The Pabst Farms development in Oconomowoc is negotiating a deal with Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Hilton Hotels Corp., which would open a Hilton Garden Inn Hotel in the massive development along Interstate 94 and Highway 67. "It’s a good flag and a good product within that flag," said Peter Bell, president of Pabst Farms Development. "It’s got a great reservation system, and they run first-class hospitality units."
If approved by city officials, construction could begin by September, and the hotel could be open by early summer of 2007, Bell said.
The three-story hotel would have 90 to 100 rooms. It would built on a three-acre site just south of an M&I Bank branch that is under construction in Pabst Farms.
The hotel would be in the Village Square portion of Pabst Farms, which will be an area mixed with stores and professional offices. The Village Square area is located just east of the Market Place area at Pabst Farms, which includes a Pick ‘n Save grocery store and other retailers, and just north of the Town Centre area, where Pabst Farms Development and Chicago-based General Growth Properties Inc. recently announced they plan to build a 1-million-square-foot, open-air regional shopping center.
The 1,500-acre, $1 billion Pabst Farms development will have thousands of residents and several retailers, manufacturers and office tenants. In addition, Aurora Health Care hopes to build a hospital in the development.
Once the development is complete, Pabst Farms will have two to four hotels, Bell said.
"These would be flag-type hospitality units," he said.
Hilton Hotels Corp. has 2,800 hotels in more than 80 countries, including Hilton hotels in downtown Milwaukee and Glendale, a DoubleTree hotel in Brookfield, two Hampton Inns in Milwaukee and one in Brookfield and a Hilton Garden Inn on Milwaukee’s far northwest side at 11600 W. Park Place.
The company has more than 220 Hilton Garden Inns in North America. The hotel is designed as a mid-priced hotel that appeals to business and leisure travelers. The Hilton Garden Inns have amenities that include a microwave, refrigerator and coffee maker in each room, a fitness center, pool, restaurant and a 24-hour business center with a computer, high-speed Internet access, copier and fax machine.
"A lot of the business travelers like the Hilton Garden Inn suites," Bell said. "People want these (high-speed) connections in their rooms. The rooms have a nice work area with a desk. Business travelers don’t want to use their computers while sitting on their beds."
Pleasant Prairie
Prime Outlets recently opened its $25 million, 150,000-square-foot expansion, which has increased the size of the outlet mall at I-94 and Highway 165 in Kenosha County to about 400,000 square feet. The expansion is providing space for 20 new stores. Calvin Klein, Guess, Nautica, Adidas, Coach, Eddie Bauer, Bombay, Journeys, Rue 21, Crabtree and Evelyn, Aldo Shoes, Benetton, PacSun, Zumiez and Rockford Shoe Department have opened stores in the mall addition. All except Bombay are new to the outlet mall.
Corning Corelle will open a store there on July 14. Restoration Hardware will open a store there on July 21. In August, Under Armour, Old Navy and Coldwater Creek will also open stores in the outlet mall’s addition.
The largest stores in the Prime Outlets addition will be the 16,000-square-foot Old Navy store and the 11,000-square-foot Restoration Hardware store.
The new stores add more shopping choices to the lineup at Prime Outlets, which already included Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, Gap, DKNY Jeans, J. Crew, Liz Claiborne, Nike, Polo Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger stores.
Oak Creek
According to a commercial real estate source, Opus North Corp. plans to build a 257,000-square-foot distribution center for Corporate Express Inc. in Opus’ 92-acre business park northwest of Howell Avenue and Oakwood Road. Broomfield, Colo.-based Corporate Express provides office and computer supplies, imaging and computer graphics supplies, office furniture, facility supplies, document and print management, desktop software, promotional products and other similar products for businesses.
