Better Business Bureau of Wisconsin Foundation
The Better Business Bureau of Wisconsin Foundation Inc. announced the winners of its Torch Awards for Business Ethics and Integrity. The awards program salutes businesses and charities that demonstrate ethics in the marketplace. The five winners were selected by an independent panel of 12 business ethics experts and announced at a May ceremony at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee. The winners were chosen based on submissions that exemplified excellence in ethical practices, service excellence, reputation, honest advertising, peer recognition, management practices and employee training in ethical behavior within their industries and communities. The winners are: Charity – Innovative Services Inc., Green Bay; Category I (1-10 employees) – Action Organizing Services LLC, Milwaukee; Category II (11-50 employees) – Sure-Dry Basement Systems Inc., Menasha; Category III (51-500 employees) – Paul Davis Restoration & Remodeling, Milwaukee; Category IV (501 or more employees) – Harley-Davidson Motor Co., Milwaukee. The BBB Leader of Integrity Award was presented to Richard Pieper, Sr., non-executive chairman of PPC Partners Inc., for demonstrating a lifetime of fostering ethics, integrity, and character in Wisconsin.
Greater Milwaukee Foundation
The Greater Milwaukee Foundation recognized five area advisors with its annual Professional Adviser of the Year honor last month. The distinction highlights how critical professional advisers are in building relationships with the Greater Milwaukee Foundation and assisting their clients in creating charitable funds to serve the community. This year’s award winners are: Dan Conley, partner of Quarles & Brady LLP in Milwaukee; George Dionisopoulos, partner and business lawyer at Foley & Lardner LLP in Milwaukee; Lecia Johnson, shareholder with the Tax and Employee Benefits Group at Godfrey & Kahn S.C. in Milwaukee; Jason Kohout, estate planning and tax attorney at Foley & Lardner LLP in Milwaukee; and Tim Smith, associate in the Tax and Employee Benefits practice group at Godfrey & Kahn S.C. in Milwaukee. Winners were celebrated during the foundation’s annual Herbert J. Mueller Society luncheon for their help in stewarding Herb Kohl’s $100 million gift to the foundation in December. The Herbert J. Mueller Society exists to recognize the work of professional advisors who are devoted to their clients, philanthropy and the community. The society commemorates the late Herbert Mueller, a local estate planning attorney who played a significant role in building up the foundation.
Valuation Research
Milwaukee-based independent valuation firm Valuation Research Corp. has been named Valuation Firm of the Year by industry peers in the International M&A Awards for the fourth year in a row. The annual M&A Awards recognize top deal teams, firms and professionals who represent best practices in cross border M&A deals. The panel of judges for the competition included experts from 19 companies, including Castle Harlan, Ernst & Young, Garrigues, Proskauer Rose and Shearman & Sterling. More than 500 companies were finalists for the awards, which were divided into categories by size. The VRC award was in the Cross Border Firm of the Year category.
VISIT Milwaukee
VISIT Milwaukee, which markets Milwaukee to tourists, convention organizers and meeting planners, has captured three Gold Hermes Creative awards and one Honorable Mention from the Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals. The awards recognize work the organization produced last year. The Hermes Creative Awards honor creative work completed by corporate marketing and communications departments, advertising agencies, public relations firms, design shops, production companies and freelancers. This year’s awards program drew more than 6,000 entries from an international pool of applicants. VISIT Milwaukee earned recognition for a redesign of company business cards, its 2015 Official Visitors Guide and its 2015 Official Visitors Map. Each creative element was designed by the organization’s marketing and communications department in partnership with Jigsaw LLC, which is its agency of record. The Honorable Mention designation saluted the DearMKE film “Build Moto,” which VISIT Milwaukee produced with About Face media and local film director Matt Mixon. The organization submitted five entries to the Hermes Creative Awards program this year.
Hotel and restaurants break ground at Mayfair
A double groundbreaking ceremony was held on May 21 to celebrate the start of construction of a Homewood Suites hotel and the Bartolotta restaurants planned at the Mayfair Collection development in Wauwatosa.
The Mayfair Collection is the mixed-use development that is being built in stages northeast of Burleigh Street and U.S. Highway 45 in Wauwatosa. Chicago-based HSA Commercial Real Estate is the lead developer for the project. Chicago-based Phoenix Development Partners is developing the hotel and restaurants with a ground lease from HSA.
There are four restaurants planned by Milwaukee-based Bartolotta Restaurants for the Mayfair Collection. A 6,500-square-foot diner called Osgood’s will be built near Highway 45. In addition, a 15,000-square-foot building will be built at Mayfair Collection with three Bartolotta restaurants: a gastropub, a casual French bistro and a casual sushi restaurant.
The three restaurants in the 15,000-square-foot building will be separate and distinct from the customer point of view, but they will share back of the house operations, including the kitchen, said Tim Blum, executive vice president of HSA.
The festivities also included a groundbreaking ceremony for the Homewood Suites hotel, which will have about 140 rooms. Homewood Suites is a brand of Hilton Hotels.
The first phase of the Mayfair Collection opened last year and includes Nordstrom Rack and
Sak’s Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH stores. The second phase is under construction and will include a Whole Foods store.
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