed operating budget and directed teams coordinating the organization’s logistics, operations planning, training and wireless communications. He also served as a construction platoon Leader, leading a road construction organization of more than 30 people and more than 40 pieces of heavy engineer equipment. Before coming to Xylem, Pettit was the chief operations officer and executive vice president at Town of Genesee-based Generac Power Systems. While at Generac, he helped develop the company’s first business employee resource group for military employees and families. Colleagues say that Pettit ensured that veterans played a large role in community engagement, which has resulted in Generac’s position as a sponsor of Military Appreciation Day at Summerfest, inclusion of veterans’ organizations in corporate giving and special projects, such as a partnership with Habitat for Humanity to provide home improvements to the James A. Peterson Veteran Village, led by the Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin. Beyond community involvement, Pettit is credited with helping make Generac a place for veterans to grow their careers and connect with and support one another. Outside of work, Pettit continues his advocacy for veterans’ needs, mentoring officers who are transitioning from military to civilian careers as well as high school students considering entering the military.

Presents:

NOTABLE

VETERAN EXECUT

IVES

TOM PETTITAND SUPPLY CHAIN OFFICER

CHIEF OPERATIONS OF ENGINEERS XYLEM INC. U.S. ARMY CORPS YEARS IN THE SERVED FOUR

made supporting Xylem Inc., has officer at Pewaukee-based and supply chain new chief operations Engineers, Tom Pettit, the Army Corps of four years in the part of his career. veterans a regular Point, Pettit served Academy at West of the U.S. Military officer of an A 1991 graduate as chief operating of Captain. company, he served overseas projects, reaching the rank construction engineering managers in construction and officer of a military and directed three junior operating budget As the chief executive Pettit supervised vehicles. He managed about 140 employees. for 80 construction organization of and wireless communications. staff of 25 responsible planning, training and and a maintenance logistics, operations more than 30 people organization of the organization’s teams coordinating leading a road construction platoon Leader, as a construction He also served equipment. Town of Genesee-based at engineer president heavy of vice resource group more than 40 pieces officer and executive business employee the chief operations the company’s first Xylem, Pettit was helped develop Before coming to at Generac, he Systems. While has resulted in Generac Power engagement, which and families. organizations in for military employees a large role in community inclusion of veterans’ that veterans played Day at Summerfest, that Pettit ensured Colleagues say Military Appreciation as a sponsor of Generac’s position

ETERAN N O TA B L E V

R : NOVEMBE M I LWA U K E E | BIZTIMES EXECUTIVES

7, 2022

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Thursday, January 26, 2023 Italian Community Center 7:00-7:30am - Registration & Networking 7:30-10:30am - Program & Breakout Sessions

Awards, cover stories, special reports, advertisements, feature stories, whatever your interests may be. We’ll provide reprints of any published material.

Featured Speaker: Michael Knetter Ph.D. University of Wisconsin Foundation

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PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

THE NOBLE GROUP. SERVED SIX YEARS IN THE U.S. MARINE CORPS FORCES RESERVE

As president and chief operating officer of Brookfield-based The Noble Group, Tyler Weston has led several initiatives in the past 18 months. In 2020, he and The Noble Group’s chief executive officer Dan Hlavachek co-founded Noble Six Inc., a company focusing on workplace and operational safety. In 2020, Weston oversaw the creation and launch of a new business unit, Noble Backgrounds. “These two businesses were the spearhead that kicked off the complete rebranding in 2021 of Noble into The Noble Group. The goal was to create a full-service risk mitigation group where customers could have all of their employment screening and operational safety needs under one roof. Tyler spent countless hours working with our marketing director, sales team and myself to recreate and relaunch our businesses into the market,” Hlavachek said. “Tyler is a transformational leader. He leads from the front and empowers our employees. Weston recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Executive MBA program, earning a 3.94 GPA and graduating toward the top of his class. He will be attending Concordia University Wisconsin beginning in January 2023, working towards a doctor of education in leadership in innovation and continuous improvement. Weston served six years in the United States Marine Corps Forces Reserve. Assigned to an infantry battalion and a field artillery battalion, he was deployed to Niger, Africa, in 2006. He served on active duty with Recruiting Station Milwaukee and as a squad leader and non-commissioned officer. In April 2021, Weston was chosen to be the state of Wisconsin affiliate for the National Drug and Alcohol Screening Association, and he has served on the leadership board of the Wisconsin Veterans Chamber of Commerce.

December 8, 2022 | 7:00-10:30am Italian Community Center Join us as we recognize innovators and entrepreneurs taking the southeastern Wisconsin economy to the next level. Leaders from growing companies will share insights on how they built their businesses, developed new products and overcame challenges. This event will inspire attendees to pursue their own ambitions. Lifetime Achievement winner Wayne Oldenburg will discuss lessons learned from building multiple successful companies while Regional Spirit winner Theresa Nemetz shares how showing off the city and its dining options has translated into a fast-growing business. Following the awards presentation, stay for breakout sessions on topics like taking an idea from concept to implementation, best practices to sustain a culture of innovation, and financing strategies for entrepreneurs and innovators.

SAM ROGERS STRATEGIC DIRECTOR

CONCERNED VETERANS FOR AMERICA U.S. ARMY, SERVED THREE TIMES IN AFGHANISTAN, TWICE ENLISTED AND ONCE AS A CIVILIAN INTELLIGENCE OFFICER

Colleagues say that Sam Rogers, strategic director of Concerned Veterans for America, has a sincere leadership style that is based on the military tradition of leaders eating last. “Sam puts the mission and the people he works with before himself in everything that he does. He has been a tireless advocate for the veteran community and in ending the war in Afghanistan,” said Eric Searing, director of external relations at Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty. Rogers led the Midwest national campaign at CVA to end the Afghan war for two years. He built coalitions across traditionally separated groups, engaging thousands of people to support the effort. As the conflict concluded, he quickly pivoted to supporting Afghan refugee efforts, both with nonprofits and ad-hoc coalitions in Afghanistan as well as domestic nonprofit partners. He secured more than $250,000 in refugee care package supplies to deliver to Fort McCoy. Rogers has been a repeat guest on Lake Effect and Central Time on WPR, CNN Prime Time, talk radio and podcasts around the country, and he’s been published by The Hill, Newsweek, Capitol Times, HuffPost and others. Rogers builds support networks for young veterans leaving the service, advocates for veteran health care access rights and advises state and federal officials on military and veteran policies.

