BizTimes Milwaukee | January 29, 2024

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The economy we love to hate

GORMAN SELLING DOZENS OF SINGLE-FAMILY RENTAL HOMES IN MILWAUKEE TO TENANTS

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RNC LEADERS GEARING UP FOR 2024 CONVENTION IN DOWNTOWN MILWAUKEE 28 HOW TO GET WHAT YOU WANT

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Help our region’s future workforce Plan to join business leaders from around the region, educators and nonprofits at the second annual Milwaukee Education Spotlight on February 29, 2024.

This event is your chance to build bridges between the worlds of business and education. You will learn best practices for partnerships between business and schools, help support educators in Milwaukee and have an opportunity to share what business leaders need from their future employees.

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Milwaukee Education Overview: Dale Kooyenga, President, Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC) [1] Allison Wagner, Executive Director, All-In Milwaukee [2]

Educator + Business Panel Discussions Andy Stith, President, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School [3] + Angie Sandoval, Community Involvement Analyst, Johnson Controls [4] Blanca Gonzales, Executive Director, i.c.stars [5] + Sarah Dollhausen-Clark, Assistant Director of Talent Partnerships & Pipelines, Northwestern Mutual [6] Hank Kohl, President & CEO, MPE Inc. [7] + Amy Levek, Principal, Whitefish Bay High School [8] Danny McCormick, Director of Career Programs and Partnerships, Carmen Schools of Science & Technology [9] + Kari Conradt, President, Amplify Graphics & Branding [10]

20+ schools and organizations participating with business partners in roundtable discussions: Abby Andrietsch + Julie Tolan | Anthony McHenry + Bill Reitman | Dr. Chris Her-Xiong + Jason Handel | Marikris Coryell + Tim Anheuser | Karen Hunt + Tiffany May | Blanca Gonzales + Sarah Dollhausen-Clark | Jeremy Joecks + Amy Levek + Hank Kohl | Lynda Kohler | Allison Wagner + Ray Manista | Marco Morrison | Andy Stith + Angie Sandoval | Danny McCormick + Kari Conradt | Erin Cherney | Al Kieth | Brian Couch | Krysta BeBoer

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BizTimes Milwaukee (ISSN 1095-936X & USPS # 017813) Volume 29, Number 14, January 29 - February 25, 2024. BizTimes Milwaukee is published bi-weekly, except monthly in January, February, March, April, July, August, November 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 2024 by BizTimes Media LLC. All rights reserved.

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BizTimes Milwaukee (ISSN 1095-936X & USPS # 017813) Volume 29, Number 14, January 29 - February 25, 2024. BizTimes Milwaukee is published bi-weekly, except monthly in January, February, March, April, July, August, November 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 2024 by BizTimes Media LLC. All rights reserved.

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Contents » JAN 29 - FEB 25, 2024

4 Leading Edge 4 5 6 7

NOW

BY THE NUMBERS BIZ COMPASS JUMP START – Brick GETTING THERE – Kyle Poklar, GRAEF BIZ POLL

8 Biz News 8

Gorman selling dozens of singlefamily rental homes in Milwaukee to tenants

12 Real Estate 50 Meet the Notable Sages Over 65 COVER STORY

16

46 Strategies

The economy we love to hate

Special Reports 16 Economic Trends

Our annual, comprehensive look at the new year includes a Q&A with economist Mike Knetter, and reports on real estate, manufacturing, technology and the labor market.

46 MANAGEMENT – Cary Silverstein 47 STRATEGIC PLANNING – Paul Woerpel 48 COACHING – Louisa Kamps

53 Biz Connections 53 NONPROFIT 54 GLANCE AT YESTERYEAR COMMENTARY 55 5 MINUTES WITH… Tim Schneider, president and CEO of Bank Five Nine

32 Business in Kenosha County

Includes an update on redevelopment efforts in Kenosha’s Uptown neighborhood and profiles on the winners of the Kenosha Area Business Alliance’s annual Ovation Awards.

Watch the UPI story to learn more:

Banking with

Strength.

Banking with

Local Impact.

Bank where it matters.

262-363-6500 www.CitizenBank.bank Member FDIC | Equal Housing Lender

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Leading Edge

BIZTIMES DAILY – The day’s most significant news → biztimes.com/subscribe

NOW

EPPSTEIN UHEN ARCHITECTS

Rendering of Uline’s 325,000-square-foot office building planned in Pleasant Prairie.

Pleasant Prairie-based Uline, Uline plans to build a third a shipping and business supplies provider, is continuing its rapid office building, near its growth with plans to build a third building, just north of its Pleasant Prairie HQ campus office corporate headquarters campus.

By Ashley Smart, staff writer

BY THE NUMBERS Monthly rent for the highest-priced apartment at The Couture is

$11,650

The three-story, 325,000-square-foot building would be built on a 45-acre site southwest of 128th Avenue and Goldbear Drive in the Prairie Highlands Corporate Park. It would house 700 full-time workers and 20 part-time workers, according to a village report. Construction is scheduled to start this April, pending village approvals. Occupancy is expected in late 2025.

The site is just north of Nexus Pharmaceuticals and just west, across 128th Avenue, from Aurora Health Center – Pleasant Prairie.

The Uline headquarters campus is to the south, across 104th Street.

The planned Uline office building would include conference and meeting areas as well as spaces for employees to dine and exercise, according to a submitted master plan. The building would be less than two miles from Uline’s other existing headquarters buildings, which include the 275,000-squarefoot Headquarters 1 office building at 12575 Uline Drive, the

284,000-square-foot Headquarters 2 office building at 12100 Uline Place and two distribution centers at 12885 104th St. and 13305 104th St. The company also has five warehouses in the immediate area.

Within Kenosha County, Uline has 13 facilities. The company also plans to open another 1.4 millionsquare-foot distribution center in Kenosha County in 2025.

Uline has grown significantly since moving its corporate headquarters from Waukegan, Illinois to Pleasant Prairie in 2010. The company has 9,000 employees across the country – including more than 3,500 in Kenosha County – and added more than 5 million square feet of space in 2022. The company has 25.3 million square feet of space across its 13 locations in North America.

Uline recently held a hiring event seeking to fill more than 100 warehouse jobs in Kenosha County this year. The company said it added 1 million square feet of distribution center space and about 500 employees in Kenosha County in 2023. The company also said it plans to add a total of 1,300 jobs this year, including 500 in Kenosha County. 

4 / BizTimes Milwaukee JANUARY 29, 2024

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BIZ COMPASS

What is your outlook FOR T H E E CONOM Y AND YOUR INDUSTRY IN 2024?

1 AMANDA DAERING CEO, Newance

“Economic growth in 2024 will remain somewhat flat but overall steady. But it will not be boring! More than one seismic shift will happen in the world of work this year, including real AI integration into work and Gen Z outnumbering baby boomers for the first time.”

2 BRAD KARAZSIA

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Owner and manager, JD Griffiths

“Despite a garage renovation or new garage build being a substantial investment ranging from $10,000 to $30,000-plus, we’re experiencing strong consumer confidence. New builds under contract are ahead of where we were both before and during the pandemic. Add that lumber and supply costs are back under control and we’re quite optimistic about 2024.”

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3 TED PLATZ

Vice president of sales, EmbedTek

“EmbedTek supplies the front end of capital equipment purchases, so we feel the impact of manufacturing slowdowns six to nine months ahead of recessions. This was the case in 2023. In 2024, we foresee a return to our business growing while the overall economy falls into a mild recession.”

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4 KIRK KINDRED

President of business development, SunVest Solar LLC

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“Our business can be quite a ‘solar coaster’ with frequent ups and downs, but we have a positive outlook for 2024. Federal policy is stable and panel costs are down again, making now a great time for utilities and businesses to hedge power price risk with solar.”

5 CHAD RITTERBUSCH

President and owner, TRG Marketing

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“I’m optimistic about this year’s economy. Our clients suggest that 2024 won’t be over-the-top good, but it should be solid.

The labor market will remain competitive and some sectors will cool but we’ll end the year just fine. Our industry will maintain its shift to digital, compelling growing companies to invest in their digital footprints.”  biztimes.com / 5

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Leading Edge

LOCATION: Germantown

LILA ARYAN PHOTOGRAPHY

BRICK

@BIZTIMESMEDIA – Real-time news

FOUNDERS: TJ Driver and Zach Nasgowitz FOUNDED: 2023 PRODUCT: App-blocking device WEBSITE: getbrick.app EMPLOYEES: 2 GOAL: Finding a scalable manufacturing method EXPERIENCE: Founders have certificates in computer science

TJ Driver and Zach Nasgowitz

Germantown startup Brick aims to temporarily block distractions on smartphones

By Ashley Smart, staff writer

WE’VE ALL DONE IT: set our phone to “do not disturb” with the intention of getting some work done, only to wander back onto social media a few minutes later. Germantown-based Brick has created a solution to this problem.

Co-founders TJ Driver and Zach Nasgowitz created a physical device that pairs with a smartphone, allowing users to temporarily block certain applications and tools they find distracting.

The UW-Madison graduates and longtime

friends started discussing their business plan in college. The idea of the Brick device came from both founders’ struggles with putting their phones down.

“We had just been complaining about our phones and saying, ‘Man, I’m always on this thing,’” said Driver.

He even considered getting a secondary flip phone but the logistics behind that idea seemed impractical.

“We started talking and thought maybe there’s a way to turn our iPhones into flip phones,” said Driver.

At the start of 2023, Nasgowitz began conceptualizing a physical device that pairs with a smartphone app and, when tapped, shuts off access to other distracting apps. Users can select which apps they want blocked through the Brick app; those apps remain blocked until the user returns to the physical device. The Brick app does not gather any data from users.

“This physical device is the key, so once you leave that device, you have no choice,” said Driver.

The startup’s first physical devices were finished by June of 2023, but Driver and Nasgowitz had to wait several more months before gaining approval for their smartphone application from Apple.

Since launching in mid-September, around 2,000 Brick devices have been sold at a price point of $49. Each one is 3D-printed in Nasgowitz’s basement. The venture has been totally bootstrapped thus far.

Figuring out a scalable way to continue manufacturing the devices is the startup’s biggest immediate goal.

“We’d like to have a real plastics manufacturer create these for us,” said Driver.

Increasing their marketing efforts and expanding beyond Instagram is another aspiration for the startup.

“We take our phones everywhere, but that doesn’t mean we should also have to take our distractions everywhere,” said Nasgowitz.

“Technology can both empower and hinder us; we’re offering a tool that brings back control to the user.” 

6 / BizTimes Milwaukee JANUARY 29, 2024

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GETTING

THERE

What does your role as structural practice area leader entail?

“My primary responsibility is overseeing the technical and financial performance and managing the day-to-day operations of the Milwaukee Structural Group. I also work closely with corporate leadership on topics such as culture, objectives, budgeting and staff management. I continue to work on projects as a structural engineer and project manager on many of the projects that the group is working on.”

BIZ POLL A recent survey of BizTimes.com readers.

How do you think your business will perform in 2024 compared to 2023?

49.1% About the same: 29.2% Worse: 21.7% Better:

Favorite part of working in engineering?

“My favorite part is the problem solving. Whether it is a technical challenge on a project, a tough schedule constraint or learning something I’ve never done before, I enjoy the process of figuring out how to tackle new problems.”

What’s kept you at GRAEF since the beginning of your career?

“GRAEF’s culture and the projects that we work on are unmatched. The engineers and leaders that I’ve worked with at GRAEF have been willing to go out of their way to help me learn and grow since I started my career as an intern at the firm.”

Share your opinion! Visit biztimes.com/bizpoll to cast your vote in the next Biz Poll.

What have been some of your favorite or most challenging projects you’ve worked on?

“The Commons residence hall at Marquette University: This was my first large project in which I was the main design engineer and, at 13 stories, is still the tallest building I’ve worked on. Komatsu’s South Harbor Campus: I helped lead the structural design of the office building, which includes a research and development wing and a customer experience center. Due to the exposure to the harbor, wind speeds were significantly higher than a typical project in Milwaukee and required a proprietary connection type to resist those loads and achieve the desired aesthetics most efficiently.” 

KYLE POKLAR Structural practice area leader GRAEF AGE: 32 HOMETOWN: Fox Point EDUCATION: Bachelor’s in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and master’s in civil engineering from the University of WisconsinMilwaukee PREVIOUS POSITION: Structural engineer at GRAEF

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Contact membership@TheMACWI.com biztimes.com / 7

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BizNews

CARA SPOTO

NEWS FEATURE

Two homes built by Gorman & Co. in the 2800 block of West Meinecke Avenue in Milwaukee’s Metcalfe Park neighborhood.

Gorman selling dozens of single-family rental homes in Milwaukee to tenants

By Cara Spoto, staff writer AS THE COMMUNITY Development Alliance works to wrest thousands of homes from the hands of predatory investors in Milwaukee, one Wisconsin developer is taking steps to sell dozens of its single-family home rental properties to its tenants.

While most people think of Gorman & Co. for its headline-grabbing mixed-use apartment complexes, the developer, based in the Madison area, devoted a large chunk of the 2000s and 2010s working on Low-Income Housing Tax Credit projects in several central city Milwaukee neighborhoods – projects that involved the construction and rehabilitation of 202 single-family homes as well as many duplexes.

By using LIHTC dollars to finance those

developments, Gorman agreed – per the regulations surrounding such credits – to make the single-family homes available for purchase after 15 years.

Now, 15 years after its first LIHTC development was completed in the Metcalfe Park neighborhood, Gorman has been working with Milwaukee-based nonprofit Acts Housing to sell the 30 houses it built there between 2007 and 2008 to its tenants. Four of those homes will be sold by the end of the year, and Acts is working with eight other tenants to get them into a position in which they can buy their homes. The two-story, three-bedroom houses are each about 1,500 square feet.

Over the course of the next 12 years, the

developer will repeat that process another seven times, until all 202 single-family home rental properties are owned by qualified homebuyers.

Another 14 homes in the city’s Garden Homes district will become available for purchase in 2037, under a project not directly affiliated with Gorman.

While the requirement to sell the homes is spelled out by law, Deatra Kemp, vice president of programs for Acts Housing, credits the developer for reaching out to Acts to make sure the homes actually end up where they should be at the end of 15 years – in the ownership of the low-income residents that live there.

“Gorman has more than 200 of these single-family homes that they built over the course of 15 years, primarily on the north side of Milwaukee – 98% of their tenants are African American,” Kemp said. “If I could get half of those people to convert (to homeowners) that will statistically change homeownership rates in Milwaukee … we both know Gorman’s not the

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Deatra Kemp

only developer that’s getting tax credits like this. What’s nice, though, about Gorman is that these projects are single-family homes.”

REAL OPPORTUNITY Although most affordable housing developments financed with lease-purchase LIHTC dollars require the units be offered to the tenants for purchase after 15 years, that process isn’t always followed, Kemp said.

The real opportunity with the Gorman properties, which include houses that Gorman constructed itself in neighborhoods like Metcalfe Park and North Division and dozens more rehabs scattered across the north side, is that the lion’s share of the properties are single-family homes. Gorman did construct duplexes as part of some of the projects, but those properties are not involved in its work with Acts Housing.

Although Gorman did attract attention for its agreements to rehab dozens of vacant homes in the city following the Great Recession, Ted Matkom, Wisconsin market president and general counsel for Gorman, said the reason more people aren’t talking about those homes soon becoming owner-occupied, is that it almost seems too good to be true.

“To be honest with you, I don’t think anybody really believes it. I don’t think anybody

really believes that a developer is actually going to give over the single-family homes to the renters,” said Matkom, who has been leading the effort at Gorman to develop a process to sell the homes. “Until Metcalfe Park came along, it was the first one that people were like, ‘Really? I can’t believe this is actually happening.’”

OUTREACH To help stem that disbelief – and underlying mistrust in the lower-income neighborhoods where the Gorman homes exist – Matkom tapped Acts Housing to help educate tenants about the opportunity they have to become homeowners. With the help of Kemp, the nonprofit has been working with tenants in the Metcalfe Park neighborhood to help prepare them financially to purchase the properties.

“I got Acts involved because I needed help. I had my own people try to get a meeting with the residents and try to get this thing moving and it went nowhere because of the trust factor,” he said. “The tenants don’t trust the landlord, which is, you know what? I don’t blame them.”

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Eve Hall (left), president and chief executive officer of the Milwaukee Urban League, and Melody Jones, a new Metcalfe Park homeowner at an event in September.

To alert the Metcalfe Park tenants about the opportunity, Acts Housing reached out to Safe & Sound, a community outreach nonprofit that has built trust in the neighborhood.

“They were kind of our boots on the ground, knocking on people’s doors, telling them about the great opportunity to buy their home,” Kemp said. “They are literally talking to kids at Safe & Sound events saying, ‘Talk to your mom, tell her she has a chance to buy that house and to talk to us.’”

Acts followed up with mailers and flyers and then coordinated a “lunch and learn” event for all eligible tenants, giving them a chance to sign up for Acts Housing homebuyer coaching and assistance services right on the spot.

BUILT-IN EQUITY Those services have been key to getting tenants ready to buy their homes, Kemp and Matkom said. Because, although all are eligible to buy their homes and have access to a bevy of down payment assistance programs, most still have a lot of work to do to repair their credit and sock away funds for earnest money, home inspections and other related costs.

Luckily, Acts has programs, like Power Pack, that can help its clients fix their credit while also raising up to $3,200 over the course of 12 months.

What’s great about the Gorman homes, Kemp and Matkom noted, is that once a tenant has the financing and the cash needed to purchase, they get a house with built-in equity.

That’s because, with the LIHTC homes, the rent that the current and previous tenants have

ACTS HOUSING

PAT A. ROBINSON PHOTO

BizNews

Xavier Shands (second from left), a new Metcalfe Park homeowner, with Acts Housing staff Anthony Bell, Jenean Shorter and Ben Sheehan, who helped him purchase his home in the 2500 block of North 36th Street.

paid to Gorman over the past 15 years is counted as equity. That means many of the tenants only need mortgages of around $50,000.

