The inventories of unsold homes in Wisconsin dropped to 12.5 months of supply in December, which is the first time it has been below 13 months since the Wisconsin Realtors Association (WRA) began tracking inventory levels in May 2010.

Mandel Group Inc. plans to begin construction this month on LightHorse | 4041, a mixed use development on Oakland Avenue in Shorewood. The building will have 84 apartments, 20 percent of them at “affordable” rents and an 18,000-square-foot Walgreens store. Mandel Group recently closed on the financing for the Shorewood project and the 155-unit second phase of its North End apartment complex development in downtown Milwaukee, which will also break ground this month. The total combined investment in the two developments is estimated by Mandel Group at more than $71 million.

Milwaukee is not considered a major tourism destination for many Americans. But VISIT Milwaukee and a few local tour guides are working hard to improve the image of the city as a visitor's destination, and they have started working with local companies to custom design tours of the city for their clients, business partners and potential employees from out of town.

Two downtown Milwaukee hotels recently made a couple of best-of lists on TripAdvisor.com.

While bank service charges have been a hot topic recently, most discussion focuses on consumers. Equally important is the topic of service charges for business accounts.

Three hotels are under construction in downtown Milwaukee: a 205-room Marriott hotel southwest of Wisconsin Avenue and Milwaukee Street; a 128-room Hilton Garden Inn hotel in the historic Loyalty Building at 611 Broadway; and the 90-room Brewhouse Inn at the former Pabst brewery complex.

My last post detailed a number of encouraged, restricted and prohibited agriculture and mining opportunities in China as listed in the “2012 Foreign Investment Industrial Guidance Catalogue,” recently implemented by the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Administration of Commerce. The publication contains a list of the areas China is encouraging, restricting and prohibiting foreigners to be involved in.

Founders of Chicago-based Dabble hope to eliminate the cost associated with dabbling in new hobbies or gaining valuable business improvement skills and strategies. The company recently launched its Milwaukee operations, and plans to start offering classes for people to dabble in this month.

Jaws dropped when the supporters of the recall against Gov. Scott Walker recently submitted more than 1 million signatures of Wisconsin residents.

The workforce today is becoming more and more mobile. Traditional office employees are doing more work from mobile computers and tablets and companies with field employees are finding ways to streamline processes and become more efficient.

Harvey Shovers, president of MSI Data in Mequon has developed a way for any company to efficiently mobilize their in-the-field workforce with back office operations and scheduling.