Lifetime Achievement: Wayne Oldenburg, CEO, Oldenburg Group Inc. Regional Spirit: Theresa Nemetz, Founder & Chief Experience Officer, Milwaukee Food & City Tours

biztimes.com/ieforum Sponsors:

In the Army, he served with distinction in Afghanistan three times, twice enlisted and once as an Army civilian intelligence officer. Rogers is a father of four and a Navy spouse to his wife Danielle, who is currently serving in the Naval Reserve. Rogers currently serves on the boards of the Veteran Business Outreach Center, America’s Future (Milwaukee) and the North Shore Classical Academy. He formerly served on the Milwaukee County War Memorial Center 30:20 Committee and Veterans Advisory Council to the Chancellor (University of Wisconsin System).

Supporting:

biztimes.com / 35

ROBERT LAZLO

DAN PETERSON

DIRECTOR OF SALES AND MARKETING

CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER

GUARDIAN BUSINESS SOLUTIONS

STEELE SOLUTIONS INC.

SERVED IN THE CONNECTICUT ARMY NATIONAL GUARD

SERVED 22 YEARS IN THE WISCONSIN ARMY NATIONAL GUARD, TWO COMBAT TOURS IN IRAQ

Robert Lazlo, director of sales and marketing at Guardian Business Solutions in Brookfield, has been in the ERP industry for more than 42 years. “He brings a wealth of knowledge and experiences to those who he works with, and the customers that he serves,” said Nicholas Rolf, sales consultant at Guardian. “He is driven to see those around him grow personally and professionally. Technology is constantly advancing, and Bob is passionate about having us on the cutting edge of technology in our industry.,” “He sees technology opportunities as a way to help our customers and the business. Having been with Guardian for more than 24 years, he is dedicated to the success of our organization and his customers. Because of his passion for technology, as a leadership team member, he is consistently bringing new and innovative ideas to the forefront of the organization,” Rolf added. Lazlo was a member of Co. B, 1st Battalion, 169th Infantry, Connecticut Army National Guard. He completed Non-Commissioned Officer Academy schooling in Niantic, Connecticut. He was delegated as a company sniper for a time and served as a squad leader and platoon sergeant. “As a professional, he has taken those skills of being patient, following protocol, accuracy, selfimprovement and paying attention to the environment around him, which are all key elements that helped him successfully serve as a soldier as well as a business leader,” Rolf said. “The leadership that he learned from his time in the Army as a sergeant and his dedication and passion for what he does has made it an honor to work side by side with him. Bob cares more about the success of those around him and the success of the company over his own personal success.”

As chief information officer at Franklin-based Steele Solutions Inc., Daniel Peterson is responsible for the overall strategic IT plan, working to develop and deliver efficiencies through automation, programming and reporting across the Steele Solutions organization. Peterson is responsible for hardware, helpdesk and internal web applications and is a member of the leadership team. According to colleagues, Peterson’s experience with leadership started long before he joined Steele Solutions. “I have known Dan Peterson for more than 22 years; he is a proven leader in both the U.S. Army and also in his community,” said Cheryl Muskus, president at Muskus Management Corp. During his 22 years in the military, Peterson has had two tours in Iraq, and he currently provides leadership as a battalion commander to approximately 600 soldiers and infantrymen in the U.S. Army National Guard. He has served in numerous roles ranging from squad leader to battalion executive officer prior to his current assignment. During his two combat tours to Iraq, he served as a squad leader and then as the recon platoon leader. Peterson is a graduate of U.S. Army Ranger School, U.S. Army Pathfinder school and the Advanced Operations Course. He has been recognized with various awards and medals including the Bronze Star and Army Commendation awards. He is also a leader and volunteer in his Muskego community, Muskus said, coaching and participating in his three daughters’ athletic interests in volleyball, softball and rugby. He and his wife, Susan (also an Army veteran who served in Iraq), in 2020 started the nonprofit organization, A Hero’s Day, which works to provide outdoor events and experiences to veterans as well as scholarship opportunities.

JASON YOUNG PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

3UP METAL WORKS SERGEANT, U.S. MARINE CORPS, 1994-2000; SERGEANT, WISCONSIN ARMY NATIONAL GUARD, 2000-2007

Jason Young, president and CEO of Milwaukee-based 3Up Metal Works, is a military veteran who works for veterans’ causes and supplier diversity. “Jason runs a relationship-oriented business that seeks to engage and partner with other veteran-owned operations. He educates customers on the value of working with veteran-operated vendors and suppliers and works with these companies to help them utilize the resources available to aid them,” said Bryan Regnier, president of VetBizTV, and a fellow veteran.

Thank You Bob; for your willingness and bravery to serve this country. The freedom that we have been given, is because of men and women like you who have sacrificed their time and their lives to make this country what it is. You are a tremendous asset to Guardian Business Solutions, and we thank you for your leadership and dedication.

While Young was serving as president at Price Erecting, the company received a Veteran Friendly Company of the Year Award from the Wisconsin Veterans Chamber. Young was also named one of The Daily Reporter’s 2021 Newsmakers of the Year in the “Veteran-Owned Business of the Year” category. Young also supports the Milwaukee County War Memorial Center, co-chairing its Veteran Advisory Council, comprised of Global War on Terror-era veterans who advise the center on events and activities that align with its mission. He also serves on the advisory board for the Center for Veterans Issues and is especially active in publicizing its events and securing donations and contributions to support them. Young served as a Sergeant in the Marine Corps from 1994-2000 and a Sergeant in the Wisconsin Army National Guard from 2000-2007. While in the Marines, he served in the 11th Marines Artillery and as Marine Embassy Security in Guatemala City and Kazakhstan. While in the National Guard, he served as Gun Chief with the 126th Field Artillery Unit and in Operation Iraqi Freedom, 5th and 10th Group SF Support at Camp Severson in Iraq.

guardianerp.com | (262) 827-3000 36 / BizTimes Milwaukee NOVEMBER 7, 2022

“Under Jason’s leadership, 3Up Metal Works has tremendously expanded both its customer base and revenue,” Regnier said.

KRIS HARRINGTON

KYLE CRUM

PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

SENIOR MANAGER FOR ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY

GENALPHA TECHNOLOGIES

ROCKWELL AUTOMATION INC.