What’s more, even though the houses were valued at $100,000 when constructed by Gorman, they are now worth upwards of $130,000, Matkom said.

Kemp noted one example of a now-homeowner who had lived in her home for 12-plus years as a renter paying roughly $1,000 a month. She ended up purchasing the home for about $45,000.

“So basically, she went from paying over $1,000 a month in rent to $750 a month for her mortgage, taxes and insurance, and she has a 15-year mortgage. She is 40 years old. So, her house is going to be paid off by the time she’s 55,” said Kemp.

The tenant secured financing through a loan product Acts Housing developed. But another Metcalfe Park tenant that Acts helped with the homebuying process – who had built up about the same amount of equity – opted for a 30-year traditional mortgage through U.S. Bank. Her monthly payment, which includes principal interest, taxes and insurance, is now just $468 a month.

“Her house was appraised at $135,000.

So, once we added down payment assistance and all of that type of stuff, she basically paid market-rate for this house,” Kemp said. “I like to stress that, because people want to act like this is a giveaway or something. This woman paid $135,000 for her house if you add in all the rent that she paid for those years. … Now she’s paying significantly less per month to own her house.

You’re talking about single moms here – women with kids who work two and three jobs just to take care of their families. This is life changing.”

GROWING INTEREST While it may take a year or more to get all the Metcalfe Park tenants into a good enough financial position to buy their homes, Acts Housing and Gorman are learning how to better streamline the process, both from the buyer’s end and from the seller’s end.

“If it was up to me, I’d love to have these done in one day – 30 sold, done – but then when we look at the Northside Homeowners Initiative, which comes online in 2026, we are going to start this process a year before it comes due so that Acts Housing can get all these people set and we can have 20 out of the 40 close in one day,” Matkom said.

That might seem optimistic, but Kemp said word of what’s happening in the Metcalfe Park neighborhood is already spreading to tenants living in other Gorman homes.

“I already have families whose house comes (up for sale) in three to five years calling me saying, ‘I want to buy my house,’” Kemp said, adding that Acts is already beginning to reach out to the tenants in the North Division neighborhood.

“When that comes online on Jan. 3, 2026, I can be closing five or 10 families because I spent the whole previous year getting them ready,” she said.

ADDRESSING MISCONCEPTIONS Kemp also hopes to spend that time clear-

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ing up misinformation, like the misconception that the tenant themself must be in the house for 15 years before they can buy it. Any tenant paying rent to Gorman is eligible to purchase the property once the 15-year period is up, she said. The 15 years only applies to Gorman.

Other conversations will center on busting the myth that a 20% down payment is needed to buy a house, an investment that is likely unviable for someone living paycheck to paycheck.

She’ll also work to explain to tenants who might not be keen on buying a home in Metcalfe Park that the decision, if nothing else, makes financial sense.

“Let’s be honest. Metcalfe Park is not one of the best neighborhoods in the city but this deal is exclusive to those properties in that neighborhood. And this happens a lot when I’m out in the community where you have people who kind of frown on where they already live,” Kemp said. “But it’s like you already live here.

I’m telling you that you can live here for less. So, if you have the opportunity to purchase, well now you’re putting yourself in a position where you’re paying yourself instead of Gorman.”

For Kemp, it’s about working to help tenants – many of whom may not have a single person in their peer group who is a homeowner – see the importance of ownership, while also getting them to open their eyes and see the potential of their neighborhood.

“They’re building $300,000 houses down the street. And just because somebody calls this the hood right now, I can guarantee you they’ll be calling it ‘five minutes from downtown’ in the next couple of years. Real estate is all about location,” she said.

At the same time, Kemp is keenly aware of the distrust in the African American community surrounding housing.

“It sounds too good to be true, and let’s be honest, the Black community has experienced a lot of boondoggles where people tell you that you have this great opportunity, and then somehow during the process they pull the rug from under you and it’s not what you perceived it to be,” Kemp said. “So, I try to be very conscious of that in our work with the community.”

That’s why she believes the first few closings in the Metcalfe Park neighborhood were so important, so other tenants can see that the opportunity is a real way to build security for their families.

“This is not a scam,” Kemp said. “This is us truly trying to help one of the poorest zip codes in our city move up and put some of the poorest families in outstanding positions where they actually have the equity that they’ve earned for renting all these years.” 

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Real Estate

REAL ESTATE WEEKLY – The week’s most significant real estate news → biztimes.com/subscribe

BARRETT LO VISIONARY DEVELOPMENT

A rendering of The Couture on downtown Milwaukee’s lakefront.

Demand for apartments expected to remain high, but inflated development costs could slow new construction TWO OF DOWNTOWN Milwaukee’s largest – and priciest – apartment towers in history, The Couture and 333 Water, are expected to finish construction later this year, adding two new peaks to the city’s skyline and several hundred units of luxury apartments to the city’s housing stock.

The developments could be symbolic of the strength in Milwaukee’s multifamily market, which has been a bright spot in the world of commercial real estate in recent years as apartments have remained occupied, developers have put forward more projects and national firms have brought new investment dollars to the market.

However, while industry experts

expect that strength to continue through 2024, as development costs remain heightened there could be a lull in construction on the horizon and worsened affordability challenges in the future.

INFLUX OF LUXURY HOUSING RAISES DEMAND QUESTIONS Currently under construction at 333 N. Water St. in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward is the aptly named 333 Water, a 333-unit luxury apartment tower being developed by Houston-based Hines. The firm has led development projects around the world and has been one of Milwaukee’s few out-of-market developers in recent years.

“Hines’ project is a big vote of

confidence for Milwaukee because Hines doesn’t make those kinds of big moves without a really solid set of believable assumptions that de-risk their developments,” said Andy Hunt, Vieth director for the Center for Real Estate at Marquette University.

A few blocks away, on downtown Milwaukee’s lakefront, local developer Barrett Lo Visionary Development is nearing completion on its 322-unit luxury apartment tower, The Couture.

The Couture is going to reset the high water mark of rent in Milwaukee at about $3.90 per square foot, 30 cents above the next priciest building. Likewise, 333 Water is also expected to have some of the city’s highest rents, though exact

figures haven’t been released.

Amid this momentum in the local multifamily market, one major question remains: “Can Milwaukee sustain this kind of development?” says Gard Pecor, senior market analyst with CoStar Group.

“And it’s normal to feel like maybe we’re pushing to an upper limit of what we can do here, but maybe we’re not,” Hunt said.

“These buildings are going to be built and the units are going to get leased – the question is how quickly.”

The Couture’s rents mark a new high for the Milwaukee market, but it’s not the first time recently that the ceiling has been raised.

In 2018, the nearby apartment tower 7Seventy7 hit the market with average rents per square foot at $3.40. Then in 2022, the Ascent opened its doors downtown at around $3.60 per square foot.

According to Pecor, 7Seventy7 leased up in one year and has remained at about 95% occupancy since then. Ascent also reached about 90% occupancy in a year’s time.

Several industry experts agree that the story will be similar with The Couture and 333 Water.

POPULATION TRENDS SUSTAIN DOWNTOWN APARTMENT DEVELOPMENT Even with more than 650 units of housing coming online this year, downtown Milwaukee still needs more.

That’s because, while metro Milwaukee’s population has been stagnant for several years and the city of Milwaukee’s population has fallen, downtown Milwaukee is one of the fastest growing places in the state.

Between 2000 and 2020, most census tracts in the city saw a population decline but the areas of the city that did grow – which include downtown Milwaukee and its surrounding neighborhoods as well as a pocket of the far

12 / BizTimes Milwaukee JANUARY 29, 2024

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333 Water under construction in Milwaukee’s Third Ward.

northwest side – grew by 18,000 people, a 23% increase in population, according to research by John Johnson, a research fellow in the Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education at Marquette University. Much of the city’s north and northwest sides lost significant population during the same period.

As a result, the downtown Milwaukee apartment vacancy rate as of January was 5.7%, which is low nationally, according to Pecor. But all of metro Milwaukee’s apartment market is tight; the vacancy rate was only 5% metro-wide, which is the fourth lowest in the country.

That’s meant new housing supply has leased up rapidly, developers say.

For example, Element, a 66-unit market-rate apartment building in Walker’s Point, reached 95% occupancy in 14 days.

“That’s great for developers; that’s not healthy for the market,” said Tim Gokhman, managing director New Land Enterprises, which developed Element. “That

just means there isn’t enough of that type of housing.”

On the supply side, metro Milwaukee’s rental market is undersupplied, according to Pecor, partly due to its conservative business environment and history of local development firms providing the bulk of its housing stock.

On the demand side, while population growth is limited to pockets of the metro area, lifestyle and financial decisions are also contributing to high demand for apartments.

In 2023, there were record-low home listings in the single-family market, according to a report from the Greater Milwaukee Association of Realtors, encouraging some people to continue renting for longer periods of time.

Further, as more baby boomers look to downsize, more are looking to rent, according to Stu Wangard, executive board chairman and former chief executive officer of Wauwatosa-based development firm Wangard Partners, which has been developing mostly in the

suburbs in recent years.

“In the past, we were primarily focused on millennials, and that has shifted,” Wangard said.

“Boomers are becoming a very important part of the rental market.”

There’s also demand for more smaller units as household sizes decrease and rents increase, causing some renters to downsize.

“Rents have escalated dramatically the last year and a half, and we’ve hit a point where there is resistance, and so people are shifting back to slightly smaller units again for affordability,” Wangard said.

Year-over-year rent growth in metro Milwaukee is 1.9%, compared to 0.8% nationally, and this can mostly be attributed to the metro’s low vacancy, according to Pecor. While putting pressure on Milwaukee renters, rising rents can make Milwaukee more attractive to out-of-market developers, like Hines, which will boost the city’s housing supply.

HIGH DEVELOPMENT COSTS COULD MEAN LONG-TERM AFFORDABILITY ISSUES While the need for high-rise luxury housing is important to meet, developers said, there’s almost no limit to how much lowand mid-rise market-rate housing can be built at the present time.

However, making that happen amid unfriendly development conditions is difficult and prohibitive in some instances.

That could mean a lull in future construction, even as developers have proposed more multifamily housing.

“Proposed projects do not mean built projects,” Gokhman said. “With the economic environment – with lending either unavailable or at lower leverage, higher cost – a lot of projects’ economics just won’t work. I think the risk (of failure) is really, really high.”

New Land Enterprises is currently working on a duplicate of its eight-story downtown

Milwaukee apartment building, Nova, in Green Bay. The Green Bay building is more than 20% more expensive than the Milwaukee building that broke ground in 2021, according to Gokhman.

“Over time interest rates will moderate, but will they get back to where they were two years ago? Absolutely not, but we were spoiled,” Wangard said. “But we still haven’t solved the problem of higher construction costs, the need for more workers in the construction trades, the need for more equity, so that’s going to slow down the whole process.”

“There’s going to be fewer projects getting built,” Wangard added.

While Milwaukee’s rental market is considered affordable, if the city’s already undersupplied rental market gets even tighter due to rising demand and less supply coming online, that could have implications for the city’s affordability downstream.

“Housing affordability is a long-term game,” Pecor said.

“There is no quick solution to solve today’s affordability crisis.

Part of the reason I and others advocate for even more extensive building today – particularly more market-rate and luxury housing, since that’s what’s more readily able to pencil out given the current environment – is that today’s luxury and market-rate housing becomes tomorrow’s market-rate and affordable housing. With age and increased competition comes affordability.” 

HUNTER TURPIN Reporter

P / 414-336-7121 E / hunter.turpin@biztimes.com T / @HunterDTurpin

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STORY COVER

2024 Economic Trends:

The economy we love to hate

F

or a lot of reasons, we should be feeling good about the economy as 2024 begins.

The U.S. economy has been expanding since the middle of 2022. Growth accelerated in the third quarter of 2023 with U.S. GDP increasing at an annual rate of 4.9%. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta projects that growth continued in the fourth quarter of 2023, at a rate of 2.4%.

The labor market remains very healthy. The U.S. unemployment rate was at 3.7% in November. The rate has been below 4% for 22 consecutive months.

The stock market had a great year in 2023, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 14%, the S&P 500 gaining 24% and the Nasdaq gaining 43%. The Dow Jones and S&P hit record highs in December.

But despite those strong economic indicators, many Americans are unhappy about the economy. They were stung by inflation, which peaked at 9.1% (year-over-year) in June of 2022. Inflation slowed to 3.1% in November, but the accumulation of high levels of inflation since spring of 2021 has left some consumers, who remember what things used to cost, with lingering unease and longing for a pre-pandemic shopping experience.

According to The Conference Board, consumer confidence in the U.S. plunged in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, rebounded in 2021, and then fell again as high levels of inflation hit the economy.

Consumer confidence has improved recently but remains significantly below pre-pandemic levels.

No doubt politics plays a big role in economic sentiment. This is a presidential election year and President Joe Biden is trying to make the case that the economy is strong, and that he deserves credit, while his Republican critics have harped on inflation and the impact of interest rate hikes to combat it, pointing the blame at Biden.

Many had expected those interest rate hikes to push the economy into a recession by now. They have slowed economic growth, as intended, but have not yet sent us into a recession, but that still could happen. There are signs that the economy will pull through with a soft landing and avoid a recession, but many Americans still don’t feel the joy that the GDP, unemployment rate and stock market would suggest.

What lies ahead for 2024? Will this remain the economy we love to hate, or will consumer confidence catch up with the economic growth that is occurring? Will the Fed be satisfied that inflation has been defeated and shift to cutting interest rates, sparking more economic activity and providing a boost for consumers and businesses? To answer those questions and more, we once again turn to Michael Knetter, Ph.D., president and CEO of the University of Wisconsin Foundation and an economist who served as an economic advisor to President George H.W. Bush and President Bill Clinton. Following is editor Andrew Weiland’s annual Q&A with Knetter, who again spoke at the BizTimes Media Economic Trends event on Jan. 25.

16 / BizTimes Milwaukee JANUARY 29, 2024

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STORY COVER

“

BizTimes: Heading into 2023 many were concerned that a recession was coming during the year. It didn’t happen. By the middle of the year, optimism was growing for a soft landing. Now, how does 2024 look to you? Will we fall into a recession or skate by with a soft landing?

Good businesses will adapt and others will fall prey to natural selection, freeing capital for better ones."

Knetter: “I think we will skate by with a soft landing as my base case. Things could go awry of course, and one way would be escalation in the Middle East that causes an oil shock making inflation more stubborn than currently expected and forcing the Fed into a more hawkish mode. The election year helps that call as the executive branch is motivated to take steps that boost the economy.”

What’s your GDP prediction for 2024?

“2.0% real GDP growth.”

By comparison, U.S. GDP grew at an annual rate of a robust 4.9% in the third quarter, after growing 2.1% in the second quarter and 2.2% in the first quarter of 2023. In addition, the U.S. unemployment rate is at 3.7% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average recently reached a new all-time high. That all sounds like good economic news to me. So, why do you think so many Americans are so unhappy about the economy? Why is this the economy we love to hate?

“Two big things. Inflation rose ahead of wage growth and the price level has risen more than incomes for many people. So, real wages are down.

For a time, government support during the pandemic papered over this problem. But wages are rising now, inflation is cooling and the labor market is strong. So, sentiment is actually pretty good in surveys. Another reason we love to hate the economy is everyone has been predicting recession and the media need to write stories that get eyeballs. The story that everything is fine doesn’t get eyeballs. Human nature. A good example is that the Conference Board reported in December that consumer confidence regarding current and future conditions both rose significantly. This didn’t get picked up much in media outlets because we are too busy hating on this economy. The actual level of confidence in the report was higher than any reading between 2010 and 2017. And also, higher than the early aftermath of the pandemic.”

Even though inflation has slowed down considerably from its peak in 2022, consumers are still shell-shocked and have not forgotten what things used to cost. But consumer spending remains strong, correct? How long will consumer spending be able to power the economy before they have taken on too much debt and are tapped out?

“This is a central question for the potential of a soft

Michael Knetter

Quarterly Real GDP Growth

Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis

landing (i.e., inflation back to target without inducing recession). Spending remains solid, debt is rising and debt service is higher with the higher interest rates. But people are back working and earning so I think we can continue on a steady path to target inflation without a recession, provided there are no big disruptions (e.g., Middle East conflagration that produces an oil shock).”

The Fed increased interest rates several times to combat inflation. Higher borrowing costs are clearly causing some challenges for businesses.

We are seeing several building projects stalled as developers are trying to put together financing. But the Fed has put the brakes on interest

rate hikes and is hinting at cuts this year. What do you expect the Fed to do in 2024, and what impact will that have on the economy?

“Barring negative surprises, I think we will see a couple of rate cuts in 2024 and some normalization of rates, with long rates settling around 4%.”

What level of inflation do you expect in 2024?

“By year end I think we can be around 2.5%, which is close to target.”

Do you think businesses will be able to adapt to the new normal of higher interest rates?

18 / BizTimes Milwaukee JANUARY 29, 2024

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STORY COVER “Good businesses will adapt and others will fall prey to natural selection, freeing capital for better ones.”

Year-Over-Year Inflation

Will the labor market remain strong in 2024 or is there going to be a slowdown in hiring and an increase in unemployment? How much wage growth do you expect next year?

“I think wage growth will remain strong for at least the first half of the year before abating. I think unemployment might tick up somewhat this year but believe we can finish the year below 4.5% which by historical standards is very good.”

What direction is the remote work trend going and how will that impact the economy, particularly commercial real estate? Are we in danger of a commercial real estate collapse if the demand for office space remains soft, tenants close or downsize their offices and commercial real estate loans come due?

Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis

Wisconsin Labor Market

“I think work from home is here to stay, maybe somewhat moderated from current levels. But the way it is playing out, firms still want people in the office a couple days a week, and it is usually on the same days. As long as that is true, it is hard to shed office space. It is not going to be a great time for commercial real estate, but I am also not predicting a ‘collapse.’”

What’s going to happen with residential real estate? Affordability is a major problem. Any hope for relief there? There is a shortage of new homes under construction and existing homes listed for sale to meet demand. Do you think we’ll make any progress to address the need for more housing supply in 2024?

“Time and the Fed will heal these wounds. The sharp uptick in rates had existing homeowners locked into their homes. Selling a home and paying off a 2.8% mortgage and then buying and financing at 7% isn’t appealing. But existing homeowners will start to sell again gradually, and we will see the market normalize especially as the Fed takes down rates a bit.”

Gas prices have come down significantly recently, providing much-needed relief to consumers.

Will they stay there in 2024?

“This will depend on the situation in Ukraine and the Middle East, which could produce supply shocks, as well as China’s economic performance, which will impact demand. I expect current prices to be the base case.”

Are there any other areas that we could see price declines?

Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis

“I think housing will continue to ease as rates come down.”

After a lot of angst about the stock market in 2022, the market recovered in 2023 and a strong run late in the year pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 to new highs. How do you think the market will perform in 2024?

“I think the market is a bit rich now and wage growth is going to be stronger than pricing growth for a period of time. That will squeeze profits and could cause a sideways market this year. It is of course an election year and that can bode well for markets if the executive branch can take actions that boost the economy and sentiment.”

You’ve already touched on this some, but how are significant geopolitical events, including the war in Ukraine and the bitter conflict between Israel and Hamas, affecting the economy now, and what impact do you think they will have throughout 2024?

“Markets have digested the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The supply shocks associated with that have been for the most part absorbed and we have adjusted. The Israeli-Hamas battle has almost no direct effect on the global economy, but events on the periphery could be more significant, especially if shipping is disrupted in the Red Sea as the Houthis are attempting to do.” ❤

20 / BizTimes Milwaukee JANUARY 29, 2024

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Keep up with BizTimes’ 2024 roundup of the leaders making a difference throughout southeast Wisconsin.

At companies across southeast Wisconsin, notable executives are running businesses, navigating company restructurings, serving on boards, running marketing departments, and investing in growth throughout the region. The notable individuals profiled in these categories are nominated by their peers at work and in the community.

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- Nomination Deadline: February 9th, 2024 Issue Date: March 18, 2024

Look for these Notable and Rising Stars nominations in 2024!

Notable Leaders in Construction, Real Estate & Design Nomination deadline: March 8, 2024 Issue date: April 15, 2024 Notable SBA Lenders Nomination deadline: March 29, 2024 Issue date: May 6, 2024 Notable Leaders in Law Nomination deadline: April 12, 2024 Issue date: May 20, 2024 Notable Leaders in Arts & Entertainment Nomination deadline: May 3, 2023 Issue date: June 10, 2024 Notable Women in Technology Nomination deadline: May 17, 2024 Issue date: June 24, 2024

Notable Marketing Executives Nomination deadline: July 12, 2024 Issue date: August 19, 2024 Notable Women in Wealth Management Nomination deadline: August 2, 2024 Issue date: September 9, 2024 Notable Women in Manufacturing Nomination deadline: August 30, 2024 Issue date: October 7, 2024 Veterans Executives Nomination deadline: October 4, 2024 Issue date: November 11, 2024 Notable Health Care Leaders Nomination deadline: November 1, 2024 Issue date: December 9, 2024

Notable Women in Sports Nomination deadline: June 21, 2024 Issue date: July 29, 2024

To view this year’s winners and nominate, visit biztimes.com/notable

14-21 JAN 29 Cover Story.indd 21

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Special Report ECONOMIC TRENDS

Aaron Jagdfeld

Generac CEO: ‘We must be agile as business leaders’

BY ARTHUR THOMAS, staff writer THE LEADERSHIP TEAM at Town of Genesee-based Generac Power Solutions knows what it’s like to have business change overnight. When major storms or hurricanes hit an area, demand for the company’s home standby generators spikes over the following quarters.

The COVID-19 pandemic took things to another level. With more people than ever working from home, a growing distribution network and multiple major weather events, the company saw its sales grow from $2.2 billion in 2019 to more than $4.56 billion in 2022.

After the third quarter of 2023, Generac’s guidance called for sales to be down 10% to 12% for the year as demand stabilized.

Heading into a new year, Aaron Jagdfeld, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Generac, doesn’t expect a return to the strong consumer spending seen in the aftermath of the pandemic.

“We expect consumer confidence to remain somewhat muted and cost-of-living pressures to remain elevated in 2024, causing some homeowners to remain cautious about large-ticket purchases related to their homes,” he told BizTimes.

Jagdfeld was among the speakers at the 2024 BizTimes Media Economic Trends event on Jan. 25 at the Italian Community Center.

Even if consumer demand is a little softer than

a few years ago, Generac does have at least one advantage other businesses may not, as maintaining access to power makes the company’s products indispensable rather than discretionary. As a result, Generac has “a certain level of insulation … from broader economic softness,” Jagdfeld said.

Even with some insulation, Jagdfeld acknowledged the pace of change in business can be unbelievably fast.

“New technologies and new markets are constantly emerging, bringing new opportunities and new threats to business that can appear almost overnight,” he said.

In particular, Jagdfeld pointed to continuing to better understand the impact of artificial intelligence on business and society as an area to watch in 2024.

“We must be agile as business leaders to ensure that our companies can remain not only visible in the face of these challenges, but also find the right opportunities that allow our businesses to continue to grow,” he said.

Within the markets Generac serves, there are some megatrends shaping the business outlook that Jagdfeld and his team are watching closely.

For starters, more people are seeing “home as a sanctuary.” It is a pandemic-era trend that has continued with more people working from home,

schooling their kids at home or aging in place.

“This is leading to increasing sensitivity to power outages and the need for peace of mind and desire by homeowners for improve energy resiliency and efficiency,” Jagdfeld said.

At the same time, climate change is driving more volatile and severe weather patterns, leading to increased power outage activity just as consumers are becoming more sensitive to those outages.

“Additionally, the impact of climate change is driving a policy backdrop that favors less carbon-intense forms of energy generation and consumption,” Jagdfeld said, highlighting faster adoption of solar, battery storage, electric heat pumps and electric vehicles.

The challenge for consumers is compounded by increasing reliance on intermittent renewables and growing electrification of products used every day in homes and businesses, both of which create a potential supply-demand imbalance and higher costs amidst the emergence of Grid 2.0.

“The speed of the transition occurring with the energy grid is leading to decreased reliability and highlighting the greater need for distributed energy resources and other solutions such as virtual power plants,” Jagdfeld said.

The final megatrend is the emergence of alternative fuels like natural gas or hydrogen. Using those fuels in generators, fuel cells and other power-producing products offers another path for decarbonizing the energy grid, Jagdfeld said.

Generac has already been acting on the megatrends, making a series of acquisitions since 2019 to expand its product portfolio to include solar inverters, residential energy storage, energy monitoring and management, smart thermostats and electric vehicle chargers.

“With the transition to Grid 2.0 underway, we believed there was an expanded role for Generac to participate in the evolution by leveraging our brand, our distribution, and our expertise in energy,” Jagdfeld said, adding the company is also developing an energy ecosystem platform that allows users to have control over their energy usage.

Even as Generac has been expanding its offerings and meeting increased demand, the company had to navigate many of the same supply chain challenges faced by other businesses coming out of the pandemic.

Jagdfeld said many of the pandemic-related challenges are in the rearview mirror and the supply chain has normalized.

“That said, rising logistics costs and increased geo-political risks in certain countries and regions around the world have become the greater concern with their respective potential impacts on supply chains,” he said. “Our focus at Generac has been to create a supply chain for the future that is more resilient and more flexible.” n

22 / BizTimes Milwaukee JANUARY 29, 2024

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Special Report ECONOMIC TRENDS

Labor Market Snapshot (change from December 2022) Unemployment Rate Wisconsin: 3.3% (+0.3%) U.S.: 3.7% (+0.2%) Labor Force Participation Wisconsin: 65.9% (+1.3%) U.S.: 62.5% (-0.3%) Average Hourly Wage Wisconsin: $32.25 (+5.4%) $34.20 (+4.1%)

Lori Malett

Softer job market does not mean workforce challenges are solved

BY ARTHUR THOMAS, staff writer IT’S CLEAR FROM THE DATA, the labor market in Wisconsin is not as hot as it was a few years ago.

The state’s unemployment rate was 3.3% in December. While that’s lower than the national figure – of 3.7% – and would have been a record low prior to 2016, it is up almost a full percentage point from May’s 2.4%. The state unemployment rate has been less than 3% in 15 of the past 24 months.

The number of job openings in the state is down too, from an average of 227,000 per month in 2022 to around 195,000 on average through November 2023.

Quits are also down from a monthly average of around 75,000 in 2022 to 70,000 for the first 11 months of 2023.

“The biggest thing that we’ve seen since the middle of 2023 is definitely a little bit of a slowdown on hiring,” said Lori Malett, president of Milwaukee-based Hatch Staffing Services. “It’s not that employers aren’t hiring right now, and it’s not that suddenly our demographics are going to change and we have all these people available to us, but I think that backlogs have started to catch up for manufacturers and so they can be a little bit more intentional again with their hiring.”

Malett, one of the speakers at the annual BizTimes Media Economic Trends event held Jan. 29 at the Italian Community Center in Milwaukee, said her firm has seen employers walk away from job offers if a candidate had too many demands, something that was not happening over the prior three years.

Still, she cautioned that businesses should not take a softer job market and economy to mean their workforce challenges have all been solved.

The demographics of the job market – characterized by retiring baby boomers and not enough new workers available to enter the labor pool – suggest conditions will remain tight into the 2030s.

“I always feel like when there’s a little bit of a market correction, like right now, it’s important not to suddenly feel like, ‘Well, I’m the employer. I have the power,’” Mallet said. “Let’s do good business.

Let’s take care of our employees. Let’s do right by our employees, and we’ll all be better off for it in the long run.”

Not all of the data points to employers having all the power. On wages, for example, Wisconsin saw a more than 5% year-over-year increase in average hourly pay across all private sector workers every month since June. Those increases come on top of a 6.3% average monthly increase in 2022.

In the decade before the pandemic, only two years – 2018 and 2013 – had an average increase topping 3%.

While wages are growing faster than in the past, they have slowed compared to the peak of the Great Resignation period.

Malett said her firm is currently seeing an average increase of 7% to 8% when people are moving from one job to another. Back in 2022, that average was closer to 18% or 20%.

“It’s good to see it come back in line. I don’t think it was sustainable,” she said.

Wisconsin has also seen an uptick in labor force participation, which counts the number of people working or actively looking for a job. The rate, which has generally trended down since the midto-late 1990s, climbed 1.3 percentage points in 2023, reaching 65.9% as of December. It’s the strongest

year-over-year increase since early 1994.

“We’re definitely seeing more candidates coming in the doors,” Malett said, noting that the “post and pray” tactics of 2022 have been replaced by more candidate referrals and better response to job postings.

However, she cautioned that she is not seeing a massive wave of retirees returning to the workforce or people that stayed home during the pandemic returning to work.

As for how employers are handling the shift toward a softer job market, Malett said the small to mid-size clients her firm serves are not turning to layoffs to control their costs amid economic uncertainty.

“I think we lost touch of what the right staffing levels were according to engineering plans in these manufacturing companies because the backlogs were so big that I think companies right now are focused on figuring out what are the optimal staffing levels again,” she said.

Specific areas where companies are shifting include a slowdown in hiring for human resource and engineering positions with an uptick in accounting and finance.

“We’ve seen a strong uptick with mid-level managers, and we think that’s largely because less and less people today want manager positions,” Malett said.

Firms having success with employee retention share some commonalities, she said. The top thing is an ability to offer flexibility. While employers have been able to push more employees to return to the office, workers are still seeking the flexibility that the option of remote work allows. Even in manufacturing, Malett said many clients are shifting to four-day work weeks and finding success.

The other area of emphasis for successful firms is training and development, especially for frontline and mid-level management positions, Malett said. n

24 / BizTimes Milwaukee JANUARY 29, 2024

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Special Report ECONOMIC TRENDS

“ Embracing

Richard Barnhouse

smart automation is in everybody’s best interest.”

With shrinking workforce, WCTC president sees automation as critical to economic survival

BY CARA SPOTO, staff writer WHEN THE SUBJECTS of artificial intelligence or automation come up in conversations about the state or regional workforce, it’s not uncommon to see a few people squirm in their seats.

The topic is even something that can make Waukesha County Technical College president Richard Barnhouse a little anxious.

But not for the reasons you might think.

While others may wring their hands, worried about what the technology might mean for their vocation or even the future of mankind as we know it, Barnhouse sees the interwoven advancements as opportunities – technologies that the region he serves must strive to harness before it is too late.

He addressed that need during BizTimes Media’s annual Economic Trends event on Jan. 25 at the Italian Community Center, where local leaders were brought together to give their economic predictions for 2024.

For Barnhouse, AI and automation are key to the state and regional economy surviving during a period when skilled workers are getting harder and harder to come by.

“It’s a demographic reality,” he said. “Waukesha County is going to see a 12.4% decline in the sizes of its high school graduating classes between now and the 2030s.”

Waukesha County – and Wisconsin as a

whole – are not alone in that struggle. Many states are seeing demographic declines in working-age young people.

“There is still this belief out there in some circles that there is going to be this wave of humans that comes in and solves the workforce problem,” Barnhouse said. “That is untrue through the mid2030s. And the floor really starts to drop out in 2027. It started in 2022, but looking at the statistics, 2027 is where we are going to start seeing the biggest (workforce) challenges.”

And the only way to weather that lack of workers, he said, is to create automation systems that can reduce the number of actual people needed to complete tasks and create products.

It’s why the WCTC leader has been so active in establishing programs to develop workers who are skilled in AI and are able to create and design automation systems for industries of all kinds. The college recently launched an automated systems technology program as well as the state’s first associate degree program in AI. STEPPING UP Tech schools can’t be the only ones issuing the clarion call about AI and automation, says Barnhouse. Local and state leaders must also step up, especially when it comes to developing programs to help small and medium-sized businesses come up

with the capital to both purchase robotics equipment and integrate it into their existing manufacturing processes.

The big companies in the region will be able to easily invest in robotics and staff training, said Barnhouse, but it’s the smaller companies that are going to need to automate the most.

“When you think about Eaton and Milwaukee Tool, sure they’re sourcing from all over the place, but if the local supply chain breaks down because of the declining workforce and not automating in time, that will impact the big players, too,” he said.

“Embracing smart automation is in everybody’s best interest.”

As 2024 unfolds, Barnhouse said we can expect to see China emerge as a leader in integrating humanoid robotics into manufacturing.

“They are facing a declining workforce indefinitely, but they are taking a proactive approach, and they are dumping money into automation and humanoid robots to mitigate it,” he said. “And so, my concern is, just as we are reshoring, we don’t have enough people. China doesn’t have enough people, but China is doing something about it.”

And automation isn’t just something manufacturers should be looking at, he said. AI can and should be utilized to adjust to a shrinking workforce in multiple sectors, including the law, communications and accounting, Barnhouse said.

“Whatever business you are in, you have a vested interest in automating. In about three years I won’t have our chief financial officer mapping out the entire WCTC annual budget anymore, we will have AI do that. It’s not that we won’t have a CFO anymore, they are just going to be doing higher-level things.”

FIGHT THE FEAR While politicians of all stripes universally balk at the idea of taking jobs away from people – making them leery of AI and its potential impacts on voters – Barnhouse says lawmakers need to be less afraid of AI and more proactive about helping to integrate it into the economy.

In the meantime, Barnhouse said he’ll keep working with a group he has pulled together in Waukesha County that is trying to build a model to help prepare small and medium-sized businesses in southeastern Wisconsin.

“I have testified before Assembly Speaker Robin Vos’ Artificial Intelligence Task Force and they are still acting like this is 1982,” he said. “There are not enough eligible people to fill the jobs that are available, but I would say that regardless of that, it doesn’t take jobs away.

It makes every single employer more efficient, which allows us to compete with China. And the businesses that do this well, who aren’t fumbling over old thinking, are not going to be putting people out of work anyhow.” n

26 / BizTimes Milwaukee JANUARY 29, 2024

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Special Report ECONOMIC TRENDS Members of the national, regional and local media gathered at Fiserv Forum in late November to start planning for the 2024 RNC in July.

Gearing up for 2024 RNC in Milwaukee Organizers share updates on business opportunities, media coverage, fundraising and more

BY MAREDITHE MEYER, staff writer WITH THE 2024 Republican National Convention roughly 170 days away, the entities in charge of executing the major political event are hard at work as they prepare to welcome more than 50,000 visitors to downtown Milwaukee and broadcast coverage of the four-day spectacle to viewers around the world.

The RNC’s two primary organizers are the MKE 2024 Host Committee, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group responsible for producing the convention, including fundraising, booking venues and hotels, recruiting volunteers and connecting local businesses with convention-related business opportunities, and the Republican National Committee’s Committee on Arrangements, a partisan organization that oversees and manages all aspects of the convention for the purpose of nominating the party’s pick for the next president of the United States.

To get the latest on the convention planning process and what Milwaukee-area businesses and residents can expect in the coming months leading up the 2024 RNC, BizTimes caught up with key leaders Alison Prange, chief operating officer of the MKE 2024 Host Committee, and Elise Dickens, chief executive officer of the committee on arrangements.

NOT JUST FOUR DAYS The actual dates of the RNC are July 15-18, but convention-related activity in Milwaukee is well underway and will only continue to ramp up over

the first quarter of the year, said Dickens. Most of that activity is from groups coming into town to tour potential sites to rent out for events.

Each day of the convention, hundreds of ancillary events could be taking place in and around Milwaukee at any given time – especially in the daytime hours prior to official sessions in the evening.