Delavan
McHenry, Ill.-based NRB Land has acquired the 130-acre Geneva Lakes Kennel Club property at Highway 50 and I-43 for about $8 million, and an adjacent 72-acre vacant property from a group of local land owners for about $6.5 million. The company is marketing the combined 200-acre property to commercial, retail and residential developers. The area near the dog track has become a hotbed for retail development in recent years. Across Highway 50 from Geneva Lakes, Wal-Mart, Kohl’s, Lowe’s and several smaller stores have been built since 2000. Just to the east on Highway 50, Lake Lawn Resort is in the middle of a $390 million renovation and expansion project. Geneva Lakes opened in 1990, but attendance slipped as the dog track struggled to compete with Native American-run casinos. Live racing ended at the track in November and simulcast betting ended there on April 1.
Sussex
LaCrosse Litho Supply LLC plans to move its corporate headquarters to a new building it will construct in Sussex. The company has an agreement in principal to purchase a 5.3-acre site in the Sussex Industrial Park from NAI MLG Commercial. At that site, LaCrosse Litho Supply plans to build a $3 million, 40,000-square-foot building, providing space for its corporate offices and a distribution facility, said owner, president and CEO Randy Peters. LaCrosse Litho is a full-service distribution company for graphic arts. The firm provides equipment, consumables and services to printing companies. The company was founded in LaCrosse. Peters acquired it in 1999 and moved the corporate headquarters to Pewaukee, while maintaining a sales and warehouse facility in LaCrosse. The company leases 20,000 square feet of space at W237 N2889 Woodgate Road in Pewaukee, and needs more room. "We’re doing well, we need a bigger space and I might as well own my own building," Peters said. Construction is expected to begin in September or October and be complete by June of 2007. The company plans to add about five more employees at the headquarters in the next year, Peters said.
Milwaukee
The 236,000-square-foot, 10-story office building at 401 W. Michigan St. in downtown Milwaukee has been vacant since late May when Blue Cross Blue Shield moved to Summit Place in West Allis. The Polacheck Company Inc. is marketing the building for its owner, New York-based iStar Financial Inc. The company is trying to lease the building for office tenants, but would consider selling the building if the right deal came along, said Kevin Armstrong, senior vice president of the office group for Polacheck. iStar needs to find an anchor tenant to re-open the building, because it would cost too much to operate the building with only a few small tenants, he said. The building could benefit from planned improvements in the area, including the planned redevelopment of the Amtrak train station into an intermodal station for trains and buses less than two blocks to the south, Armstrong said.
Zilber Ltd. is giving about five to eight tours of the former Pabst brewery each week to parties interested in participating in its redevelopment, said Mike Mervis, assistant to Zilber Ltd. chairman Joseph Zilber. Zilber Ltd. will close on its purchase of the brewery property from Juneau Avenue Partners LLC on or before Aug. 15, Mervis said. The company is negotiating with city officials to form a public-private partnership to redevelop the site, he said. Several developers and tenants are showing interest in the project, Mervis said. "We are engaged in discussions with a number of national residential (development) companies for both workforce and market-rate housing," he said. "We are also in discussions with three national and one regional hotel chain. We are in active discussions relative to aspects of the retail component, and we continue to place major emphasis on local owners and operators."
Town of Sullivan
The urban sprawl from the Milwaukee area is creeping into Jefferson County. Frank Richter is developing Prairie Ridge, a subdivision with 34 home sites in the Town of Sullivan, which is just west of Waukesha County. The subdivision is being developed on a 62-acre property southwest of Staude Road and West Street, near the unincorporated community of Rome. Richter is selling the lots, which are each more than one acre, for $54,900 to $104,900. Home and lot packages are also available, said Heather Henry of Shorewest Realtors, which is marketing the lots. "This is an exciting opportunity for those looking to build in an area of rural living and farms," Richter said. "While other Jefferson County home sites are at least 35 acres in size, Prairie Ridge is the only place in the area where the home sites are each an affordable, manageable one acre. This will soon be one of the most sought-after neighborhoods in the area."