U.S. NAVY, FOUR YEARS AS A MACHINIST’S MATE, INCLUDING TIME ON THE USS CIMARRON IN PEARL HARBOR

SERVED AS A U.S. NAVY OFFICER, WAS DEPLOYED OVERSEAS IN 2013-14 ON A YEAR-LONG GLOBAL ANTI-TERRORISM MISSION

After serving in the U.S. Navy, Kris Harrington started a career in finance and aftermarket support in the mining industry. After working with South Milwaukee-based Bucyrus International Inc. and Caterpillar Inc., she went on to be a founding partner of Brookfield-based GenAlpha Technologies.

Colleagues say Kyle Crum is Milwaukee-based Rockwell Automation’s futurist. As senior manager of advanced technology, he oversees the Advanced Technology Laboratory where he leads a research team that helps to define the future of industrial automation. Crum holds three patents and 13 pending patents.

GenAlpha offers a digital sales software platform for manufacturers providing e-commerce and other digital tools. Harrington currently serves as the company’s president and chief operating officer and leads both the operations and marketing teams.

“Kyle is an excellent organizational leader,” said Dave Vasko, Rockwell’s senior director of advanced technology and Kyle’s manager. “He focuses on developing processes to ensure we make the most of everyone’s contributions, and he constantly works to develop his team and build our organizational capability.”

“Her tenure with GenAlpha shows resiliency, starting a company with no customers and today competing against the largest software providers in the world,” said Kevin Heisler, chief financial officer at GenAlpha.

Crum was an officer in the U.S. Navy, primarily stationed at the Pentagon attached to the joint staff in the National Military Command Center as a watch stander. He specialized in operational intelligence. He was deployed overseas in 2013-14 on a year-long global anti-terrorism mission, during which he served on nearly every continent. His military decorations include the Information Dominance Warfare Insignia, a Navy Commendation Medal, three Navy Achievement Medals, the Volunteer Service Ribbon and the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal. He is also authorized to wear the Joint Chiefs of Staff Identification Badge.

A key part of GenAlpha’s success has been creating brand awareness, and Harrington has taken center stage in these efforts. She has grown into a leading industry expert in e-commerce and the aftermarket. She regularly appears on podcasts, webinars and at in-person events speaking on a variety of topics. These efforts are a key contributor to record brand awareness metrics that GenAlpha has achieved in recent years. “Kris has a leadership style that motivates employees to work hard and become successful. Her military training is apparent in her work ethic and strong attention to detail. Her strong desire to serve customers has been embedded into the GenAlpha culture and is a key ingredient to our success,” said Heisler. Harrington is an advocate for supporting women in business and a promoter of manufacturing in Wisconsin. She currently serves as a volunteer at the Bucyrus Museum, which provides the public with access to records to explore history of innovation and technology. She is also a supporter of environmental sustainability. She has a side business, “Two Girls and a Farm,” which is a local farm with a mission of connecting people with nature through food. Harrington spent four years as a machinist’s mate, including time on the USS Cimarron in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Crum supports the veterans community as treasurer of Rockwell’s Military, Veterans & Allies Group, an employee resource group supporting military veterans. The group’s mission includes helping veterans develop through mentorship at Rockwell to reach their career and personal goals as well as actively engaging veteran communities to improve veterans’ quality of life. MVAG also strives to attract and develop talent and create a culture that provides opportunities for veterans at Rockwell. Crum mentors beyond Rockwell as well. At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he is an adjunct professor in the Industrial Engineering department; a board member of the Connected Systems Institute, a collaboration between industry (including Rockwell) and academia; and a startup mentor at the UWM Research Foundation. At Discovery World, Kyle volunteered with a new STEM exhibit and leads a Rockwellsponsored exhibit.

N O TA B L E V E T E R A N E X E C U T I V E BILL BERRIEN CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

PINDEL GLOBAL PRECISION U.S. NAVY SEAL TEAM OFFICER, PLATOON COMMANDER, 1991-99

Bill Berrien served on active duty as a U.S. Navy SEAL team officer and platoon commander from 1991 to 1999. In 2012, he acquired Pindel Global Precision, a New Berlin-based contract manufacturer of precision machined parts. According to colleagues, Berrien often shares an adage from his military service: “Once you leave the SEAL Teams, you spend the rest of your life trying to re-create the SEAL Teams.” “Bill has done just that (at Pindel),” said Paul Jelacic, vice president of commercial banking at Old National Bank. “Bill has grown a world-class team of advanced manufacturing professionals. Pindel actively recruits and hires veterans, and several leaders throughout the company are veterans. Further, he and his team created an industry-best-in-class professional development program (modeled on the military’s rigorous development and promotion process for its Non-Commissioned Officer Corps), and Bill has become a vocal and passionate advocate for new and innovative approaches to lifelong upskilling.” During the COVID-19 pandemic, Berrien and his team pivoted Pindel to provide ventilator components to several original equipment manufacturers, including SpaceX, and then leveraged that flexibility to incubate an additional division, Liberty Precision, which focuses on aerospace, defense and advanced energy customers.

Congrats, Bill! Bill Berrien CEO Pindel Global Precision

We are so proud that a partner of ours has been named a Notable Veteran Executive. Thank you for your service as a Navy SEAL and for your entrepreneurial spirit!

Outside of Pindel, Berrien has been a 12-year ambassador for the Navy SEAL Foundation. Ten years ago, he helped initiate its inaugural Midwest Tribute Dinner, which has grown to raise millions of dollars for the foundation to support the surviving spouses and children of SEALs killed and wounded in action and training. Berrien got an undergraduate degree in politics from Princeton University and graduate degrees from Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies and Harvard Business School. He also graduated with Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) Class 181, where his class recognized him with the “Fire in the Gut” award for highest level of motivation and perseverance.

biztimes.com / 37

JOHN RUSKIN

JESSE AUGUSTINE

DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

PAYROLL MANAGER

SPECIALIZED ACCOUNTING SERVICES

WALBEC GROUP

SERVED 20 YEARS IN THE U.S. NAVY PROVIDING MEDICAL SUPPORT

HAS SERVED 16 YEARS IN THE U.S. ARMY, DEPLOYED ONCE TO IRAQ, TWICE TO AFGHANISTAN AND ONCE TO UKRAINE; IN 2009, TRANSFERRED TO WISCONSIN NATIONAL GUARD