“There will be official RNC events, there will be official host committee events, but then all of our affiliated groups – the delegations, corporations, media groups – they’re all going to be hosting events as well and sponsoring events all across town and the metro Milwaukee area,” said Dickens. “Those can range from as small as a delegation breakfast of a hundred people that has a VIP special speaker, all the way up to a concert that might have 500 tickets.”

The COA has a five-person external affairs team dedicated to hosting groups for pre-convention tours of the city. As of early January, the team had connected – either in person or virtually – with 49 of the 56 state delegations and had hosted 15 of the party’s top affiliate groups and committees for in-person visits, including House Speaker Mike Johnson’s team, the National Congressional Committee, the Republican Governors Association and the Republican Jewish Coalition, said Dickens. These day-and-a-half visits include a night at a downtown hotel and dinner at a local restaurant.

ACCOMMODATING MODERN-DAY MEDIA In November, more than 400 members of the press — local, regional, national and international — travelled to Milwaukee for the Fall Media Walkthrough, an opportunity to tour the convention complex — which includes Fiserv Forum as the main venue, and the Baird Center and UW-Milwaukee Panther arena as designated media spaces — and begin planning their convention coverage strategy, from booking hotel room and venue space to scoping out prime standup positions within the arena.

Since then, the COA has been fielding requests and feedback and using that information to design the layout of the convention site and book necessary accommodations, all for the purpose of maximizing the event’s media coverage, said Dickens.

And in the year 2024, that means leveraging tech platforms like TikTok, Google News and X (formerly Twitter) as well as social media influencers and podcasters.

“It’s been very interesting to see how people consume media (today) is so different even from eight years ago,” said Dickens, noting 2016 in Cleveland as the party’s most recent full-scale convention. “And we want to make sure that we’re delivering on every possible platform to make sure that we’re ultimately hitting our voters.”

With the anticipation of more media in attendance and an arena that has a smaller capacity than past convention venues, the COA is faced with a unique challenge of designing a layout that accommodates as many people as possible.

“It’s a fun, huge game of Tetris that we’re going to be playing,” said Dickens, adding the close proximity of the newly expanded Baird Center and Panther arena is “ideal” and an advantage over previous host sites.

BUSINESS IMPACT TAKING SHAPE The COA supplies all groups looking to host events during the convention with a directory of roughly 150 venues across the greater Milwaukee area, complete with key information and photos of the space. Included in the guide are high-end downtown restaurants such as Lupi & Iris and Bacchus, casual brewpubs such as the Bavarian Bierhaus in Glendale and Raised Grain Brewing Co. in Waukesha, and large-scale event locales such as the Milwaukee Art Museum and American Family Field.

Convention and media groups are also encouraged to browse a separate directory of more than 1,500 businesses – based locally and across the state – for services ranging from hair and makeup to catering and event production.

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The local host committee began registering businesses last April for the venue and vendor guides as part of its mission to ensure the local economy benefits from the RNC’s $250 million estimated economic impact. The group said recently that nearly 30% of the businesses listed in the vendor directory are considered diverse, or owned by women, people of color, veterans or members of the LGBTQ+ community. Driving business to minority populations in the region is an “important part of the framework agreement we have between the city, the RNC and the host committee,” said Prange.

Dickens said venues and vendors will start to hear from interested groups during the first quarter, and a master calendar of all convention-related events will be released a couple weeks out from the convention.

Announcements are also expected soon on the winners of the RNC’s four major contracts: credentialing services, transportation management services, production services, and general contractor.

Each of those contracts will give way to additional subcontracting opportunities for local businesses, Prange said, especially for the extensive build-out of the convention complex and the transportation of the party’s nearly 5,000 delegates and alternates

– which will require roughly 400 commercial buses, school buses and shuttles.

FUNDRAISING AND VOLUNTEER RECRUITMENT As of early January, the RNC’s local host committee remains “on track” to reach its $68 million fundraising goal, said Prange, although she declined to share a specific dollar figure and said there’s still “a long way to go.” She additionally touted the leadership and support of two of Milwaukee’s most influential business leaders: Northwestern Mutual CEO John Schlifske, who chairs the host committee’s finance committee, and Ted Kellner, former chairman of Fiduciary Management and the host committee’s CEO, as well as host committee chair Reince Priebus.

Prange explained the $68 million will be used for the “non-political parts of the convention,” including facility rentals and build-out of the convention complex, transportation, parking lot rentals and accommodations for volunteers.

The local host committee needs about 6,000 people to fill 8,000 volunteer shifts during the convention. Ahead of an official February launch of its volunteer program, the group had already recruit-

presents the 17th annual:

ed 700 volunteers as of early January. The non-political volunteer roles include hotel and airport greeters, downtown guides, registration volunteers and venue ushers; to fill them, the host committee plans to tap into the Milwaukee business community as well as area schools and universities.

“We’re really hoping that Milwaukee’s businesses will step up and help us in this as major employers because it’s a great way to let their employees be part of a huge civic opportunity, and as a non-political way for them to get involved,” said Prange.

The COA is also working to recruit its own force of 300 so-called “professional volunteers,” usually political staffers who work on Capitol Hill but wouldn’t otherwise have a reason to attend the convention, said Dickens. Professional volunteers will arrive in Milwaukee anywhere from one month to a week or two ahead the convention to work alongside the COA team, which itself will expand to about 50 staffers at its peak.

Currently, the COA has about 30 staffers in Milwaukee and leases office space in the Associated Bank River Center downtown. The local host committee, on the other hand, has its headquarters at The Avenue. ■

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Special Report ECONOMIC TRENDS 1. The Baird Center in downtown Milwaukee’s Westown neighborhood is expected to finish construction this spring.

2. The Iron District, a mixed-use entertainment district in downtown Milwaukee’s Westown neighborhood, could break ground this spring.

3. The Concordia 27 project, expected to be completed this year, will bring affordable housing, support services, retail and office space to Milwaukee’s Near West Side.

KAHLER SLATER, JLG ARCHITECTS

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Baird Center completion, entertainment venue construction will highlight Milwaukee-area development activity in 2024

BY HUNTER TURPIN, staff writer THE WISCONSIN CENTER DISTRICT began construction on a $456 million expansion of downtown Milwaukee’s convention center two years ago, and its completion this year will be one of the most notable additions to the region in 2024.

Once the project is complete, the Baird Center will have a total of 1.3 million gross square feet of space including a 300,000-square-foot of exhibit hall, 52 meeting rooms, 400 indoor parking spaces, and a rooftop ballroom with outdoor terraces.

Perhaps most notably, the expanded venue will be done in time for the 2024 Republican National Convention this summer, when the city can show it off to the estimated 50,000 convention visitors. Wisconsin Center District and VISIT Milwaukee officials hope to leverage the RNC to help attract more conventions to the expanded facility.

The Baird Center is expected to open this spring with a gala on May 16.

While the Baird Center expansion project wraps up this year, construction on four other large-scale entertainment venue and cultural center developments is expected to kick off in Milwaukee.

The largest is the soccer stadium planned for the Iron District, a $220 million development led

by Kenosha-based Bear Development and Grafton-based Kacmarcik Enterprises. The planned professional soccer stadium would anchor an 11acre mixed-use development, located northeast of the Marquette Interchange in downtown Milwaukee.

Yet to close on financing, construction of the 8,000-seat soccer stadium and approximately

200-room hotel could begin this spring, developers said, eyeing a 2026 completion.

Another project to look out for in 2024 is the long-awaited live music venue planned in the Deer District. Originally billed as a complex housing two music venues, Madison-based concert promoter FPC Live has scaled back its plans to a single 4,500-capacity venue, to be built on the northeast section of the former Bradley Center site, just south of Fiserv Forum. With its second round of city approvals complete, the venue is expected to break ground this year.

Contingent on meeting its fundraising goals, dirt could also start moving for the new Milwaukee Public Museum this spring. The $240 million project will bring a 200,000-square-foot, six-story museum to the corner of North 6th Street and West McKinely Avenue in the Haymarket neighborhood.

In addition, the Milwaukee Rep will rebuild its downtown Milwaukee theater complex. The $75 million project is more than 90% funded and construction is expected to start in May. CHANGES IN OFFICE Amid a softer office market, largely driven by the work-from-home trend, office conversions are a story to watch in 2024.

One of downtown Milwaukee’s largest office towers, 100 East, is slated to undergo such a conversion. Plans were made public in 2023 of developers’ intentions to convert the 35-story building into 350 luxury apartments. Remaining office tenants in the building are seeking new homes.

While developers have said that work on 100 East is unlikely to begin this year, the building is just one of many office properties that could see major changes this year.

Development firm F Street has plans to replace two empty office buildings in Brown Deer with 148 market-rate apartments. The Milwaukee-based firm is expecting to begin demolition this year.

In Brookfield, a California developer is planning to start construction this year on its project to replace two mostly empty office buildings in the Bishop’s Woods Office Park with 203 workforce housing units.

Also, Kenosha-based Bear Real Estate Group could lock in its redevelopment concepts for

30 / BizTimes Milwaukee JANUARY 29, 2024

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Johnson Controls’ block in downtown Milwaukee as the building equipment manufacturer consolidates its area workforce at its Glendale campus, leaving behind a 430,000-square-foot multi-building campus downtown.

But despite cultural shifts around office work – leading some companies to downsize or eliminate their office space – there are still notable strong spots in the Milwaukee metro office market.

Financial technology firm Fiserv is moving from Brookfield to downtown Milwaukee.

The Fortune 500 company will occupy 160,000 square feet of space in the HUB640 building, where build-out work has been ongoing in recent months. The office, which will be home to 780 workers eventually, is above a new Kohl’s store that opened in November, replacing a Boston Store that closed in 2018.

Last year, Fortune 100 financial services company Northwestern Mutual announced and began construction on a $500 million project to transform its North Office Building downtown to match the company’s Tower and Commons building, just south of the north building. The transformation has been called “skyline defining” and will result in the move of 2,000 em-

ployees from Northwestern Mutual’s suburban Franklin office.

While not expected to be completed until 2027, parts of the new building could start to take shape this year.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING Even as underutilized office properties are being converted to residential, adding to Milwaukee’s housing stock, it’s estimated that Milwaukee County alone needs upwards of 46,000 below market-rate housing units. Experts say it will take decades to reach that number at the current rate of development, but some of Milwaukee’s emerging developers are hoping to put a dent in it.

Milwaukee-based KG Development Group will have its hands full with three affordable housing projects under construction this year: a 91-unit mixed-use apartment building in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood that’s expected to be completed in 2024; a 55-unit apartment building in the city’s Five Points area that is expected to break ground early this year; and a 67-unit mixeduse apartment building in the Harambee neighborhood that’s also expected to break ground this year if the development team wins low-income

housing tax credits from the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority.

Rule Enterprises is looking to break ground this year on a 140-unit apartment building at Freshwater Plaza in Milwaukee’s Harbor View neighborhood and Cupid Development is looking to begin work on a 50-unit project in the North Division neighborhood.

The Near West Side will get a boost this year with the addition of Concordia 27, which will have 33 affordable apartments, along with commercial and office space, and support services in a historic building.

Milwaukee can also expect to see significant progress on the state’s largest private affordable housing development in history as Bear Development continues work on its 576-unit affordable housing project, Filer & Stowell Lofts, in Bay View.

The first units are expected to be completed in 2025.

There are also local developers hoping to start work on affordable housing projects in the suburbs of Milwaukee County, such as AK Development with a 60-unit affordable housing project in South Milwaukee and Jewish Family Services with a 56-unit project in Brown Deer. ■

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Special Report

KORB & ASSOCIATES ARCHITECTS

BUSINESS IN KENOSHA

A rendering of the Uptown Lofts project in Kenosha.

Once the site of civil unrest, Kenosha leaders look to build a stronger Uptown

BY HUNTER TURPIN, staff writer THROUGH A SERIES of public-private partnerships, Kenosha leaders are looking to rebuild the city’s Uptown neighborhood — but better — with two catalytic projects nearing completion.

Uptown was the site of rioting in 2020 after the police shooting of Jacob Blake, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. The incident sparked marches and protests, some violent, in Kenosha as part of the nationwide Black Lives Matter movement that summer.

It is estimated that at least 40 businesses were damaged while another 20 buildings, including publicly owned facilities, were burned to the ground. The damage was spread throughout Kenosha but was concentrated in Uptown.

“There’s been a real desire to see Kenosha rebuild, build back stronger and do it together,” said Tim Casey, Kenosha’s director of city development.

“There’s been a lot of momentum behind that since 2020.”

For the past three years, city and business leaders have been investing in Uptown and now, work on the first two catalytic projects is wrapping up.

AN ANCHOR FOR COMMUNITY RENEWAL One of those projects is Uptown Lofts. Developed by Oregon, Wisconsin-based Gorman & Co., the $30 million project will bring 71 units of afford-

able housing to Uptown, where the first residents are moving in now.

The four-story Uptown Lofts development is being built where a strip of five buildings, housing several small businesses, was completely gutted by fire during the 2020 civil unrest. The first floor will have three retail spaces, including a 9,000-square-foot neighborhood grocery store called La Estrella. The business, owned by Abel Alejo, was previously located at the site and among those destroyed in the fire.

Next door, a 3,000-square-foot space will house Uptown Restaurant, another business that saw its previous location burn down. About a year after the rioting, owner Yolanda Hernandez reopened the restaurant in a new location a few miles away.

A third 7,500-square-foot commercial space will be occupied by a children’s library.

“One of the things that Kenosha saw, like a lot of communities did, is that it’s very hard to teach reading virtually, so reading scores took a hit after COVID,” Casey said. “The whole idea is to get kids excited about reading and improve reading scores, because it’s so pivotal to the rest of your education.”

The children’s library is funded and began its buildout in January, but work on the grocery store and restaurant spaces have been delayed as the businesses raise funds to start construction, according to Ted Matkom, Wisconsin market presi-

dent and general counsel for Gorman & Co. CREATING A TALENT PIPELINE Behind Uptown Lofts, work is wrapping up on the Kenosha Emerging Leaders Academy, which will be inside the former Brown Bank building at 2222 63rd St. Designed to create opportunities for youth, and a talent pipeline for local colleges and employers, the initiative is a partnership between the city and several local education institutions, companies and other organizations.

The renovated facility will include a teen tech center with computers, digital cameras, a music studio, virtual reality systems and 3D printers for teens to use after school with support from adult mentors. It’s sponsored by the Best Buy Foundation, Jockey International and the Kenosha YMCA. Staff from Carthage College, the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Herzing University and Gateway Technical College will have a presence at the KELA facility to offer pre-college advising, financial aid counseling, financial literacy support and classes, including GED programming, according to an announcement.

KELA, along with other nearby initiatives like Kenosha Innovation Neighborhood, planned at the former Chrysler plant site, is part of the city’s plan to retain young residents through career development and higher education as well as invest in the Uptown neighborhood.

“It’s really designed to give kids, especially in the neighborhoods around Uptown, an opportunity to explore educational pathways and career paths,” Casey said.

OTHER PROJECTS Among other projects in the area, Jockey International, which is headquartered in Kenosha, redeveloped an old furniture store into a cafe and gift shop in Uptown. The furniture store had been open for more than 100 years but closed during the pandemic.

For future development, the city is targeting the Uptown area for infill single-family development, with multifamily development on larger sites, according to Casey.

The most recently proposed project comes from a Kansas-based development firm, which plans to build a 46-unit senior living apartment complex on a vacant city-owned site in Uptown. The developer, which recently received initial city approvals, plans to seek low-income housing tax credits to help finance the project.

“There’s still a number of sites that are available,” Casey said. “We’re talking with developers, including developers from the Milwaukee area, who are interested in additional projects, specifically more multifamily residential. We’re seeing a lot of interest in the area.” n

32 / BizTimes Milwaukee JANUARY 29, 2024

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COME CELEBRATE SOME OF KENOSHA COUNTY’S BEST IN BUSINESS

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enosha County is on the rise and has much to celebrate! Fueling the growth is its roster of dynamic companies that is expanding every year. It is an exciting time as well with many entities and organizations seeing new leadership, including KABA. Kenosha County is home to many successful companies and business leaders and the Ovation Awards, presented annually by the Kenosha Area Business Alliance in partnership with BizTimes Media, recognizes the best of the best. They honor companies and individuals that have exhibited a history of growth, innovation, and a positive overall impact on the community.

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11031 88th Ave., Pleasant Prairie INDUSTRY: Beverage bottling EMPLOYEES: 127 niagarawater.com

California-based Niagara Bottling has been growing its presence in Kenosha County.

The family-owned and -operated bottled water and soft drink supplier built a $56 million facility in Pleasant Prairie in 2014. Six years later, it expanded its storage capacity by adding a second warehouse facility in Kenosha. Most recently, in 2021, the company invested $36 million into its Pleasant Prairie facility to add two production lines, three injection molding machines and 40 jobs.

And in those facilities, Niagara Bottling does it all to create a bottle of water. They start with raw plastic resins and use injection molding equipment to manufacture their own bottles and caps.

They fill the bottles, label them, cap them, store them and ship them – two billion per year. The growth has earned Niagara Bottling the recognition of Business of the Year by the Kenosha Area Business Alliance.

Founded in 1963, Niagara manufactures private-label bottled water and beverages for companies like Sam’s Club, Walmart and Speedway, and also has its own brand of bottled water. The company entered Kenosha County in 2014 when it built a highly automated 377,000-square-foot facility in LakeView Corporate Park in Pleasant Prairie.

“At that time, there weren’t many buildings at LakeView, it was still growing, so we thought, ‘Let’s be a part of that,’” said Kristan Pruett, senior plant director for the Pleasant Prairie facility. “We look at a lot of things when we’re looking to expand, like customer demand, proximity to natural

spring sources and other water sources. I think on top of that, for the Kenosha area specifically, the burgeoning manufacturing community was very appealing.”