Rochester
Millgate Development LLC recently began construction for a 10-acre development at the southwest corner of Highway 36 and County Highway D. The project includes a 13,000-square-foot clinic for ProHealth Care (which will be constructed in multiple phases), a 12,000-square-foot multi-tenant retail building and a 5,000-square-foot gas station/convenience store. The intersection of Highways 36 and D will be the last with a traffic signal before the east end of the Burlington bypass, which is under construction and will be complete in 2008. "Our corner will be the gateway to the bypass around Burlington," said Jim Hurst, president of Millgate Development.
Oconomowoc
Dr. Tom Stamus plans to build a 12,843-square-foot multi-tenant medical office building on a vacant 1.4-acre property at 1020 Oconomowoc Parkway.
Marina Degiovanni plans to open a restaurant called Golosi Gelato CafŽ in a 1,575-square-foot space at 162 E. Wisconsin Ave. in downtown Oconomowoc.
Waukesha
DR Development Partners LLC plans to build a 4,000-square-foot and a 6,874-square-foot commercial building on a vacant, two-acre site southwest of Silvernail Road and Grandview Boulevard.
Kenosha
Racine-based Johnson Bank plans to build a 10,000-square-foot branch on a vacant, two-acre site along Highway 50 at 144th Avenue in the Strawberry Creek development. Johnson Bank has more than 50 locations in Wisconsin and Arizona, and about $4 billion in assets. The Strawberry Creek development includes a golf course, which opened earlier this year, and will have about 900 residences, a mixture of single family homes, condos and apartments. In addition to the bank, the development will have about 20,000 square feet of commercial space.
Mukwonago
Waukesha State Bank plans to build a 5,400-square-foot branch just north of the Culver’s restaurant at 1090 N. Rochester St. (Highway 83). Waukesha State Bank has nine locations, all in Waukesha County, and $654 million in total assets.
Andrew Weiland is the managing editor of Small Business Times. Send news about commercial real estate to Andrew.weiland@biztimes.com or by calling him at (414) 277-8181 ext. 120. News can also be sent to Andrew Weiland, Small Business Times, 1123 N. Water St., Milwaukee, WI 53202.
CREcommercial Real Estate Transactions
Leases
Grubb & Ellis|Boerke Company
Aurora Family Service Inc. d.b.a. Consumer Credit Counseling Services leased 3,341 square feet of office space at 4915 S. Howell Ave. Suite 102, Milwaukee, from Towne Realty Inc.
Inland Companies
Concertra Health Services leased 7,514 square feet of office space at Airport Atrium, 5007 S. Howell Ave., Milwaukee.
Walcro Inc. leased 8,348 square feet of flex space at Falls Business Center, W134 N4949 Campbell Dr., Menomonee Falls.
CEPI leased 4,200 square feet of flex space at Eastmound Business Center W226 N665 Eastmound Dr., Waukesha.
DavMar leased 3,800 square feet of flex space at Glendale Business Center, 6575-6693 N. Sidney Place, Glendale.
American Home Mortgage leased 2,773 square feet of retail space at Lexington Square, 11649 N. Port Washington Road, Mequon.
Pipe Fabricators leased 13,343 square feet of flex space at Mahn Court Corporate Center, 7340 S. Howell Ave., Oak Creek.
Walker Forge leased 5,800 square feet of office space at 222 E. Erie St., Milwaukee.
Mid-America Real Estate
Athletic & Theraputic Institute of Milwaukee leased 4,414 square feet of space at Moorland Commons at Moorland and Beloit roads in New Berlin from ES Plesko & Associates.
TJX Companies Inc. leased 30,672 square feet at Maple and County Line roads in Germantown from Continental Properties Co. Inc.
PetSmart Inc. leased 18,505 square feet in Fountain Square, located at Bluemound Road and Executive Drive in Brookfield.
House of Roth leased 1,008 square feet at Mequon Court II, 1300-1400 W. Mequon Road, Mequon, from Court Properties.