John Ruskin is a partner with Pleasant Prairie-based Specialized Accounting Services and serves as director of business development. Over the past 13 years, SAS has grown from two employees to more than 100. “Jack is a true servant leader, and if you ask him about his passion, he will say it’s seeing people be happy and achieve their dreams,” said Jamie Hogan, chief executive officer and managing partner at Specialized Accounting Services. “Often times, Jack is the first person a new business owner talks with when they’re nervously making a life-changing decision — potential business owners just trying to live out their dreams, and Jack is there to help guide them down the right path. One brand in particular works exclusively with veterans. Jack has helped multiple owners in this brand, and countless other SAS clients, achieve their dreams.” Ruskin spent 20 years in the U.S. Navy providing medical support as a chief petty officer, including medical corpsman at the Portsmouth, Virginia Naval Medical Center and in the 2nd Medical Battalion Force Service Support Group at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, among other posts. “Jack’s specific accomplishments over the past year include signing up a record number of new clients for SAS, training dozens of territory sales managers for NAPA Auto Parts, and being featured in multiple news articles,” Hogan said. According to another SAS colleague, “Jack is one of the most humble and kind leaders I have ever worked with, he has helped me in so many ways.” Outside of the SAS office, Ruskin spends time with people in the community. He is a newly ordained deacon at his church. He also spends time supporting residents in multiple nursing homes in the area.

Jesse Augustine, payroll manager at Pewaukee-based Walbec Group began in the scheduling department, where he built and managed the daily, 10-day and long-range crew production schedule for southeastern Wisconsin projects. He has consistently led initiatives to help to improve processes throughout the family of companies, according to Cass Blashka, marketing communications manager at Walbec. Most recently, he has mapped the entire payroll process for Walbec. The team has five active projects through which they achieve new efficiencies, reduce redundancy and improve the payroll process for all Walbec companies. “The success of this initiative made him the best choice for payroll manager,” Blashka said. After obtaining his Six Sigma Black Belt in 2021, Augustine was promoted to operational improvement coach, where he assisted in managing Six Sigma projects throughout Walbec. He coached Green Belt project leaders through developing project charters, the DMAIC process, solution implementation and project close-out. He has also led several Six Sigma projects and continues to take on new projects. Augustine served 16 years in the Army and reached the rank of lieutenant colonel. Augustine was commissioned to active duty in 2005. He was deployed once to Iraq, twice to Afghanistan and once to Ukraine. In 2009, he transferred to the Wisconsin National Guard. He has served as the operation officer, brigade engineer officer, chief of staff and battalion commander. “Jesse’s leadership philosophy is simple: be the best person you can be. To Jesse, this means focusing on the fundamentals, remaining actively involved and accessible and leading by example by prioritizing personal and professional growth daily. He understands that moral and ethical character is never a choice for leaders; they are the expectation. He works daily to model the character he desires to see throughout Walbec by recognizing exceptional effort and investing time in developing leaders,” Blashka said.

congratulations! Jack Ruskin

2022 Notable Veteran Executive

When you’re ready to go beyond a typical accounting firm that only fulfills tasks to one that drives real guidance, SAS is ready to talk. Let’s have a conversation about the deeper level of commitment and care we bring to the table.

C O N TA C T U S Your love of country is inspiring to us all! Thank you for

To learn more about how we can help you build the value of your business, contact us at 262-891-3647 or visit sas-cpas.com.

your servant leadership and dedication to your team at SAS.

Serving more than 100 Franchise Brands

Strategies INNOVATION

Take steps to understand your customer’s challenges

can assure continued technological leadership. He asked: 1. Are your company’s innovative efforts focused on searching for new technologies in a specifically focused market segment? 2. Does your team fully understand the needs of those customers completely? 3. Is the team within your organization deliberately kept small and separate from the team responsible for its current technologies? 4. Does the team understand their purpose is to fail early and inexpensively in testing their disruptive technology?

WHEN YOU WATCH or read about Space X’s latest feats in space, or when you learn new facts about what’s going on in the space station, or when space modules are landing on Mars, you know for sure there’s a lot of highly competent suppliers providing all of the components necessary to make those journeys possible. Welcome to Grant Anderson’s world. He is the co-founder, president and chief executive officer of Paragon Technologies, providing safety and climate controls for astronauts making those journeys. The company’s vision is to possess an “adventuresome spirit seeking solutions that allow humans to expand their previous limits.” It would not surprise you that he is quick to quote passages from the book, “The Innovator’s Dilemma,” written by Clayton Christensen, a guru of disruptive innovation who died in 2020. Christensen opens the book with a cogent observation: How was Amazon capable of displacing Sears as the number one go-to option for American consumers wanting to purchase needed products or services? His inquiry was very important because all business leaders fully understand their companies are subject to disruption in the marketplace in ways they could never have anticipated. So, what is the prescription for staying ahead of the curve of disruptive technology? Christensen suggested several practices that

Grant Anderson embeds those practices in how Paragon delivers innovative solutions to its customers’ needs. Since those frequently require government compliance, they have to get it right. When his team works for the customer, they spend a lot of time upfront trying to understand what the customer’s real challenges will be. Frequently, new technology is so sophisticated they don’t fully understand their needs. At the end of that process, they put down the insights they picked up from the customers in writing. They want the customer to approve that working document. If the customer suggests changes, those are incorporated and agreed to in writing. They do not employ PowerPoint. Anderson quotes Yale professor Edward Tufte, who argued in a feature article in “The Wire” magazine that PowerPoint has become more of a tool that helps the presenter rather than the audience; hence, it becomes more of a lobbying tool than a precise analysis of the real problems. The advantage of Paragon’s approach is that the risk of new technology is shared between you, the developer and the customer. It reduces the risk of blindsiding the customer. Paragon also ensures that the new technology teams are kept small and focused in accordance with Christiansen’s recommendation. Finally, the testing stage is performed using the lean methodology. They try to test inexpensively so they can adjust until they find a workable solu-

Staying ahead of disruptive technology

tion. Sometimes that means dates for completion have to be adjusted or altered. This is preferable to the typical American approach to innovation: “Shoot ready aim.” But remember that taking the time upfront in the innovative process dramatically reduces the risk of failure when your product is ready for market. Or with Paragon, one might say it’s ready for launch! They cannot afford to have failures. I recommend you meet with teams assigned to any new technological initiative for a customer and lay out the steps they will religiously follow until the customer signs off and is ready for market. Lastly, Paragon is continually asking its customers that are strategic partners what new and innovative technology trends they see coming. What do they feel is not working? That information is captured and helps Paragon focus on presenting new and innovative ideas to solve those potential or emerging problems. n

DAN STEININGER Dan Steininger, author, national and international speaker, and business advisor is president of Steininger & Associates LLC, which helps companies drive innovation. He can be reached at Danstein101@gmail.com. biztimes.com / 39