The company expanded in 2020 into a second building that can store more than 20,000 pallets of bottled water. Then in 2021, Niagara Bottling added to its production capacity at the LakeView facility to meet the company’s growth throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. As of 2023, the company employs 127 people in Kenosha County, a 70% increase since 2020. Niagara’s revenue has also increased 35% since 2020.

Pruett attributes the company’s growth to the level of trust they’ve developed with their customers by being reliable and safe, especially throughout the pandemic and its fallout when consumer demand for bottled water soared.

“We continue to grow because

we understand the fluctuations in the market and the challenges that came along with COVID,” Pruett said. “There’s been a lot of challenges from labor force to supply chain constraints, and we were able to adapt and evolve and figure out a way to make it happen.”

“I think about the water issue in Flint, Michigan,” Pruett added, referring to the 2014 public health crisis in which the city’s drinking water was contaminated with lead.

“Where do you go when you have no source for safe, uncontaminated water in your community? You need good quality bottled water that’s been tested and proven safe. That’s where we come in and our customers know that.”

In recent years, the company has added new products to its lineup, such as branded water for Dasani, 8-ounce water bottles and – as of 2021 – a water bottle that’s considered the lightest in

the world, made with a reduced amount of plastic.

Niagara Bottling has also invested in the Kenosha community. The company contributed $190,000 to build new playgrounds at the Boys & Girls Club of Kenosha in 2020 and Grewenow Elementary School in 2022. Additionally, in May 2023, Niagara Cares partnered with the Cal Ripken Foundation to design a state-of-the-art STEM classroom, and also donated to the Boys & Girls Club of Kenosha.

Lastly, Niagara Bottling has supported local first responders through regular bottled water donations and investing $35,000 in the new Kenosha Police Department Training Facility last year, which now allows the department to do specialized training.

Previously, the Kenosha Police Department used office space for essential training and professional development. ■

34 / BizTimes Milwaukee JANUARY 29, 2024

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| ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR Keith Smith, president, Vonco Products

VONCO PRODUCTS

10826 250th Ave., Salem Lakes INDUSTRY: Medical device manufacturing EMPLOYEES: 180-plus vonco.com

Over the past decade, Keith Smith has led Salem Lakes-based Vonco Products, a manufacturer of high-end medical devices and flexible packaging, through a complete transformation that created a period of exponential growth for the company. That growth included three acquisitions within three years and the addition of 36,000 square feet of physical space.

Smith, who has been named Entrepreneur of the Year by the Kenosha Area Business Alliance, always had entrepreneurial aspirations, but he started on a different path in manufacturing with a leadership role at flexible packaging company Printpack. He then spent seven years with Appleton Paper.

Smith was heading up Appleton’s carbonless rolls and security business segments when the company was acquired by Dallas-based Hicks Acquisition Co. in 2012. Soon after, he decided to return to the flexible packaging industry.

“I watched the potential suitors looking to buy (Appleton Paper) and it just indicated a lot of growth and opportunity,” Smith said. “It really represented what I wanted to do: be on the other side of that table.”

Knowing he wanted to be a business owner, Smith started speaking with several area manufacturers over the course of a year and a half. Not having much luck, he was almost ready to give up when he learned of Vonco, then based in Lake Villa, Illinois.

At first, Smith wasn’t initially interested in the company. By chance, he ended up in the Lake Villa area for a sales call and stopped by Vonco’s facility. The company’s ability to manufacture fluid packaging and sustainable

Vonco’s headquarters in Salem Lakes.

products sparked his interest and ultimately led him to acquire Vonco in 2013.

“It was challenging. I was coming from a corporate, thirdfloor office with lots of resources to more of an entrepreneurial, family-run operation,” said Smith.

“The first week, we had a fire in the air compressor I had to put out. I knew it was going to take some work.”

He temporarily shut down Vonco’s operations to come up with an action plan involving the company’s then-60 employees. Making the move to Kenosha County in 2017 was the company’s catalyst for change.

“We built a top med-device contract manufacturer building that shows well … we laid it out in an efficient and organized manner.

We got very strategic on where we wanted to focus our efforts, and we went down that journey for growth,” said Smith.

Vonco became more targeted in everything it did, from what products it made to what companies it did business with.

The COVID-19 pandemic also gave Vonco a boost in business as the company became an indispensable supplier of personal protection equipment and biohazard bags used to protect COVID tests being transported by air.

Even prior to the pandemic, Vonco had already seen two consecutive months of record demand.

After only five years at its new Kenosha County headquarters, Vonco expanded by 36,000 square feet in 2022. The company also made three acquisitions within a span of three years, acquiring Illinois-based McFarlane Medical in August 2020, Illinois-based Flex-Pak in January 2022 and Indiana-based Genisis Plastics Welding in March 2023.

Over the years, Smith has learned that to be the most effective leader possible, he needs to prioritize his own personal health and well-being, along with his employees’ wellness. After a period of focusing solely on his career, Smith said other parts of his life became neglected.

That was the wake-up call he needed to begin living more holistically. This goal made even more sense given the fact that Vonco creates products used in the health care industry.

As a business leader, Smith aims to teach his employees how to expand and renew their own energy to become more resourceful, productive, satisfied and energized. For Smith, the thought is that once employees pour into themselves, they can then pour into customers who then take care

Keith Smith

of medical patients worldwide.

“From our location, we can be a beacon of hope and caring in a very transactional world,” said Smith.

Since acquiring Vonco in 2013, Smith has grown the business to more than 180 employees. While the business will remain focused on its current slate of products in the short term, it could once again become acquisitive in 2026, he said.

Looking back at the beginning of his decade-long journey, Smith said the decision to jump into Vonco headfirst was the right one. He urges other aspiring entrepreneurs to do the same.

“Just follow your passion and intuition and if it feels right, do it,” he said. “You can run the numbers a bunch of different ways, but you really don’t know what it will be like until you get in there.” ■ biztimes.com / 35

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| SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR Blue House Books

BLUE HOUSE BOOKS

5915 Sixth Ave., Kenosha INDUSTRY: Retail EMPLOYEES: 5 blue-house-books.com

For many entrepreneurs, COVID-19 came in like a tidal wave – wrecking or nearly sinking fledgling ventures. For Blue House Books, it was a galvanizing force – one that helped harness a new embrace of the printed page to grow a former pop-up operation into a key downtown Kenosha business.

Located in the heart of downtown Kenosha, the independent bookstore was named Small Business of the Year by the Kenosha Area Business Alliance.

That honor comes less than four years after the business opened its first permanent location, and just seven years after owner Samantha Jacquest, 31, started testing the waters of book selling.

The Kenosha native had just returned home from England where she had earned a master’s degree in book publishing. Disheartened by the lack of book publishing jobs near her hometown, Jacquest decided to start running small pop-ups, selling used books she owned herself and a few donations from friends and family.

At first, the pop-ups were just a way to stay in the book publishing industry. But the young entrepreneur soon found herself pouring more of her own money and time into keeping the business going. Soon, Jacquest was buying new books right from suppliers and selling them out of a shared corner at the Kenosha Creative Space, a nonprofit arts organization in the city.

“I had bookshelves on wheels that I could roll away when another entity needed the space, and then I would roll back in when it was time to set up shop,” she said. “We were open on nights and weekends because I was still

Books line the shelves at Blue House Books.

The store’s front entrance along Sixth Avenue.

The storefront window of Blue House Books.

Samantha Jacquest

working a full-time job.”

There were moments when Jacquest paused the venture altogether to think about whether it was something she really wanted to keep pursuing, especially when faced with naysayers who told her she shouldn’t open a bookstore and that she would never make any money.

And although she had doubts herself, Jacquest eventually decided to put all of her energy into the venture. After holding a few small crowdfunding efforts – one that raised $1,000 and another that raised $3,000 – she headed to Florida to take a weekend-long “bookstore bootcamp” class.

That was in February 2020. By July that year, she had quit her day job, and two months later she opened her first brick-and-mortar location.

“It was actually the pandemic that pushed me to focus on the

store more and quit my other job,” said Jacquest. “People were stuck at home and bored out of their minds. It also made people realize how sick of screens they were, and e-books took a little bit of a dive, and print books had a resurgence. I switched to doing pick-up and delivery service during the lockdown, before I even opened the store, and then afterward when people were still being really cautious.”

It was that kind of personal service that really extended Blue House Books’ reach, she says. It’s also what gave her the money and the customer base to open her own store.

Jacquest credits her staff – now a five-person team – and the Kenosha community at large with the bookstore’s success.

“Bookstores don’t work everywhere. So, I am very fortunate that Kenosha is a community that can and will support an independent

bookstore,” she said. “I also get compliments all the time about how friendly we are. Customers are so heart warmed that we remember their names and the books they bought last time,” she said.

Hosting events and creating a warm, comforting environment is a big focus of the business, Jacquest said. The store’s name is an homage to her childhood home – which was painted blue – a place where extended family and neighborhood kids alike were always welcome.

“We never want to be a place where you come and make a purchase and leave,” she said. “We want you to find comfort, take your time browsing, and maybe discover a new author that you love.

People are fully aware that they can get books cheaper elsewhere.

No one is ignoring that fact. But it’s because we put so much extra value into our environment that people choose to shop with us.” ■

36 / BizTimes Milwaukee JANUARY 29, 2024

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1/22/24 1:16 PM

CENTRISYS

9586 58th Place, Kenosha INDUSTRY: Centrifuge manufacturing centrisys-cnp.com

Centrisys first moved to Kenosha in 1999 and has continued to grow and expand in the Kenosha Business Park. The company currently occupies four buildings. In 2023, it embarked on a 66,000-square-foot expansion.

A maker of decanter centrifuges for sludge dewatering and thickening, Centrisys products are used in a variety of industries from water and wastewater treatment to oil processing, food and beverage and many more. In 2023 alone, the company secured orders from wastewater treatment operations in Houston, Texas; Salem, Ohio; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and St. Louis, Missouri. The company’s products can help wastewater plants and others reduce costs and better meet environmental goals.

Chief executive officer Michael Kopper,

CENTRISYS

| FORWARD AWARD WINNERS

Centrisys president and CEO Michael Kopper.

KABA’s 2013 Entrepreneur of the Year, and his leadership team, acquired full ownership of the business in 2022.

In addition to Kenosha, the company has facilities in Texas, California, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Spain, China and Singapore.

HARIBO

12488 Goldbear Drive, Pleasant Prairie INDUSTRY: Candy manufacturing haribo.com German candymaker Haribo completed its state-of-the-art 500,000-square-foot gummy bear factory in 2022 after initially announcing plans for a U.S. manufacturing plant in Pleasant Prairie in 2017.

The plant is now producing candy and the company continues to grow, adding 190 employees in the area during 2022 and 2023.

Haribo of America is also continuing to grow on a double-digit trajectory and achieved its highest 12-month sales total despite economic challenges coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Officials have already discussed potential plans for future expansion.

The company has also established itself as a strong corporate citizen while planning and building its factory. Haribo has sponsored

Haribo’s Pleasant Prairie manufacturing facility.

scholarship and internship programs at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Carthage College and Gateway Technical College. It also has hosted an Earth Day community cleanup with employees, supported the Village of Pleasant Prairie RecPlex as part of an ongoing partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of Kenosha, and partnered with the Kenosha Kingfish on community engagement.

Gilbane is a proud community partner building the future of Kenosha County.

We are honored to work with KABA in recognizing business excellence and achievement throughout Kenosha County.

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biztimes.com / 37

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1/22/24 1:16 PM

SHALOM CENTER

KCHC

| FORWARD AWARD WINNERS

KCHC leaders and local officials celebrate the opening of the organization’s new Pillar Health facility.

The Shalom Center team.

SHALOM CENTER

4314 39th Ave., Kenosha INDUSTRY: Nonprofit shalomcenter.org Shalom Center has been on the front line of the fight against homelessness and food insecurity in the Kenosha community since 1982.

The nonprofit organization operates the county’s only homeless shelter serving the general public as well as a food pantry and nightly meal program, all from its 24/7 facility west of the city’s downtown.

In late 2023, Shalom Center added a crisis and community resource center, known as Hope Hub, which functions as a “one-

stop shop” for services ranging from case management to housing assistance and access to more immediate resources like clothing and personal hygiene products.

The 10,500-square-foot Hope Hub addition – funded entirely by a $2.4 million anonymous donation – was the second major expansion Shalom Center has completed since moving into its 39th Avenue facility in 2017. The first, in 2020, allowed the nonprofit to relocate its food pantry and warehouse, bringing all programs under one roof. Thanks to a $1.8 million anonymous donation, the project made Shalom Center the largest food pantry in Kenosha County, serving more than 11,000 unduplicated households annually and distributing almost 1.4 million pounds of food.

KENOSHA COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER

4006 Washington Road, Kenosha INDUSTRY: Health care pillarhealthcare.org Kenosha Community Health Center provides affordable health care services – including medical, dental and behavioral health – to individuals and families in Kenosha, Racine and Walworth Counties.

KCHC opened its first location in 1995 and now has four clinic locations in Kenosha County, including Pillar Health, its newest location on the north side of Kenosha. Pillar

Health was launched in fall 2022 as a division of KCHC, providing integrated medical, dental and behavioral health services in a health home model.

“This model places patients and families at the center of care delivered by a team and uses evidence-based approaches and referrals to resources to address their individualized health and social needs,” according to KCHC’s website.

To support its new integrated care model, KCHC secured $1 million in funding to convert to the OCHIN Epic electronic health record system in January 2023. The center also expanded its mental health services last year with the addition of four new psychiatry providers.

See How

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IS YOUR COMPANY CELEBRATING A MILESTONE ANNIVERSARY IN 2024?

With a little bit of creativity, you can turn your anniversary from just another date on the calendar into an opportunity to share your story – and celebrate your success with BizTimes’ exclusive audience. It’s a chance to talk about why you started your business in the first place, where you’ve been, what you do, what makes you different, and what your plans are for the future. You can thank your employees and clients who’ve helped you reach this milestone.

Plan now! To reserve a space in this special issue.

Publication Date: March 18, 2024 Space Reservation Date: February 28, 2024

38 / BizTimes Milwaukee JANUARY 29, 2024

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1/22/24 1:17 PM

KENOSHA COMMON MARKETS

P.O. Box 643, Kenosha INDUSTRY: Nonprofit kenoshaharbormarket.com

Every Saturday from May to October, as many as 8,000 people visit the Kenosha HarborMarket to purchase locally grown produce, artisan cheeses, fresh baked goods and other hand-crafted products from dozens of local vendors.

The European-style outdoor market, which sets up shop on 2nd Avenue between 54th and 56th Streets in downtown Kenosha, has been a summertime staple since 2003 for locals and visitors alike. During the colder half of the year from November through April, the market moves indoors, operating on a smaller scale out of the Kenosha Union Club on 39th Avenue.

Kenosha Common Markets is the nonprofit behind the year-round market operation, which has continued to grow in recent years.

The 2023 outdoor season saw a 15% to 20%

KENOSHA COMMON MARKETS

| FORWARD AWARD WINNERS

CELEBRATING KENOSHA COUNTY’S BEST IN BUSINESS

Executive director Andrea Forgianni enjoys a day at the Kenosha HarborMarket.

Congratulations to these dynamic companies and entrepreneurs. Let’s continue to celebrate growth throughout the Kenosha area in the next year.

year-over-year increase in both attendance and participating vendors for a total of 175,000 customers and nearly 200 small businesses from across the region. Also last year, Kenosha Common Markets launched an additional HarborMarket location, in neighboring Pleasant Prairie. The market ran one Sunday a month from June through September at Prairie Springs Park, showcasing about 50 vendors.

Thank you to our sponsor, Johnson Financial Group, our silver sponsor, the University of Wisconsin-Parkside and our supporting sponsors Gilbane Building Company and M3 Insurance, for their investment in the Kenoshaarea business community.

Congratulations and best wishes for much continued success!

biztimes.com / 39

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1/22/24 1:17 PM

W. DIRK HAUSMANN

NOTABLE

SENIOR REAL ESTATE COUNSEL

MICHELS CORP.

SAGES OVER 65

Colleagues say W. Dirk Hausmann, senior real estate counsel for Brownsvillebased Michels Corp., brings an unprecedented work ethic to both the company and the Michels family office.

BizTimes Milwaukee is proud to present its inaugural showcase of Notable Sages Over 65, recognizing the leadership and mentorship provided by the region’s most experienced business leaders, both active and retired. The individuals profiled on the following pages were nominated by their peers and highlight the breadth of talent in southeastern Wisconsin.

“He has an extremely unique skill set as a senior real estate counsel that also includes database management,” said Tony Tagliapietra, Michels’ chief investment officer and vice president of shareholder services. “He has managed hundreds of real estate deals and built a database that improved real estate management across all Michels companies. Dirk is a team player who is willing to step up whenever needed and closes deals on time and under budget.”

Hausmann, whose career experience spans four decades, is a mentor to real estate professionals across the greater Milwaukee area. He is also managing partner of his own law firm, Hausmann Law LLC. “With Dirk’s wisdom and decades of practical experience, he looks for fair and equitable resolutions,” said Tagliapietra.

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 review by our editorial team. To qualify for the list, nominees must live, work or have worked in the southeastern Wisconsin area and show they’ve made a measurable, specific impact on their organization, community and/or profession.

GREG STROMBERG

PATRICK FORD

ELLEN CENSKY

FOUNDER AND CEO

RETIRED SENIOR STRUCTURAL PROJECT MANAGER

PRESIDENT AND CEO

CANNEDWATER4KIDS Greg Stromberg, founder and chief executive officer of Sussex-based CannedWater4kids, has made outstanding contributions to both the packaging industry and philanthropic efforts, according to colleagues.

“With a remarkable 53-year career, he showcased a unique blend of entrepreneurial spirit and collaborative leadership,” said Peter Gorman, owner of Brand Support 365.