Ogden & Company
Granitz Financial Services LLC leased 798 square feet of space in the Oaks Professional Building at 8112 W. Bluemound Road, Wauwatosa.
State Disposal Services LLC leased 11,552 square feet of industrial space at 2751 S. Chase Ave., Milwaukee, from Eagle Properties of Wisconsin LLP.
Polacheck Company
Layer One Media leased 3,933 square feet of space at 309 N. Water St., Milwaukee, from Water Street Lofts LLC.
DSI Distributing Inc. leased 5,000 square feet of space at 20895 Enterprise Ave., Brookfield, from Gerald Nell a.k.a. Sunset Investors.
Golf House of Wisconsin LLC leased 6,387 square feet of space at 11360 W. Theodore Trecker Way, West Allis, from Liberty Property Limited Partnership.
Sales
Grubb & Ellis|Boerke Company
JK Investment Properties LLC purchased 46,000 square feet of industrial space at 3614 Badger Road, Kewaskum, from Gerald Remillard and Marke A. Hoelz.
Jon Kassander and Dean Gunderson purchased 28,800 square feet of industrial space at N112 W18518 Mequon Road, Germantown, from Rolf Berg and Barbara Berg.
Polacheck Company
OAW LLC purchased 2 acres at W238 N1610 Busse Road, Waukesha, from Vista Properties LLC.
Tri-Core Partners LLC purchased 2.71 acres of vacant land at the corner of 22nd Avenue and 12th Street in Kenosha, from B.A.T. Partnership.
New Construction
Gerald Nell Inc., Waukesha, was selected by CRH Inc. and Alby Materials Inc. to design and build 6,000 square feet of office space for Alby’s new corporate headquarters in Mukwonago.
Creative Constructors LLC, Menomonee Falls, recently completed the construction of a 1,785-square-foot Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant at the Summerfest grounds in Milwaukee. Creative Constructors also recently completed construction of a 1,925-square-foot Starbucks cafŽ at 140 W. Holt Ave., Milwaukee.
Beyer Construction, New Berlin, recently started construction of the 161 First Building, a four-story, 25,000-square-foot mixed-use building at 161 S. First St. in Milwaukee’s Fifth Ward. The project developer and owner is Vetter Denk Architecture, which designed the building and will occupy the fourth floor.
VJS Construction Services, Pewaukee, is building a 27,000-square-foot, two-story building to provide office space, classrooms, fellowship space and underground parking spaces for Grace Lutheran Church in downtown Milwaukee. The building is under construction just behind the church at 1209 N. Broadway.
Keller Inc., Kaukauna, was named the architect and general contractor for the new 17,730-square-foot rebuilding and renovation project for Pinkey’s Capitol Auto Body at 120 W. Melvina St., Milwaukee.
Inland Construction, Milwaukee, recently completed three projects: a 4,250-square-foot medical office alteration for Wisconsin Radiology Specialists, 500 W. Brown Deer Road; a 4,100-square-foot office build-out for the offices of Niebler & Associates at Stoneridge III N14 W23833 Stoneridge Dr., Waukesha; and a 1,646-square-foot retail space project for Dinners By Design at 8201 S. Howell Ave., Oak Creek.
National Survey & Engineering, Brookfield, provided sustainable sitework design, engineering, landscape architecture, irrigation design and surveying for Liberty Property Trust for the interior and exterior renovation of a 76,000-square-foot multi-tenant office building at 245 Plaza Dr., Brookfield.
Briohn Building Corp., Brookfield, recently completed the design and construction of a 2,500-square-foot cafŽ for Original Coffee Company in the Brookfield Marketplace at 14960 W. Greenfield Ave., Brookfield. In addition, Briohn was selected to design and build a 10,000-square-foot building for Superior Development at N60 W15771 Kohler Lane, Menomonee Falls. Briohn has also been contracted to design and build a 5,250-square-foot one-story addition for the Edgewood Center at 4818 S. 76th St., Greenfield.