Strategies FAMILY BUSINESS

Entrepreneurial life cycle Plan an exit strategy IMAGINE YOURSELF in a darkened theater preparing to see the preview of a new play about the life cycle of a fictional family business. The playwrights and producers are the entrepreneurs who founded the company and their employees are the actors. The play consists of four acts with an encore. This play takes place in a suburb of Milwaukee. ACT ONE: A husband and wife are sitting at their kitchen table discussing the possibility of starting their own business. They are imagining who would be their customers and how they would cultivate these relationships. They know they are taking a chance by giving up their current positions and venturing into the unknown. They decide to take the leap, and the entrepreneurial stage of the company’s life cycle begins. ACT TWO: As they enter the growth stage, the husband and wife begin to market their business to potential customers. They acquire small books of business, and as the volume grows, they begin to acquire office space and hire their first employees. Year after year their volume of business grows and so does their staff. They begin to upgrade their staff in order to acquire large and more involved projects. As their staff and business grows, they require more capital and they build ongoing relationships with local financial institutions. It soon becomes obvious that they need a business plan and hire a consultant to aid them in its development and implementation. ACT THREE: The business quickly enters the rap40 / BizTimes Milwaukee NOVEMBER 7, 2022

id growth stage. The need for team leaders and a more formal structure becomes obvious. A leadership team is formed, and job descriptions are formalized. The company soon grows out of their existing space and a larger facility is acquired to accommodate additional equipment and employees. The roles of each employee become more defined as more projects are handled by teams. A number of new employees are added in order to meet the demands of the additional business. The husband and wife now assume the roles as president and chief executive officer and become the face of the business. Their reputation in the greater business community grows as they take on larger more complex projects.

a firm that specializes in acquiring potential suiters for your business. You want to develop options that are best for your team and your employees. This planning is not to be last minute but one that should have been developed over a long period of time. Your goal is to achieve the maximum payback for your years of labor and dedication, and when the final curtain comes down, it’s to a standing ovation. n

ACT FOUR: As the business begins to enter the mature stage, and the rate of growth slows, the founders begin to consider the next step. It has been more than 30 years since they started the business, and they want to reap the benefits of their labors. They begin to consider a number of potential exit strategies. They could sell the business to a competitor or to a member of their management team. Their desire is to keep the entity intact, while rewarding the long-term employees for their loyalty. After much introspection, they decide to sell to a senior member of their management team. ENCORE: The owners agree to stay on for a period of time so the business relationships that have been cultivated over the years remain intact during the ownership transition. The business is now being run by the new management team, with the previous owners acting as mentors and advisors. So, what is the purpose of this dramatization? It is to illustrate the importance of having a carefully thought-out exit strategy for your privately owned business. It is also critical that you involve experts in your planning, such as attorneys, financial planners and

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

COACHING

Employee empowerment The movement towards the relocation of power THE HIERARCHY organization and top-down management style has slowly been eroded with a more collaborative communication style – one that demands all stakeholders be heard. Diversity and inclusion has also become a big initiative, in which companies want to recognize minorities so that those groups are no longer oppressed and are instead respected for their differences. More recently, employees are demanding worklife balance and the hybrid model, which would allow them to work at least part time from home. This would require trust, believing that employees know what is needed to get their job done. What do all of these movements indicate? A need for the relocation of power and a flatter organizational style of decision making. It is a movement towards empowerment, where employees once felt oppressed in decision making. To have a relocation of power, leaders need to understand the concept of locus of control. Locus of control is the degree to which people believe they have control over the outcomes of their lives, as opposed to outside sources dictating decisions for them. It is my experience, as a leadership coach for 33 years, that leaders don’t oppress their employees consciously. Yes, oppression is the result of dominance, but dominance is often the result of the fear of letting go and allowing someone else to make decisions. This can be a result from conditioning that tells leaders: They must have all the answers and be the smartest ones in the room to justify their po-

sition and salary. To relocate the power back to the employees, there needs to be a paradigm shift first. The first paradigm shift is regarding the role of the leader. If the leader relocates the power to the employees, what is their role? In an organization where the leader relocates the power to the employee, the role of the leader is to watch over the company at a 10,000-foot level so they can notice shifts in the marketplace and be aware of their company’s corresponding strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that exist as a result. That means they must be keen on intuitively determining a S.W.O.T. Analysis quickly in order to pivot if necessary. Secondly, instead of barking out orders, leaders must be curious so they can effectively engage the brilliance in their employees. This means their job would be to ask good questions to stimulate greater ideation, enthusiasm and ownership of the solution needed to succeed. In contrast, when leaders believe they are the only one who knows the right answer, they take the locus of control away from their employees and tell them what to do. Finally, the role of a leader who shifts the power back to their key people would become the coach. This means they would stand on the sidelines and ask their employees, “What’s the plan to win this game with the current situation at hand?” By effectively presenting the indicators that require a new gameplan, the leader gives the locus of control back to the players to take ownership to win the game. Remember: The best decisions = the solution + the buy-in By allowing your key players to come up with the solutions and plan, leaders get greater buy-in. Below are key areas to consider when measuring how well you relocate the power in your organization: MINDSET: » Is the mindset in the organization one of fear, deprivation-thinking, constant change from upper management and top-down communication? If you have said “yes” to any of these questions, you still have not relocated the power to the employees.

VISION, VALUES AND GOALS: » Is the S.W.O.T. Analysis shared with the employees so that they can buy into it? » Are employees asked their opinion of the vision, values, goals and solutions to address the S.W.O.T. Analysis? » Does management consider the input and show employees how the vision, values and goals were derived, based on this input? » Do employees frequently collaborate over the action plans to attain the initiatives needed to succeed? » Are employees enthusiastically engaged in the tasks needed to complete the initiatives? » Do the leaders regularly coach, benchmark and celebrate progress to keep employees engaged? If you said “yes” to most of these questions, you have effectively relocated the power to your key employees. As you can see, relocating the power requires a leader to engage employees in the creation of the goals and plan of action. It also requires a continual engagement of problem solving and recognition of progress made. When an organization leads in this way, there is an effective relocation of power that ignites engagement and greater productivity. n

SUSAN K. WEHRLEY Susan K. Wehrley is an executive coach and the author of 12 books on empowerment. You can learn more about her at BIZremedies.com. She can be reached at Susan@BIZremedies.com or (414) 581-0449. biztimes.com / 41