Founded in 2008, CannedWater4kids uses the proceeds from its canned drinking water to raise funds for water projects in disadvantaged communities worldwide, including in Guatemala, Zambia, Kenya and Tanzania. Under Stromberg’s guidance, the nonprofit has impacted more than 950,000 children globally by providing safe drinking water and delivering emergency relief through millions of cans.

In addition, Stromberg transformed the previously shut down Acme Printing Ink Co., which was eventually purchased by INX International Ink Co. and became the company’s most profitable branch within the first two years.

“His collaborative style is evident in his commitment to environmental sustainability, keeping over 5 million plastic water bottles out of rivers and landfills through CannedWater4kids initiatives,” said Gorman.

RASMITH Patrick Ford had a career in coldformed steel engineering that spanned 43 years, most recently working for Brookfield-based raSmith.

Prior to raSmith, Ford was principal and co-owner of Matsen Ford Design Associates. When Matsen Ford was acquired by raSmith in 2018, he joined the company as senior structural project manager.

Holding professional engineering licenses in 20 states, Ford served as the technical director of the Steel Framing Industry Association for 12 years and chair of the American Iron and Steel Institute Committee on Framing Standards.

Ford is a lifetime member of the Cold-Formed Steel Engineering Institute, where he held the positions of past president, director and technical editor. Other organizations he was involved in include the American Institute of Steel Construction, American National Standards Institute, American Society of Civil Engineers, American Society for Testing and Materials, Association of the Wall and Ceiling Industries, Center for Cold-Formed Steel Structures, and the National Society of Professional Engineers.

“Pat’s knowledge of cold-formed steel engineering extends to his application of cutting-edge technologies and design concepts to both load-bearing structures and a wide variety of curtainwall and prefabricated systems,” said Pat Hainault, co-director of structural services at raSmith.

MILWAUKEE PUBLIC MUSEUM Ellen Censky began her museum career at the Milwaukee Public Museum in the 1977. Later, after spending time working in museums around the country, she returned to MPM to eventually run the organization.

When Censky stepped into her role as president and chief executive officer in 2018, MPM was just starting the process of planning a new facility. With the potential lapse of its accreditation at stake, Censky was charged with overseeing the planning and fundraising stages of this undertaking. MPM is now shooting for a spring 2024 groundbreaking for its $240 million project on the northeast corner of 6th Street and McKinley Avenue in downtown Milwaukee. The museum has received commitments of $90 million in state and county funding for the project and is working to raise $150 million in private funds.

Censky also navigated the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which included the museum’s temporarily closure and financial challenges.

“Ellen Censky has led the MPM team with a level of grace and integrity unmatched,” said Corey Lahr, audio visual technician at MPM. “She has a dedication to the museum field and her constant positive and exuberant attitude when leading the charge for the new museum.”

40 / BizTimes Milwaukee JANUARY 29, 2024

40-45 JAN 29 Notable Sages Over 65.indd 40

1/19/24 2:25 PM

GERALD BLOMBERG

PEGGY TROY

LOWELL CARL

PRESIDENT

PRESIDENT AND CEO

PRESIDENT AND CEO

THE MRD GROUP

CHILDREN’S WISCONSIN

LOWELL T. CARL & ASSOCIATES

As the company grew, Blomberg realized it would need to diversify in order to remain competitive. Over the next 20 years, Blomberg would reinvest most of the company’s revenue back into the company for machinery, personnel, recycling site compounds and office spaces while adding an asbestos and lead abatement group, a construction division, a concrete and asphalt crushing operation, and a 50% ownership stake in Knapp Railroad Builders.

These are the divisions of what is now known as The MRD Group.

Today, Blomberg’s focus is on specialized demolitions, like complex high-rise structures, complete shopping mall centers, baseball stadiums, paper mills, power plants, foundries and numerous other industrial and commercial centers as well as city, county and state schools and office buildings.

NOTABLE WOM

EN

IN STEM

LL ADONICA RANDAPROBLEM SOLVER PRESIDENT AND ABAXENT LLC

CHIEF

LLC, Adonica RanPewaukee-based Abaxent problem solver of that is certified minority As president and chief company in Wisconsin chief operating technology solutions dall leads the only according to the company’s owned and operated, and Black-woman

al engineering officer Sabrina Robins. with a computer science/electric degree in bioRandall graduated a master’s In the mid-1970s, and Technology, and a patent in School of Science In the 1980s, she received degree from Missouri from Marquette University. medical engineering on MRI suite lighting. with Johnson Controls team that partnered care facility at Abaxent technical the COVID-19 alternate Randall also led the for Fiserv Forum and the network technology Park. among us and has Wisconsin State Fair figure who has lived hidden American of color. Her woman precious a a as is Randall “Ms. and technology Robins. in the world of science and beyond,” said made a major impact the state of Wisconsin been significant in contributions have

N O TA B L E W

OMEN IN ST

EM |

BIZTIMES M

I LWA U K E E :

MARCH 27,

2023

Under the leadership of Peggy Troy, Children’s Wisconsin expanded its services to more than 50 locations throughout Wisconsin, adding services like mental and behavioral health and the Herma Heart Institute.

Troy joined Children’s as a pediatric nurse in 1975 and worked her way up the ranks to take over as president and CEO in 2009.

Children’s announced in October that Troy will retire at the end of 2024.

“Peggy’s leadership has been transformative, not just to Children’s Wisconsin and its more than 7,000 employees and providers, but to children’s health in general,” said Patrick Hammes, Children’s Wisconsin board chair. “For the past 15 years, children in Wisconsin have benefited from a Children’s with Peggy at the helm.”

“She recognized early on that children’s health care must go beyond physical needs,” said Dr. Rainer Gedeit, chief medical officer at Children’s Wisconsin. “By spearheading efforts to increase mental and behavioral health, dental care, lead treatment and vaccinations in our system, and bringing those services into the community where our patients live, Peggy has improved the health of children all over Wisconsin.”

ORDER YOUR REPRINTS!

At 80, Lowell “LC” Carl, head of Menomonee Falls-based Lowell T. Carl & Associates, has had a career in the business world that, coupled with commitment to community service, has left an indelible mark on both sectors, according to Jacqueline Rammer, director of the Menomonee Falls Public Library.

Since his 1998 retirement, Carl has continued to contribute to the business and community landscape. Carl’s post-retirement leadership has included serving as a sales coordinator and trainer for a local franchise of a fire and water damage restoration company, where his continuing education courses paved the way for business solicitation from local insurance agencies. He was also retained by a commercial insurance brokerage, where he set 44 appointments with personal lines agencies in just a few months.

Beyond his professional achievements, Carl’s community service includes serving as a block captain for the Menomonee Falls Neighborhood Watch to working with the library. He serves as a consultant to Menomonee Falls Public Library leadership in legal and personnel matters and facilitated the library’s 2023-27 strategic planning process as a community advocate.

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The MRD Group, based in Milwaukee, began in 1975 when Gerald Blomberg created Midwest Rail and Dismantling to remove railroad track lines and perform demolition operations for the Milwaukee Road railroad company.

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1/19/24 2:26 PM

GARY JORGENSEN

MARCIA SPECTOR

CHAIRMAN

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

VJS CONSTRUCTION SERVICES

SEEDS OF HEALTH INC.

Gary Jorgensen is the last living founder of Pewaukee-based VJS Construction Services, with a career spanning nearly 50 years in the construction industry.

When Jorgensen joined the firm in 1976, it had two owners and seven office employees. Before passing leadership to his sons, Craig and David Jorgensen, in 1999, Gary Jorgensen helped guide the firm’s growth to a $60 million annual volume, employing 150 individuals at its peak.

“Our approach to client care mirrors the principles set by Gary Jorgensen and Tom Schueler. The customer remains our priority and we focus on enhancing projects through efficiency, technology and anticipating our clients’ future needs,” said Craig Jorgensen, president and chief executive officer.

Gary Jorgensen’s leadership has extended beyond VJS through various roles in industry organizations, including president of the Associated General Contractors of Greater Milwaukee.

He has also supported several nonprofits, including the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts, Journey House, Neighborhood House, Greater Milwaukee Foundation, and Mount Mary University.

Jorgensen served on the board of Rogers Behavioral Health for 20 years.

For nearly four decades, Marcia Spector has served as the executive director of Seeds of Health Inc., a Milwaukeebased nonprofit organization serving at-risk youth.

Spector grew the nonprofit from what was a $250,000 Women, Infants and Children federal assistance program to a $19 million organization that operates a network of five K-12 schools and a WIC clinic.

Today, Seeds of Health serves more than 1,300 Milwaukee students annually at Grandview High School, Seeds of Health Elementary School (established in 1996), Veritas High School (established in 2001), Tenor High School Cathedral Square Campus (established in 2005), and Tenor High School Journal Square Campus (established in 2021).

“Spector developed, funded and established these schools, each with its own mission and educational approach, in response to student needs and changing economic and social realities,” said board member Tiffany May of Berghammer Construction Corp. “Focused on building career pathways for Seeds of Health students – the vast majority of whom are economically disadvantaged – Spector was the driving force behind many innovative programs designed to prepare young people for the workforce.”

BEVERLY GREENBERG EXECUTIVE PRODUCER AND CREATOR

PROJECT PITCH IT During her 20 years as vice president of public affairs and government relations for Time Warner Cable, Beverly Greenberg created several initiatives, including Kids Biz, Roadrunner Club and the Hang Tough video contest, which earned an Emmy award for empowering youth in the fight against drugs and violence.

Greenberg also launched two local television channels: Wisconsin on Demand and TWC Sports Channel.

In 2016, Greenberg created “Project Pitch It,” a local version of the ABC TV show “Shark Tank,” designed to inspire Wisconsin entrepreneurship. Heading into its eighth season on WISN-TV Channel 12, the show has invested $4 million in 170 entrepreneurs. “‘Project Pitch It’ exemplifies Bev’s commitment to innovation and economic growth in Wisconsin,” said Peter Gorman, website manager for Project Pitch It and owner of Brand Support 365.

In 2019, Greenberg chaired the Holocaust Education & Resource Center’s Task Force on mandating Holocaust education in Wisconsin. In 2021, the Wisconsin legislature unanimously passed the bill and Gov. Evers signed legislation requiring Wisconsin schools to teach about the Holocaust and other genocides.

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10:22 PM

ARTHUR HARRINGTON

WILLIAM NIMKE

SHAREHOLDER

This includes supporting the Forest County Potawatomi Community in their opposition to a proposed copper and zinc mine, representing purchasers of industrial facilities in numerous brownfield transactions and launching WIACES, an association dedicated to public education about electric and autonomous vehicles.

Harrington has held leadership roles with the Wisconsin Equal Justice Foundation, Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee, Public Policy Forum, DNR Advisory Committees and the State Bar of Wisconsin. He also serves on the board of the Kenosha Innovation Neighborhood Inc. and has served as president of the Milwaukee Public Library and its foundation.

“Over the last 20 years, Art’s insight and depth of expertise has been tremendously helpful in many of the major projects in the city,” said Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian.

CO-FOUNDER AND COOWNER

ALL HANDS BOATWORKS INC.

GODFREY & KAHN Arthur Harrington, shareholder at Milwaukee-based Godfrey & Kahn, began practicing law in 1975. His early career coincided with the launch of the environmental law practice in Wisconsin, and he has been tackling the state’s environmental issues ever since.

MARYBETH BUDISCH

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND FOUNDER

SABLJAK & BUDISCH

William Nimke, 69, is the founder and executive director of Milwaukee-based All Hands Boatworks Inc. The nonprofit youth development organization was established in 2013 and offers hands-on learning for youth and the public, teaching the craft and art of wooden boat building. It also organizes activities on the water.

At a season in her life when she could very well rest on her laurels, Marybeth Budisch, cofounder and co-owner of Milwaukeebased Sabljak & Budisch continues to work to benefit nonprofit organizations throughout southeastern Wisconsin, according to colleague Melissa Baxter, president of the Waukesha County Community Foundation.

“What started out of the trunk of Bill’s car has grown to become a highly regarded youth organization with an 8,600-square-foot shop and integrated programs for youth from 10-22 years old,” said Trent Myers, volunteer instructor and boat builder. “Bill and All Hands Boatworks have led collaborative projects with more than 50 Milwaukee schools and other youth-serving organizations.”

After a long career at the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, Budisch partnered with Mark Sabljak to form their nonprofit advisory firm in 2018.

Its motto, “building more than a boat,” reflects All Hands’ mission of serving Milwaukee youth through summer camps, in-school projects, boat shop internships, after-school programs and community workshops. The programs are designed to build selfconfidence, teamwork and responsibility as well as reinforce STEM learning.

Nimke and All Hands have worked with students to build more than 145 skiffs, dories, sailboats, rowing gigs and canoes.

“Since then, mission-driven organizations have relied on her expertise in fund development and relationship building to effect change,” Baxter said. “Marybeth has advised professionals from the C-suite to entry-level staff, ensuring that her unique and authentic approach to advising, fundraising and stewardship will continue on through those she has mentored.”

In 2022, Budisch received the Trailblazer Award from the Association of Fundraising Professionals of Southeastern Wisconsin.

She also volunteers her time with the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Cardiovascular Center, Wisconsin Philanthropy Network, Wauwatosa’s Community Development Block Grant Committee and the Waukesha County Community Foundation.

Congratulations!

Art Harrington BizTimes Media Notable Sages Over 65

Congratulations to Marybeth Budisch for being recognized in the inaugural list of BizTimes Notable Sages.

Your commitment to our community and its future leaders is extraordinary!

Nomina ated by Waukesha County Community Foundation

MILWAUKEE MADISON GREEN BAY APPLETON EAU CLAIRE WASHINGTON, D.C.

www ww ww.sabljakandbudisch.com

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CHARLIE KEEPMAN

JOHN ROGERS

JOHN WEINFURTER

CHAIRMAN

BUSINESS ROUNDTABLES FACILITATOR

PARTNER

EVANS TRANSPORTATION SERVICES INC. Charlie Keepman co-founded Delafield-based Evans Transportation Services with Marty Johnson in 1985. Today, the third-party logistics and transportation management services company has 120 employees and customers across North America.

In 2018, Keepman propelled Evans into its next generation of growth by purchasing Johnson’s share of the business and passing the leadership torch to his son, Ryan Keepman.

With Charlie Keepman serving as chairman for the past five years, the company has continued to grow from about $100 million in annual revenue to nearly $400 million, according to Charles Miller, Evans’ chief commercial officer.

“His encouragement, wisdom and commitment to doing things the right way continues to help guide his son Ryan, who is CEO, and the rest of the team at Evans,” said Miller. “There is no better resource for advice on life for many of our teammates. He is steady, ever-positive, generous and has faith.”

CAPSTONE NATIONAL PARTNERS

SHEBOYGAN COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE John Rogers is making a permanent impact on Sheboygan County through his work as business roundtables facilitator at the Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce.

“John is a true ambassador for the Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce and to all members wanting to move their businesses forward,” said Bailey Firgens, marketing and community outreach manager for Partners for Community Development Inc. “In his 20-plus years working in business and economic development, he has accomplished so much and continues to support the business community in as many ways as he can.”

Rogers joined the Sheboygan County Chamber in 2007 and has since facilitated more than 500 technical transfer and peerto-peer roundtables and led three different strategic planning projects for Sheboygan County nonprofits. He has an additional 25-plus years of experience with businesses that provide professional services to public and private sector clients.

“John is a strategic and tactical planner, able to see multiple projects through from beginning to end. He is a true leader, empowering others to achieve their best,” said Firgens.

Well Deserved Charlie!

John Weinfurter started his career working 20 years on Capitol Hill as chief of staff to the late U.S. Rep. Joe Moakley (D-MA), chairman of the House Rules Committee.

While working in Congress, Weinfurter was president of the Congressional Economic Leadership Institute, a bipartisan foundation designed to educate legislators about economic issues. He administered more than 200 sessions in Congress and brought CEOs, foreign heads of state and other stakeholders together in forums on economic growth and productivity. He also held hundreds of fundraisers for Wisconsin and national Democrats.

In 2016, Weinfurter joined Capstone National Partners, a government affairs and public policy firm with offices in Milwaukee and Washington, D.C. Weinfurter is the current president emeritus of the House Chiefs of Staff Alumni Association.

“As one of Capstone’s senior partners, John provides the Milwaukee business community with government relations services and strategic counsel,” said Chris Czarnecki, senior associate at Capstone. “He works with clients from a variety of industries including health care, energy, financial services, international development, and defense among others. John is also considered a friend, mentor, and trusted advisor to many.”

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44 / BizTimes Milwaukee JANUARY 29, 2024

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FRED TABAK

JANE SCHLICHT

FOUNDER AND ATTORNEY

PARTNER

SISTER BERNARDIN DEUTSCH

TABAK LAW LLC

HINSHAW & CULBERTSON LLP

PROFESSOR AND SPECIAL ASSISTANT

Throughout her decades-long career, Jane Schlicht, partner at Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP in Milwaukee, has successfully represented clients in patent, trademark and trade secret matters and disputes as well as complex business disputes.

ALVERNO COLLEGE

Longtime attorney Fred Tabak, 80, founded Glendale-based Tabak Law in 2010 after an accomplished career that included serving as a Milwaukee County Board supervisor.

The law firm focuses on social security disability, worker’s compensation and veteran’s benefits issues, now with more than 75 full-time employees and thousands of clients across the country.

“Fred has improved the lives of many plaintiffs in personal injury matters as their counsel,” said Tabak Law attorney Monica Irelan Karas.

Under Tabak’s leadership, the firm has donated tens of thousands of dollars to local charities, including $100,000 in 2023 to the Center for Veterans Issues for a project focusing on mental health access for veterans. In 2021, Tabak helped create the new Ruth Bader Ginsburg Scholarship fund through the Milwaukee Public Schools Foundation to provide tuition assistance to women of color pursuing undergraduate and graduate law degrees.