Strategies A BRIEF CASE

How does your company create a more innovative or entrepreneurial culture and not rely on the past? Jake Schinker Matt Lautz Founder and CEO Neostella “My business and my passion are technology. All my businesses have been tech-centered in some way, and to succeed in this space requires an entrepreneurial spirit. It’s that ‘high-risk, high-reward’ mentality that’s been the impetus for all tech breakthroughs – innovation doesn’t happen when you’re playing it safe. There will absolutely be mistakes and setbacks when you embrace that mentality. I have always taken the approach of not fearing those mistakes or setbacks because, ultimately, it’s in those periods that you learn and develop the most. From a leadership perspective, I encourage Neostella employees to think the same way, to not be afraid of making mistakes, to take some risks. “Looking at current economic conditions, I could very easily choose to play it safe and continue doing things the way we have always done them. But I look at this point in time as an opportunity. Organizationally, we encourage each other to look at trends and figure out how to leverage them, to create new ways of doing things that no one has tried before, whether that’s developing a new process automation or a new way of doing business: try it. And because of that, we have a lot of interesting new ideas and products coming to market right now that will be game changers – not just for us, but for our clients as well.”

42 / BizTimes Milwaukee NOVEMBER 7, 2022

Co-founder and brand director Eagle Park Brewing “Throughout Eagle Park’s relatively short history, we have always tried to prioritize and foster innovation as opposed to relying on our industry’s status quo. We work constantly to gather inspiration from breweries, distilleries, wineries, restaurants, bars, and beyond. Something we have learned is that being the first isn’t always the best. Many of our ideas are implemented quickly, while others may take years to develop. It all comes down to timing and being able to separate short-term fads from long-term opportunities. “This is an important distinction, but it should be noted that short-term fads aren’t necessarily a bad thing. If we have the tools to pursue what we see to be a short-term fad with minimal risk or modification to our existing processes, it might still be a great opportunity for multiple reasons. One common reason is exposure of our brand to a new audience. I think it’s common to get stuck in your industry’s bubble and not think outside the box. In reality, Eagle Park has a relatively small customer base. I’m personally reminded of this every time I meet someone who has never heard of us or what we do. This helps to guide us in our choices of what’s next.”

Britt Gottschalk Founder and CEO Geno.Me “Interoperability between health systems has been, and continues to be, a challenge. From getting access to accurate patient data, to transferring health data to the right medical professionals, these elements influence the ability of our physicians to provide the highest standards of care to individuals. The problem that Geno.Me aims to solve is improving health care access for all, and we’re starting at the biological level. Streamlining the pipeline of health information from patient to researcher expedites the ability for population health data to directly influence pharmaceutical research and treatment plan development. “The launch of the Geno.Me platform last month was the start of a new kind of ecosystem. Currently, the platform provides access to linked, de-identified, electronic medical records and genetic reports for various populations, while compensating individuals that contribute their health data. By combining both a patient-centric and research-centric approach, we address the existing health information gap by providing the most accurate information in relation to inherited and environmental health conditions within individuals. It is possible for people to have a convenient and affordable ongoing relationship with their entire network of medical professionals. Our approach is working to establish this as a cultural norm within the health care system.” n

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Biz Connections BIZ UPDATE – BIZ PEOPLE CELTICMKE, THE ORGANIZERS BEHIND MILWAUKEE IRISH FEST, ANNOUNCE SUCCESSION PL AN as the current leaders in those respective positions plan to retire.

The board of directors for CelticMKE, the nonprofit organization that produces the annual Milwaukee Irish Fest, have announced a succession plan for two key leadership positions, which will go into effect in 2024 and 2025. Caitlin WardHegedus, a Brookfield, Wisconsin native, will take the helm as the executive director of CelticMKE in three years, and Molly Modlinski, a Franklin, Wisconsin native, will take over the role of Festival Operations Director in two years,

“Throughout the past year, the board prepared and adopted a strategic succession plan to ensure the long-term success of the organization,” explained Matt Jendrzejczyk, CelticMKE’s board president. “By planning ahead now, we will be able to execute a smooth transition, whilst continuing to build upon the talent and experience of our existing leaders.” To learn more about CelticMKE and read the full announcement, visit celticmke.com.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

LEGAL SERVICES

Derek Pawlak Joins Oarsman Capital as Portfolio Manager and Research Analyst

We are pleased to announce the addition of Derek Pawlak to the Oarsman Capital team. “Derek brings to Oarsman an important mix of analytical skills and indepth investment management experience. In an ever-changing investment world, he has the ability, expertise, and knowledge to make logical and well-founded decisions – exactly what we are looking for in our management teams”, says Bob Phelps, President of Oarsman Capital. Mr. Pawlak has 35 years of financial industry experience. Oarsman Capital, Inc. is a Milwaukeebased investment management firm with additional offices in Brookfield and Prairie du Sac.

von Briesen welcomes George S. Peek to the Milwaukee office

George joins as a Shareholder in the Trusts & Estates Section. He has more than 20 years of experience in assisting clients in a broad range of estate planning and administration services and has also litigated several complex estate planning issues.

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Contact Linda Crawford or your account executive at advertise@biztimes.com to learn more about sponsorship opportunities. To register for upcoming events, visit biztimes.com/events 44 / BizTimes Milwaukee NOVEMBER 7, 2022

NONPROFIT UMOS AWARDED $56.9 MILLION USDA GRANT TO PROVIDE COVID RELIEF TO FARM WORKERS, MEATPACKERS AND GROCERY WORKERS The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded 15 nonprofits more than $600 million in Farm and Food Workers Relief Program grants to assist farm workers, meatpackers and grocery workers nationwide with COVID-19 relief payments. Milwaukee-based nonprofit UMOS Inc. will receive $56.9 million to implement the program in 13 states. It’s the largest grant in the history of UMOS, which was established in 1965. UMOS will deliver services directly in Wisconsin, Illinois, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Missouri and Texas. A one-time direct payment of $600 will be made to more than 75,000 eligible applicants nationwide within a two-year period. In Wisconsin, UMOS plans to disperse more than $8.9 million in checks and/or debit cards to more than 10,000 eligible agricultural workers (including dairy) and approximately 4,800 meatpackers. “We applaud USDA for appropriating direct relief payments

for eligible frontline farmworkers, meatpackers and grocery workers to help defray costs associated with previous or ongoing purchases of personal protective equipment and other expenses incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as testing, quarantining, vaccinations, childcare costs and other reasonable and necessary personal, family or living expenses,” said Lupe Martinez, president, and chief executive officer of UMOS. UMOS doubled in size during the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing its market service territory from seven states to 13. The organization has increased its annualized grant contract revenue from $53 million at the end of 2021 to almost $100 million today. The organization plans to partner with other nonprofit organizations in Florida, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Iowa, Indiana and Nebraska to identify eligible workers and assist with the application process. — Andrew Weiland, staff writer

c alendar Next Door will host Educare Talk!, a national conversation about today’s critical need for early childhood education, on Thursday, Nov. 10, from 8:30 to 10 a.m. at the Italian Community Center, 631 E. Chicago St., Milwaukee. The Wisconsin Bike Fed will hold its annual fall fundraising gala, Beer Bikes Bids, on Saturday, Nov. 12, from 6-10 p.m. at Trek Bicycle Corp.’s newly remodeled headquarters, 801 W. Madison St., Waterloo. The Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics (FAST) will host the Autumn’s Angels Frozen Turkey Bowling Classic on Sunday, Nov. 20, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Deer District Beer Garden, 1134 Vel R. Phillips Ave., Milwaukee.

D O N AT I O N R O U N D U P Cousins Subs, through its Catering For a Cure initiative, raised $50,000 for the Starr Children’s Fund, which raises money for pediatric cancer care and research and is part of the Vince Lombardi Cancer Foundation. | Sargento Foods Inc. donated $200 to Hunger Task Force for every double hit by the Milwaukee Brewers throughout the season, resulting in a contribution of $50,200 on behalf of the team. | The Milwaukee Bucks Foundation, Kohler Co. and Jrue and Lauren Holiday are partnering to donate $200,000 of bathroom product upgrades at the Sojourner Family Peace Center and Hope House in Milwaukee and The Women’s Center in Waukesha. | WISN-TV Channel 12, in partnership with the American Red Cross, raised $75,000 to deliver urgent assistance to victims of Hurricane Ian, during its WISN 12 Hurricane Relief Drive.

nonprofit

SPOTLIGHT

MILWAUK EE JA Z Z INS TIT U TE P.O. Box 170472, Milwaukee, 53217-0472 (414) 234-5565 | milwaukeejazzinstitute.org Facebook: facebook.com/MilwaukeeJazzInstitute Instagram: @milwaukeejazzinstitute LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/milwaukee-jazz-institute Year founded: 2019 Mission statement: The Milwaukee Jazz Institute promotes jazz through education and performance, which we believe builds awareness of this art form’s ability to transform lives and strengthen our community. It is also why MJI seeks to expand and diversify the local jazz audience and create opportunities for professional and aspiring musicians. Primary focus: We present concerts year-round at venues throughout the Milwaukee area. Performances this fall will feature MJI’s resident ensemble We Six, international trumpet and vocal star Benny Benack III, the acclaimed trio of Larry Goldings, Peter Bernstein and Bill Stewart, and more. In addition, MJI monthly residencies at the Jazz Estate, Bar Centro and the Jazz Gallery feature faculty performances, student recitals and community jazz jam sessions. Educational opportunities for youth and adults include weekly ensembles, online improvisation and theory courses, Jazz Circle events (free and open to the public), an annual educational jazz festival and summer camps. Employee count: Two staff members and 15 faculty artists

Executive leadership: Mark Davis, founder, artistic director and instructor; Erin LuRae Davis, managing director Board of directors: » Greg Marcus, board president and CEO of Marcus Corp. » Bill Bonifas, board treasurer and executive VP at CBRE » Lynn Lucius, board secretary and owner of Lynn Lucius Consulting » Carl Brown, CEO of Fresh Coast Jazz » Chris Crain, CEO of Better Project Awareness Foundation » Erin Davis, managing director at MJI and CEO of In Its Place LLC » Manty Ellis, jazz artist » Brian Lynch, professor at Frost School of Music and CEO of Holistic MusicWorks » Steve Tilton, attorney at Tilton & Tilton Ways the business community can help: Subscribe to the MJI website, attend an MJI event, sponsor a performance and donate to help us provide more student scholarships and free events for the public. Key fundraising events: » Annual year-end campaign » Pat Petry Celebration Concert, benefiting the Pat Petry Scholarship Fund

Key donors: Bader Philanthropies; Greater Milwaukee Foundation; UPAF; private donors biztimes.com / 45

BizConnections VOLUME 28, NUMBER 12 | NOV 7, 2022

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 | advertising@biztimes.com EDITORIAL: 414-336-7120 | andrew.weiland@biztimes.com REPRINTS: 414-336-7100 | reprints@biztimes.com

SALES & MARKETING

PUBLISHER / OWNER Dan Meyer dan.meyer@biztimes.com DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS Mary Ernst mary.ernst@biztimes.com COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT / OWNER Kate Meyer kate.meyer@biztimes.com

EDITORIAL EDITOR Andrew Weiland andrew.weiland@biztimes.com MANAGING EDITOR Arthur Thomas arthur.thomas@biztimes.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Maredithe Meyer maredithe.meyer@biztimes.com REPORTER Ashley Smart ashley.smart@biztimes.com REPORTER Cara Spoto cara.spoto@biztimes.com

KRM rapid transit in 1943 This Aug. 13, 1943, photo shows a billboard in Racine advertising the Milwaukee Electric Railway and Transport Company’s service between Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee. It promises “Rapid Transit for Essential Wartime Riding” and encourages people to buy war bonds. Service between the cities started in the late 1890s and stopped by the end of 1947. — Photo Courtesy of the Historic Photo Collection / Milwaukee Public Library

Choices to make HARLEY-DAVIDSON and Fiserv, two of the Milwaukee area’s largest companies, are taking different approaches to their corporate headquarters in the post-pandemic world of remote and hybrid work. Harley has long been one of Milwaukee’s most iconic companies, a reminder of Milwaukee’s industrial heritage. The company still has manufacturing operations and a research and development center in the Milwaukee area. But its corporate headquarters, on Milwaukee’s west side, hasn’t fully reopened since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Harley CEO Jochen Zeitz made waves recently when he told Bloomberg that the company plans to repurpose its headquarters and is committed to supporting workers who want to work remotely or in a hybrid structure. “It’s the results that count,” Zeitz said in a LinkedIn post. “The key to delivering those results is flexibility – whether that be in our offices, shared working environments or at home; 46 / BizTimes Milwaukee NOVEMBER 7, 2022