Tabak is also active in the community, serving as a supporting member on numerous boards including the Jewish Community Center, Running Rebels, Community First, Inner-City Housing development and the MPS Foundation.

“A recognized thought leader, Jane has been a guest lecturer at Marquette University Law School on numerous topics including e-discovery, ethics, trial practice and procedure. She is a frequent presenter on trial practice and procedure, restrictive covenants and trade secrets, and Wisconsin ethics rules,” said Tomislav Kuzmanovic, partner-in-charge of Hinshaw & Culbertson’s Milwaukee office.

As chair of the Special Preliminary Review Panel of the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation from 2000 to 2006, Schlicht had an integral role in shaping legal ethics regulation in the state. She also served on an advisory committee to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin to study cost and delay in the Wisconsin federal court system.

Additionally, Schlicht has mentored many young attorneys as a master in the Thomas E. Fairchild American Inn of Court.

Sister Bernardin Deutsch, 92, is an icon at Alverno College in the eyes of colleagues and others in the Alverno family.

“She is still involved and active in the lives of the students and mission of Alverno,” said Jean O’Toole, director of marketing. “She was part of the catalyst of change with the inception of Alverno’s ‘8 Abilities’ curriculum. She is a true spirt, loved by current students, staff, faculty and alum alike.”

A longtime psychology professor, Bernardin was the first to videotape student teachers and was chair of one of the 8 Abilities, which are communication, problem solving, effective citizenship, valuing in decision making, social interaction, analysis, developing a global perspective and aesthetic engagement.

The abilities-based curriculum was created during the early 1970s in response to a national conversation about the need for graduates to demonstrate their competence in key skills.

“The relevance of the abilities is still very real,” Deutsch said in a recent article on Alverno’s website. “Whatever our next step is, I know we will continue to assist students to prepare themselves for their future in the world.”

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Questions? Contact Linda Crawford or your account executive at advertise@biztimes.com or (414)-336-7112 biztimes.com / 45

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Strategies MANAGEMENT

The Boys in the Boat Championship rowing team demonstrated importance of alignment of effort WHILE WATCHING “The Boys in the Boat” movie recently, I saw parallels between the strategies and management of the junior varsity rowing team at the University of Washington in 1936 and the execution of a business strategic plan.

To maximize the potential of the eight rowers and the coxswain, the right people have to be in each one of the eight seats in the racing shell.

During the training and evaluation of the potential crews, the coaches assessed the strengths and weaknesses of each combination of crew members. Their goal was to identify the best balance between the crew members. After several changes in crew members, they found the eight men that could best work together.

Then the challenge was to find the best person to lead these men. The coach took the coxswain from the varsity team to lead the junior varsity team. Was this a demotion? No, he realized this person was the best person to lead this team to victory.

The result of this management change was total alignment of effort, the JV squad was better than the Washington varsity team, and they achieved their biggest goal, a victory over their main competition: the University of California rowing team.

But this same group of eight men went even further, onward to qualify for the 1936 Olympics and then they won the gold medal in Berlin.

So, what does eight men rowing in unison have

to do with strategic planning? It’s all about “alignment” in effort and goals. So, how do we learn from this story and apply it to our businesses?

First, you need to have the right people in each seat of your boat pulling in the same direction for you to be successful.

In order to assemble the right people, you need current and complete job descriptions. This will permit you to evaluate and select the right applicants for the open seats in your boat. In the movie, they needed one person who would set the pace for the others to follow. They positioned this person in the boat so the other men could see him setting the pace. Once this leader was in place, they assembled the necessary support staff.

Second, you need the right person to motivate this team in the achievement of their personal and team goals.

By assigning an experienced coxswain to the junior varsity team, they found the person who would set the necessary pace and implement the strategies needed to achieve their goal, a winning team. In the movie, his consistent leadership provided the guidance they needed to overcome the challenges they faced.

Third, you need alignment in the team goals so everyone is working toward the same outcome, a win for the company.

By selecting the best rowers and placing them in the right seats in the boat, they gained the needed alignment in effort. Instead of rowing against each other, they rowed as a team under the coxswain’s guidance. You need to have the right managers in each position in your organization and their departmental goals need to support the achievement of the overall corporate goals. This is when you have alignment. No one is rowing against each other; they are all rowing in the same direction.

Part of any strategic planning process is a reevaluation of the leadership of the company. Do we have the right managers and leaders in the right seats to drive the company to victory? If not, it is time to make the needed changes to build that alignment we need to achieve the agreed upon goals. Strategic planning is designed to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats within and from the environment in which we

conduct our businesses. Once those weaknesses and threats are identified, action needs to be taken.

In the movie, they assessed the rowers’ abilities and how best to position them in the boat to maximize the boat’s potential. They changed coxswains in order to have the right leadership for the boat.

When it came time to compete in each race, they knew the strengths and weaknesses of each opponent. Who would take the lead first, who could come from behind and who would set the pace. In one race, they knew they had to set the pace and take the lead immediately. In another, they waited to pick up the pace and catch the leader and win the race going away. In the final race during the Olympics, they had to overcome a delay due to a misunderstood command from the starter. They made the necessary adjustment, picked up the pace, and won the race in a photo finish.

Marking adjustments in strategy is another important part of the strategic planning process.

So, you need to constantly monitor your competitive environment for changes that would impact your plan. Stagnation is your enemy; you need to keep moving forward and adjusting to the changing currents in the competitive waters, and you will win the gold as the University of Washington’s 1936 crew team did in the Olympics. ■

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.

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STRATEGIC PLANNING

Embrace the journey In strategic planning the process is the product THE PURPOSE of strategic planning is not a plan.

OK, the outcome is typically a plan, but that is not the purpose. When leaders and their boards place too much emphasis on the document – and often the format and verbiage – the venerated plan collapses under its own weight.

LOFTY GOALS, TOO MANY PRIORITIES What we see too often is an organization enamored with lofty goals and burdened with an unmanageable list of tactical priorities that have little to do with business strategy. Either the document ends up sitting on the shelf, gathering dust, or the organization becomes hopelessly mired in activities that fail to produce tangible business results.

In either instance, the failure to follow through on good intentions breeds organizational cynicism.

WANTS VS. NEEDS CEOs may say they want a strategic plan, but what they need is a strategically focused, high performing organization, capable of responding proactively to shifting market dynamics, routinely delighting customers and achieving business objectives. They also need a collaborative, capable and accountable leadership team. They need a dedicated and energized workforce. They need robust and reliable business processes and systems. They need a culture focused on winning and built on enduring principles. The purposes and motivations for strategic planning are numerous. The planning process is the vehicle to achieve these ends, not an end in itself.

A DISCOVERY PROCESS Done right, the strategic planning process creates a “sacred space” in which perspectives can be shared, ideas debated, assumptions challenged, problems explored, and consensus achieved on future direction and business priorities. The process strengthens and coalesces the leadership team and fosters a sense of shared accountability for results.

Strategic planning provides an opportunity to step back from the pressures of day-to-day business to systematically evaluate the potential impact of external trends and developments: industry, market, customer, competitor and supply chain; and the influence of technology advancements and regulatory changes. A healthy exchange about the challenges the business faces from outside the four walls produces the sort of insight and foresight which enables leaders to: » Uncover potential new markets and customers. » Challenge and refine the business model. » Clarify and strengthen competitive differentiation. » Filter and qualify business opportunities. » Anticipate and respond nimbly to market shifts and competitive dynamics. » Develop a viable, market-based growth strategy.

Strategic planning is also a forum in which leaders can thoroughly assess the organization’s capabilities: structure, processes, skill sets, staffing and systems. A robust and honest self-appraisal helps the team to: » Determine investment priorities and how to best leverage resources: time, talent and treasure. » Focus operational improvements and integrate functional priorities. » Align organizational behavior; improve cross-functional communication, collaboration and cooperation. » Navigate change, increase organizational agility and accelerate business momentum. » Strengthen customer relationships and responsiveness. » Enhance talent and reinforce the corporate culture.

CLEAR PRIORITIES: STRATEGIC AND OPERATIONAL At its essence, strategic planning is an executive level problem-solving process. A disciplined approach addresses two fundamental questions, the first strategic and the second operational.

1. What will be the future focus of business development efforts in terms of products (or services) offered and markets served? A clear consensus on specifics (what, where, how, why and when) is key to assuring everyone on the planning team is on the same page.

2. Which operational/organizational competencies must be strengthened to successfully compete and win within the chosen strategy? Again, leadership consensus is critical when it comes to funding improvement priorities.

LESS IS MORE The answers to these questions will translate to a handful of initiatives – strategic and operational – designed to have transformational impact on the business. The results achieved are far superior to those derived from a lengthy, short sighted “To Do List.” A few substantive initiatives can be managed in a dynamic context in which strategic planning becomes an ongoing leadership discipline.

The process becomes the product. ■

PAUL WOERPEL Paul Woerpel is the president of Madisonbased Transformation Consulting Group.

He is a strategic planning consultant with more than 30 years of experience and more than 150 clients. He can be reached at paul@strategic-agility.com. biztimes.com / 47

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Strategies COACHING

How to get what you want Baird exec LaVay Lauter offers tips for interpersonal negotiations, personal and professional growth DURING AN EARLIER TIME in her career when she flew often on U.S. Air, LaVay Lauter, a vice president and director of talent development at Milwaukee-based Baird, persuaded many a gate agent to move her seat up from coach to first class, just by asking nicely. “‘I’d like to be moved to first class, please,’” Lauter said, smiling brightly as she demonstrated her technique to the audience at BizTimes Media’s annual Women in Business Symposium in August. “Then, I embraced the pause.”

Often, the agents were so disarmed by her cheerfully direct request, which she amended only if they hesitated – “‘You’ll have made me blissfully happy, and you’ll feel a whole lot better about yourself’” – that they granted her wish, bumping her up to first class more than 73% of the time. (Lauter, who studied psychology as an undergrad and education and religion as a seminary student, tracked her data in a spreadsheet.)

“Even if you don’t get all of what you want right away,” being bold and asking for “100% of what you want, 100% of the time” is better than only “asking for 65% of what you want, 65% of the time,” she said. “If I can do it, you can do it.”

A funny, wise, provocative woman with abundant Southern charm, Lauter, who grew up in Florida and Kentucky, has a gift not only for helping people spot their weaknesses, but also for offering

solutions – simple next steps and thoughtful scripts – that make improvement seem eminently possible. Along with more traditional business-focused classes on leadership and organizational savvy, Lauter and her colleagues on Baird’s talent development team teach a range of internally authored courses aimed at helping associates improve their personal well-being, covering such subjects as the Five Love Languages and how to communicate skillfully with adult children.

Patrick Spencer, vice chairman of Baird’s European equities team, praised her ability to combine deep knowledge about the company with empathy and genuine interest in helping people thrive in every aspect of their lives: “We have a saying that in sales there’s got to be a ‘transference of enthusiasm,’ and LaVay has that in spades. That’s a special gift for people that actually don’t have much emotional intelligence, like myself. She keeps the subject interesting, and she provides tools for change.”

Eager to learn more about Lauter’s strategies for success in business and beyond, I spoke with her recently. Here are five takeaways from our conversation: GO BOLD OR GO HOME There are many benefits to learning to ask for 100% of what you want, the first being that it forces you to drill down and determine what you truly want to achieve. But identifying your most important objectives also emboldens you to lobby persuasively for whatever it is you’re gunning for.

“It’s a game changer,” Lauter said. Even if the other person you’re trying to convince says no the first time you ask for what you want, “you feel more empowered, more confident” because you have been clear and honest, creating natural momentum around your idea. “Confidence drives security in the other party. So, the more boldly confident you appear, the more the other person feels secure,” and the more likely they become willing “to meet your need in the future,” she said.

MAKE IT A GOOD TRADE “At Baird, we talk about building a business case – stating to the other party what they will get out of the deal,” Lauter said.

LaVay Lauter

But the same strategy can help create more clarity and fairness in personal relationships. Lauter shared a story of her own to illustrate: She’s dating a man who wants to marry her, but she does not want him to move into her house with his dog because she is, as she put it, a “neat freak.” So, in negotiating with him to move in without his dog, she has highlighted how the deal benefits him: He’ll get “LaVay and all the fun of LaVay, hugging him every day – a wonderful trade benefit. I’m part Indian, and in the Native American tradition we have something called ‘good trade.’ Good trade means, ‘I want this, but I’m willing to trade you that.’ It is the same concept as the business case – you’re promoting the good trade to the other party.”

BUILD A BETTER NETWORK When you want to make a move or try something new, instead of contacting random acquaintances to talk shop, building a network of people who genuinely want you to succeed is usually more fruitful, Lauter said.

To get started, make a list of 50 people “in your personal and professional life who love you, or who are just really nice – those are the people that are willing to help,” she said. Then, brainstorm “a wish list for what each person could do for you. Maybe one person can help you find a house; another, a church; and another can help you land a new job.”

Making her own list years ago during a job

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search, Lauter put a dash after the name of a distant cousin, John, who – she remembered only then – worked at MCI, “a global company with a huge training department.” So, she called John and “boldly and directly” – and with a laugh, “because it’s always good to put humor in there” – asked him to help her get a job at the telecom company.

“I promised, ‘I will work so hard that I will make you look good. People are going to say, ‘That’s John’s cousin!’” He considered that a good trade and helped Lauter get a job at MCI, where, holding up her end of the bargain, she says she made sure to shine.

AVOID THE THREE CS While venting can feel exhilarating, it doesn’t fix problems. A better way to help yourself out of a rut, Lauter said, is to stop kneejerk criticism. “We call them the relationship cancers: critiquing, complaining, condemning.” Maybe your partner is doing something irksome, or you’re frustrated with your boss because you think she owes you a raise.

But rather than venting, which keeps you stuck in a blaming mentality, it is “far better to transfer that

energy and figure out what is the benefit, the good trade, to the other party for giving you what you want,” said Lauter.

IT’S OK TO UNPACK PERSONAL PROBLEMS AT WORK While Lauter admitted there are some at Baird who would like on-the-job trainings to focus exclusively on business practices, often the biggest challenges she sees people facing at work are “problems in their personal relationships with children, partners or spouses. Our people are human beings, number one,” and sometimes they “come to work with a 50-pound suitcase of heartbreak and suffering, and they park it right next to their office chair.

And they are looking at that suitcase all day long.

So, to the degree I can offer soft-skills classes that benefit people personally as well as professionally, the suitcase gets left at the elevator, which is where you want it to stay. Or, even better,” she said, “the suitcase transforms into a warm security blanket that they have wrapped around their chair, so they’re feeling good all day long.” ■

LOUISA KAMPS Louisa Kamps, founder of Let’s Write Your Story, is a writer and editor. Her profiles, articles, essays and reviews have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and ELLE, where she was a contributing writer for 21 years. She helps businesses and individuals share their stories with custom books, articles and biographies. She can be reached through her website, www. louisakamps.com.

BIZ UPDATE DA N A N A M ED 2 0 2 3 BE S T PL ACE S TO WO RK IN M O NE Y M A N AGEM EN T

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Submit your company news at biztimes.com/bizconnect

owned firm, there is a focus on employee’s health and well-being, both financially and mentally.

These attributes have helped build a talented and dedicated team with little employee turnover to provide the best experience for clients.

On December 11th, Dana Investment Advisors was recognized for the twelfth consecutive year as a best place to work for managers with 50 to 99 employees In Pensions & Investments Best Places To Work In Money Management A strong culture was instilled from the very beginning in 1980

by Mike Dana. Dana Investment Advisors has built on that strong, independent, and entrepreneurial culture centered around its employees. As an employee-

“Maintaining a strong culture and winning environment has not only helped us be recognized 12 consecutive years as a Best Place to Work, but it’s also helped us generate strong investment results and be the only Firm recognized by CNBC as a Top 5 Financial Advisor each of the past 5 years,” said CEO Mark Mirsberger.

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Biz Connections BIZ PEOPLE CONSTRUCTION Construction Industry Veteran Kelly Beck Joins ARCO/Murray’s Milwaukee Office Kelly Beck was hired as Director of Business Development at ARCO/ Murray, a Top 3 U.S. Design-Builder.

She’s been a leader and trailblazer in the construction industry for 20+ years. Kelly will work out of ARCO’s Milwaukee office and is responsible for generating new business and nurturing client relationships. She will work handin-hand with ARCO‘s project team from initial meeting through due diligence, design, construction and occupancy. Kelly earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business from DePaul University. She volunteers and serves as a committee member for several local veteran and performing arts nonprofits.

MANUFACTURING

BANKING

Based in Milwaukee, WI, for over 100 years, Perlick designs, engineers and manufactures luxury refrigeration equipment and systems for both homes and the bar, restaurant and beverage industries.

Adam Hanson Promoted to Principal at SVA Certified Public Accountants

Josh Hines Joins Wisconsin Bank & Trust Wisconsin Bank & Trust welcomes Josh Hines as Vice President, Wealth Advisor. Josh works closely with clients to understand their goals, build strong relationships, and deliver impactful financial solutions through innovative products and services. Josh has over 13 years of investment experience, most recently with Charles Schwab. Josh is a graduate of Indiana University – Indianapolis.

Wisconsin Bank & Trust is a division of HTLF Bank, through its parent company, Heartland Financial USA, Inc., operating under the brand name HTLF, (NASDAQ: HTLF). HTLF Bank is Member FDIC and an Equal Housing Lender.

FINANCIAL SERVICES Vrakas Welcomes New Shareholder

Perlick Welcomes New VP Sales Perlick is pleased to welcome Steve Silha as their new VP Sales.

Steve served as VP Sales for the past 8 years at Vivreau North Americas. He brings his extensive background in consultative selling processes, as well as demonstrated experience in maximizing opportunities within existing and new markets. Steve will be instrumental in Perlick achieving its full growth potential across all markets in the near and long term.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Vrakas CPAs + Advisors is pleased to welcome Jessica H. Schwantes to the shareholder group.