Harley-Davidson will continue to enable both a remote and onsite infrastructure that allows our people to do their jobs effectively.” While many Harley employees probably appreciate the freedom to work from home, the idea that it doesn’t matter where they work is a major blow to Milwaukee. Harley’s headquarters has nearly 900 employees and is an economic anchor for the west side. If its employees aren’t here, the company’s impact on Milwaukee is significantly reduced. Harley hasn’t responded to interview requests to further explain its headquarters plans. Zeitz has made statements saying the company is still committed to Milwaukee and has plans to invest in its headquarters and the city’s west side but didn’t provide specifics. Of course, Harley also still has its museum in Milwaukee and, starting next year, plans to make its reunion event in Milwaukee an annual extravaganza. It’s still an important company for the region but less so with a remote headquarters workforce. Meanwhile, Fiserv recently announced it plans to move its headquarters from a Brookfield office park to downtown Milwaukee, bringing nearly 800 employees there in five years. The banking technology company now LILA ARYAN PHOTOGRAPHY

COMMENTARY

DIRECTOR OF SALES Linda Crawford linda.crawford@biztimes.com SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Christie Ubl christie.ubl@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Paddy Kieckhefer paddy.kieckhefer@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Dylan Dobson dylan.dobson@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Christy Peterson christy.peterson@biztimes.com SALES ADMIN Gracie Schneble gracie.schneble@biztimes.com

ADMINISTRATION ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR Sue Herzog sue.herzog@biztimes.com

PRODUCTION & DESIGN SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER Alex Schneider alex.schneider@biztimes.com

Independent & Locally Owned — Founded 1995 —

ranks #227 on the Fortune 500. Fiserv has long considered a move to downtown Milwaukee to help attract talent. Its future headquarters site is in the middle of the hottest development area in the city – an area that now includes Fiserv Forum and the Deer District, the Bradley Symphony Center, and Milwaukee Tool’s new downtown office. Fiserv CEO Frank Bisignano says the company’s new headquarters will be “a dynamic hub of collaboration and innovation bringing our people together in an inspiring workplace to create opportunity for energizing and career growth experiences.” Office workers have more choices than ever before as to where they live and work. Harley and Fiserv’s HQ plans shows that companies – and cities like Milwaukee - will have to make great efforts to attract talent. Those that offer the best quality of life will be the winners. n

ANDREW WEILAND EDITOR

P / 414-336-7120 E / andrew.weiland@biztimes.com T / @AndrewWeiland

ACX CINEMA

Michael Barstow

5 MINUTES WITH…

MICHAEL BARSTOW Executive vice president ACX Cinemas

OMAHA, NEBRASKA-BASED ACX Cinemas recently announced plans to move into the former iPic Entertainment movie theater, bowling alley and restaurant space at Bayshore shopping center in Glendale. Michael Barstow is the executive vice president of ACX, which operates four cinemas in Nebraska and Iowa. Barstow’s mother and father started ACX Cinemas in 1988. The family grew up in Detroit, and their company has since expanded its presence in the hospitality industry. The Bayshore location will be ACX’s first venture into the Wisconsin market. In a recent interview with BizTimes reporter Ashley Smart, Barstow shared his vision for the space. WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO THE BAYSHORE LOCATION? “It was a bizarre thing. COVID-19 had just shut down basically the whole world in March of 2020, and I was in Chicago. I’ve got a couple of brokers at Mid-America (Real Estate), who are the brokers for the entire complex at Bayshore. I had nothing going on, so they were like, ‘Hey do you want to go check out some place in Milwaukee?’ I was looking at restaurant spaces in Milwaukee, and one of the guys – he didn’t know we had a background in movie theaters – said, ‘Hey, would you want to go check out this movie theater?’

A look inside one of ACX Cinema’s existing locations.

WHAT DOES ACX PLAN TO DO DIFFERENTLY HERE? “I think it’s a different time. Obviously, I think coming out of COVID is a very different time. The world is a little bit different, and I think that changed the model of what a movie-going experience is. I would say our biggest separator goes back to our food and beverage. What we’re going to do in that restaurant, that’s going to drive everything. I think when people think of movie theaters, they immediately think the food can’t be good. I would argue the opposite.” WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FOOD STAPLES? “Kind of our calling card is this Detroit-style pizza. We take the pizza, which is the core, and we surround it with a really cool, extensive small plate menu. A lot of the shareable plates cater really well to that sort of environment. Beyond that, I think our burgers are as good as any burger you can have. We have some wraps, chicken sandwiches and things of that nature. We also have a nice salad collection and pasta as well.” WHAT WORK ARE YOU DOING INSIDE THE AUDITORIUMS? “The bulk of it is the same, but there is a fairly extensive multi-million-dollar renovation that’s happening in that building. Every auditorium is getting completely redone. We’re taking out all the old seats and putting in luxury heated recliners. Within the restaurant space, that’s going to be a fairly significant face lift on the bar and dining portion of it. When you walk into that space, it’s going to feel very different. We want it to feel big and open and get as much light in there as possible. We want to create this elevated experience where you just want to hang out there.” n biztimes.com / 47

Thursday, November 17, 2022 7:00AM Registration & Networking | 7:30-9:45AM Breakfast & Program | Italian Community Center

From the Outside Looking In

How will macroeconomic headwinds impact commercial real estate in the Milwaukee area? Several economic indicators show the economy may be heading into a recession and with the Federal Reserve raising interest rates to fight inflation, all while we try to adapt to a post-pandemic landscape, what is the outlook for the local commercial real estate market in 2023? For some insight, join us at the 2022 BizTimes Commercial Real Estate & Development Conference to hear from industry professionals who will share their perspectives.

Keynote: Geoffrey Kasselman, Partner, Senior Vice President, Workplace Strategy, CRG Kasselman provides clients with “future-proofing” strategies for their real estate holdings and workplaces. He is also an innovation-minded business futurist and global speaker on topics like mobility, sustainability, e-commerce, supply chain and disruptive technologies. His remarks will focus on how big trends in the U.S. and global economies will shape commercial real estate in Milwaukee and the Upper Midwest. Panelists: • Tony Lindsay, Principal, Asset Management, North Wells Capital, LLC (1) • Thomas D’Arcy, Senior Managing Director, Hines (2) • Lafayette Crump, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee (3) Moderator: • Andy Hunt, Vieth Director for the Center for Real Estate, Marquette University (4)

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BizTimes Milwaukee | November 7, 2022

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