Jessica joins Vrakas as a tax shareholder with over 20 years of tax-focused experience in public accounting. At Vrakas, Jessica will continue to specialize in tax consulting, compliance and business advisory services for privately-held businesses and their owners. As a Madison area resident, Jessica is the firm’s Madison market leader and will be responsible for building a talented team of professionals in that market as the firm continues its growth across Wisconsin.

SVA Certified Public Accountants is proud to announce that Adam Hanson has been promoted to Principal.

Adam is the leader of SVA’s Client Accounting Services. His expertise is focused on financial reporting and outsourced accounting for businesses.

Adam works closely with business owners to advise them on accounting and tax issues, assist with accounting software implementation and support, and teach them how to better understand their financial statements in order to make critical business decisions. He also assists with financial statement preparation, budgeting, and tax planning.

BANKING

MEDIA & MARKETING Former MKE Film Executive Maureen Post Starts New Experiential Marketing Firm Maureen Post recently concluded a remarkable 12-year tenure at Milwaukee Film, where she played a pivotal role in pioneering the nationally acclaimed Black Lens program and the Cultures & Communities Initiative. In October 2023, she embarked on a new professional journey by co-founding Culture By Design, LLC (Culture x Design) alongside former Milwaukee Film Chief Innovation Officer Geraud Blanks and community connector Ranell Washington.

Culture x Design marks Maureen’s venture into engagement marketing and consulting. Leveraging her extensive experience in the arts and culture non-profit sector.

LEGAL SERVICES Port Washington State Bank Names Josh Nave Vice President/Director of IT

von Briesen & Roper, s.c. welcomes Jamie B. Barwin to its Trusts and Estates Section

Josh Nave was recently hired as Vice President/ Director of Information Technology for Port Washington State Bank.

Nave joins PWSB with more than 20 years of experience in information technology (IT) within the banking industry.

Jamie is a Shareholder with over 15 years of experience and is also a licensed CPA in Wisconsin and Michigan.

She focuses her practice on estate planning, probate and estate administration, business and corporate planning, special needs planning and tax.

ARCHITECTURE

ARCHITECTURE

Kahler Slater Promotes Dan Causier, AIA to Associate Principal

Kahler Slater Promotes Carolyn Entzminger, AIA to Associate Principal

Kahler Slater promoted Dan Causier, AIA to Associate Principal. As a skilled designer, Dan plays a key role on many design-forward projects and has had a significant impact on the firm’s residential and hospitality markets.

Kahler Slater promoted Carolyn Entzminger, AIA to Associate Principal. Serving as a Senior Project Leader, her vast experience in all aspects of design makes her a valuable resource to the firm’s healthcare clients around the country.

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ARCHITECTURE

ARCHITECTURE

ARCHITECTURE

ARCHITECTURE

Kahler Slater Promotes Jess Gardner, AIA to Associate Principal

Kahler Slater Promotes Paul Kitchen, AIA to Associate Principal

Kahler Slater Promotes Joel Koeppen, AIA to Associate Principal

Kahler Slater Promotes Jeff Nelson to Associate Principal

Kahler Slater promoted Jess Gardner, AIA to Associate Principal. A versatile resource, they serve as a Healthcare Project Architect, and a leader of the firm’s automation initiative, dedicated to making information equitable and accessible.

Kahler Slater promoted Paul Kitchen, AIA to Associate Principal. With a passion for healthcare design and technology, he is known for his ability to create thoughtful, data-based solutions to meet client goals.

Kahler Slater promoted Joel Koeppen, AIA to Associate Principal. Joel is an accomplished designer serving residential and hospitality clients.

He is skilled at designing spaces to provide people with a harmonious.

Kahler Slater promoted Jeff Nelson to Associate Principal. As the National Director of Business Development for Higher Education, he is known for building strong relationships and being a catalyst for market growth across the country.

ARCHITECTURE

ARCHITECTURE

ARCHITECTURE

LEGAL SERVICES

Kahler Slater Promotes Matthew Schmidt to Associate Principal

Kahler Slater Promotes Adam Bastjan, AIA to Design Principal

Kahler Slater Promotes Aaron Ebent, AIA to Design Principal

Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown LLP Welcomes Attorney Christopher Vandeventer

Kahler Slater promoted Matthew Schmidt to Associate Principal. He serves as Senior Financial Analyst overseeing client project financial aspects. He leverages technology and data for quick analysis, making significant impact across the firm.

Kahler Slater has promoted Adam Bastjan to Design Principal. He joins the leadership team responsible for establishing, inspiring, and directing design dialog and culture. He is expert in designing sports, recreation, and wellness experiences.

Kahler Slater has promoted Aaron Ebent to Design Principal. He joins the leadership team responsible for establishing, inspiring, and directing design dialog and culture. He is expert in designing workplace and hospitality experiences.

The Milwaukee, Wisconsin based trial and litigation law firm of Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown LLP (GRGB) is pleased to announce the addition of Attorney Christopher Vandeventer to the firm’s civil litigation team.

LEGAL SERVICES

BANKING

BANKING

TECHNOLOGY

Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown LLP Welcomes Attorney Eric Schanowski to the Team

Waukesha State Bank Promotes Mierzwinski to Treasury Management Specialist

Waukesha State Bank Promotes Kasinski to Controller

Waukesha State Bank is proud to announce the promotion of Tammy Kasinski to controller. In her new position, Kasinski will be responsible for directing the staff and operations of the finance department.

CCB Technology announces promotion of Jacob Turowski to Vice President of IT Services

The Milwaukee, Wisconsin based trial and litigation law firm of Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown LLP (GRGB) is pleased to announce the addition of Attorney Eric Schanowski to the firm’s criminal defense team.

Waukesha State Bank is proud to announce the promotion of Angela Mierzwinski to assistant vice president - treasury management specialist. She will be responsible for helping businesses optimize their cash flow and streamline financial operations.

ARCHITECTURE

LEGAL SERVICES

ANNOUNCEMENTS

o place your listing, or for more information, please visit T biztimes.com/bizconnect

Ellen Skorpinski Joins HGA as Senior Engineering Project Manager

Ellen Skorpinski has joined HGA as an Associate Vice President and Sr. Engineering Project Manager in Milwaukee. She will direct engineering processes, collaborating with HGA’s interdisciplinary teams, building owners, and contractors.

Meissner Tierney Fisher & Nichols S.C. Welcomes Hailey M. Anick as an Attorney

CCB Technology announces the promotion of Jacob Turowski to Vice President of Services, where he’ll oversee the team responsible for CCB’s IT Services delivery. Turowski has been with the company since 2014.

MTFN is pleased to welcome Hailey M. Anick as an associate in the litigation practice group.

“We’re excited to have Hailey join our litigation practice, and see her as a valued member of the firm for years to come,” said Shareholder Mark D. Malloy.

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GET THE WORD OUT! News? Press Releases? Awards?

Show them off in BizTimes’ new BizUpdates section.

Submit your company news at biztimes.com/bizconnect 52 / BizTimes Milwaukee JANUARY 29, 2024

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NONPROFIT MILWAUKEE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE TO ADD SECOND CAMPUS AT FORMER PENFIELD MONTESSORI BUILDING Milwaukee Academy of Science will open a second campus at the former Penfield Montessori School building at 2433 W. Cherry St. in Milwaukee this fall, officials recently announced.

Shuttered by Penfield at the close of the 2022-‘23 school year, the building served prekindergarten through 6th grade students for roughly seven years. Before becoming a Montessori school, it was the longtime home of St. Michael’s Roman Catholic School, which constructed the building in 1923 and expanded it in 1956.

MAS will use the facility to

provide space for up to 600 new students in grades K4 through 8, while at the same time providing another option for its existing elementary and middle school students who live closer to the Cherry Street building.

“Families deserve a highquality education for their children, and today represents a significant opportunity for us to answer that call,” said Anthony McHenry, chief executive officer of MAS. “In addition, these students will eventually transition to our high school, which we believe will enhance Milwaukee’s workforce.”

— Cara Spoto, staff writer

C ALENDAR The Milwaukee Public Schools Foundation will host its 2024 Welcome & Kick-Off on Wednesday, Jan. 31 from 5-7 p.m. at Central Standard Craft Distillery, 320 E. Clybourn St., Milwaukee. The event is free.

Wisconsin Voices will host its Be A Voice! Gala on Friday, Feb. 16 from 5-9 p.m. at The Bavarian Bierhaus, 700 W. Lexington Boulevard, Glendale. Tickets start at $75.

The NAACP of Ozaukee County will host its 33rd Annual Freedom Fund gala on Friday, Feb. 23 at 5 p.m. at the River Club of Mequon, 12400 N. Ville Du Parc Drive, Mequon. Tickets start at $150.

First Stage will host its 30th annual Make Believe Ball on Saturday, Feb. 24 at 5 p.m. at The Pfister Hotel, 424 E. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee.

Tickets are $200 for adults, $100 for teens and $50 for children.

D O N AT I O N R O U N D U P NBA Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade committed $3 million to Marquette University to fund youth literacy, scholarships and the men’s basketball program. | The Bradley Foundation gave $15.7 million in grants to organizations in Milwaukee and throughout Wisconsin in 2023, including the Neu-Life Community Resource Center, the Bel Canto Chorus and Milwaukee Public Library Foundation. | The Zilber Family Foundation donated nearly $3 million to 18 Milwaukee nonprofits as part of its December 2023 grant cycle, including Community Advocates, Metro Milwaukee Mediation Services and Revitalize Milwaukee. | Kohl’s Corp. donated more than $500,000 to more than 25 nonprofits serving families in Milwaukee and Waukesha Counties through its Hometown Giving Program. | Generac and the Generac Foundation gave a $10,000 grant to Carroll University to support hands-on STEM programs for youth. | Tabak Law donated $100,000 to the Center for Veterans Issues. | WISN 12 and Hunger Task Force raised $152,207 to provide healthy meals for local families over the holidays as part of the 12th annual Food for Families Food Drive.

NONPROFIT

SPOTLIGHT

USO W ISCONSIN 750 N. Lincoln Memorial Dr., Room 407 Milwaukee, WI 53202 414-763-2214 | wi.uso.org Facebook: facebook.com/USOofWisconsin LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/uso-of-wisconsin Year founded: 1941 Mission statement: To strengthen the well-being of the people serving in America’s military and their families.

Primary focus: USO Wisconsin serves more than 15,000 current U.S. military personnel throughout the state from each of the five military branches and 150,000 personnel that train in Wisconsin each year. The organization offers various programs and services at five locations across the state, including centers at the Military Entrance Processing Station in Milwaukee, USO Wisconsin Administrative Office in Milwaukee and Fort McCoy in Monroe County and travel lounges at La Crosse Regional Airport and Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport.

Other focuses: USO Entertainment partners with actors, musicians, and professional athletes to produce “meet and greets,” comedy shows, concerts, unit visits and other interactive events for service members and their families. The USO Transition Program extends the USO experience to service members and military spouses by providing professional support in education, employment, financial wellness, mentoring and increased access to relevant veteran resources in their communities.

Number of employees: 3 Key donors: Oshkosh Defense, Milwaukee Brewers, Fotsch Family

Foundation, Kwik Trip, QE ATMs, Paradies Lagardère, Milwaukee Admirals, Optum Serve, Northwestern Mutual, Kohl’s Corp., Tito’s, Wells Fargo Advisors, MP Systems, Boucher Automotive Group, Lincoln Contractors, Eaton Executive leadership: Josh Sova, executive director Board of directors: Jacob Heinitz, chair, QE ATMs; Jeanine Sweeney, Founders 3; Bridget Johnson, U.S Army/UnitedHealthcare; Ann Knabe, BVK; Kevin Dailey, Wells Fargo Advisors; Sara Harris, Pregis; Thomas Foster, Optum/LHI; Jeff Papaleo, Southwestern Consulting; Ryan Roman, AbbVie; David Ring, Kwik Trip; Tammy Jelinek, Wipfli; Dustin McCormick, 54th Civil Support Team for the Wisconsin Army National Guard.

Is your organization actively seeking board members for the upcoming term? Yes What roles are you looking to fill?

Board positions Ways the business community can help: Spread the word about what USO does, volunteer at a USO center or local USO event, join the local board or donate.

Key fundraising events: USO “Salute the Troops” Golf Outing - July 8 at Ironwood Golf Course, Sussex

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BizConnections VOLUME 29, NUMBER 14 | JANUARY 29, 2024

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

1930s downtown Milwaukee from the air This August 1937 aerial photo shows the downtown and Historic Third Ward areas in Milwaukee. The photo was taken as part of Agricultural Adjustment Administration land surveys.

REPORTER Hunter Turpin hunter.turpin@biztimes.com INTERN REPORTER Ellie Batten ellie.batten@biztimes.com

Top local business stories to watch in 2024 WITH 2024 UNDERWAY, here are the top local business stories that we will be watching closely this year: Milwaukee hosts the RNC The 2024 Republican National Convention will be held in Milwaukee from July 15-18. It is expected to generate $250 million in economic impact and bring 50,000 visitors to the region.

In addition, the RNC will provide a huge opportunity for Milwaukee to leverage national and international media coverage to improve its brand as a major city and a great place to live and visit.

Baird Center expansion completion The $456 million expansion of the downtown Milwaukee convention center will be completed in time for it to be used for the RNC. The expansion is expected to help the facility attract more meetings and conventions, providing more space

for larger events but also for multiple events or allowing events to be set up or taken down simultaneously as other events are being held.

Harley-Davidson’s Homecoming Festival becomes an annual event The Harley-Davidson anniversary events, historically held every five years, have provided a huge boost to the area. VISIT Milwaukee estimated last year’s event had a $95 million economic impact. Going forward, the Harley Homecoming Festival will be an annual event in Milwaukee.

Construction completion for two downtown-area apartment towers Two apartment tower construction projects in Milwaukee’s downtown area are expected to be complete, or at least substantially complete, this year. It has been a long time coming for The Couture project, the 44-story tower near the lakefront.

First proposed in 2012, construction finally began in 2021. Meanwhile, construction is also expected to be complete or substantially complete this year on the 31-story Hines apartment tower under construction in the Historic Third Ward.

SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Christie Ubl christie.ubl@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Robin Briese robin.briese@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Paddy Kieckhefer paddy.kieckhefer@biztimes.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Christy Peterson christy.peterson@biztimes.com SALES ADMIN Shannon Whiting shannon.whiting@biztimes.com

ADMINISTRATION ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR Sue Herzog sue.herzog@biztimes.com AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE/CIRCULATION Derik Sneide derik.sneide@biztimes.com

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

Independent & Locally Owned

— Founded 1995 —

— Accessed through Wisconsin Historic Aerial Imagery Finder

COMMENTARY

DIRECTOR OF SALES Linda Crawford linda.crawford@biztimes.com

the ground Several big projects are planned in Milwaukee and we will be watching to see if they are able to move forward, including: FPC Live’s indoor concert venue planned next to Fiserv Forum, the soccer stadium planned at the Iron District development, an 11-story hotel planned on Brady Street, a 24-story apartment tower and a 25-story apartment tower planned on the East Side, and a 32-story apartment tower planned along the Milwaukee River downtown.

Two huge civic projects to watch The Milwaukee Rep will rebuild its downtown Milwaukee theater complex. The $75 million project is expected to start in May. Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Public Museum is also shooting for a spring groundbreaking for its $240 million project to build a new museum downtown. ■

ANDREW WEILAND EDITOR

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

Several big projects trying to get off

54 / BizTimes Milwaukee JANUARY 29, 2024

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5 MINUTES WITH…

TIM SCHNEIDER President and CEO, Bank Five Nine

TIM SCHNEIDER spent more than two decades founding and running Investors Community Bank in Manitowoc before it was acquired by Nicolet National Bank in 2021. After initially staying on with Nicolet, Schneider made a big change in late 2022, joining Oconomowoc-based Bank Five Nine as president and chief executive officer. After a year on the job, Schneider spoke with BizTimes Milwaukee managing editor Arthur Thomas about making the move from northeast to southeast Wisconsin, what attracted him to his new job and the outlook for 2024.

NORTHEAST VERSUS SOUTHEAST WISCONSIN “I’d say both economies are very healthy economies. Northeast Wisconsin is a little bit different from a makeup standpoint. It’s probably more heavily manufacturing and agriculture based, you get down here and it’s not that; there’s a lot more residential real estate and development going on. … Biggest challenge for me – after living in northeast Wisconsin pretty much my entire life and running a bank for 23 years – has been starting my Rolodex over down here and trying to get connected with people.”

CHOOSING A CULTURE “I’ve always believed in a culture where you really put your employees

first. And I think if you take care of your employees, they’re going to take really good care of your customers. And that atmosphere here is very similar to the organization I founded and ran for 23 years.”

BANKS IN 2023 “Last year was a little bit of a challenge from a performance standpoint for all banks … We are a big residential mortgage producing organization and in the footprint we’re in, I think that makes complete sense. … And obviously with interest rates rising and the lack of supply out in the marketplace for people to buy homes, our mortgage division had a little bit of a softer year than … the last four or five years, but all in all, the bank is doing quite well. We’re well-positioned to move forward in the future.”

OUTLOOK FOR 2024 “We want to make sure we continue to keep an eye on asset quality and making sure we don’t have deteriorating challenges from a cashflow perspective for our businesses, which we haven’t seen to date.”

“We have basically no office real estate to speak of in our portfolio, so that concern that’s obviously all over the media these days is something we haven’t had to be concerned about. And the markets that we’re in, I think we’re in pretty good shape from a credit perspective. So that’s the biggest thing I think the market and everybody else is keeping an eye on and probably why bank stock valuations in the marketplace are a bit depressed until they have some comfort level that we’re through any kind of potential recession or credit cycle, that the banks are solidly positioned.” ■ biztimes.com / 55

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