Small Business Times launched the BizTimes Real Estate Weekly bulletin this morning to subscribers of the BizTimes Daily. The free weekly bulletin features exclusive news about southeastern Wisconsin's commercial and residential real estate industries. The bulletin also profiles the people and events shaping the local real estate scene. The BizTimes Real Estate Weekly is also available on line at www.biztimes.com/realestateweekly. The new bulletin, which is compiled by SBT managing editor Andrew Weiland, will be published every Wednesday morning. News tips for the Real Estate Weekly can be sent to andrew.weiland@biztimes.com.
 

Members of the public interested in contributing ideas to help grow Milwaukee's economy are encouraged to attend the 2006 Community & Economic Development Leadership Summit.
The conference will take place Dec. 6-7 at the Midwest Airlines Center in downtown Milwaukee. There is no charge to attend the event.
The agenda on Dec. 6 will focus on housing and neighborhoods and will feature a keynote address by former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros.
On Dec. 7, Paul Grogan, president and chief executive officer of the Boston Foundation, will share the lessons Milwaukee can learn from "comeback cities."
For additional information about the summit, visit www.mkedcd.org/LeadershipSummit.
The summit, which had been planned for weeks by Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, will come on the heels of Monday's release of a scathing report about the lack of leadership and vision for economic development and job growth in the city. The report, compiled by the Public Policy Forum, is posted at www.publicpolicyforum.org.
Barrett responded Tuesday to the report by defending his administration's performance.
"The Public Policy Forum’s report was long on rhetoric, but fell short when it came to reporting results. Since I took office in 2004, city economic development programs and investments have impacted more than 10,000 local jobs. I’m extremely proud of that record," Barrett said.
To view Barrett's full response to the report, visit www.mkedcd.org/eBulletin/growth.

Paul Sweeney, a partner at P.S. Capital Partners LLC, a Milwaukee-based private equity group, is the new chairman of the Council of Small Business Executives (COSBE).
Sweeney succeeds Gary Zimmerman, president of Creative Business Interiors Inc. in West Allis. Sweeney will serve a three-year term.
Zimmerman will succeed Steve Balistreri of Sun Cleaning Systems Inc. in Milwaukee as the COSBE's immediate past chairman and the co-chairman of the organization's executive roundtable programs. The other new co-chairman of the roundtable programs is Joe Prioite, owner of the Layton Avenue Fruit Market.
Sweeney joins the COSBE board with three new directors who will serve three-year terms: Connie Roethel, president and owner of Mequon-based Core Health Group and a wellness column contributor for Small Business Times; Russell Gnant, president of Spectrum Digital Services LLC in Hartland; and Suresh Thankavel, president of Wisdom Infotech Inc. in Brookfield.
In addition to Sweeney and Zimmerman, the other COSBE officers are: Michael Hero of GSI/Geo-Synthetics Inc., Waukesha; John Howman of Raffel Comfort Sciences LLC, Cedarburg; P. Michael Mahoney of Park Bank, Milwaukee; Charles Engberg of Engberg Anderson Design Partnership, Milwaukee; David Kliber of S-F Analytical Laboratories Inc., West Allis; Robert McNamara of F.J.A. Christiansen Roofing Co. Inc., Milwaukee; Christopher Rebholz of Christopher Morgan LLC, New Berlin; Wayne Staats of ESupport Solutions LLC, Milwaukee; and Arvid "Dick" Tilmar of Diversified Insurance Services Inc., Waukesha.
The COSBE was founded in 1986 to offer programs, legislative forums and networking opportunities to southeastern Wisconsin companies with up to 300 employees. In addition to the executive roundtable forums, the COSBE presents the annual Future 50 program.
The COSBE is a service of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC).

The Hamilton Consulting Group, a Madison-based government relations firms, and GSP Consulting, a national leader in government and economic development consulting, today announced the formation of a new venture to meet the growing needs of the bioscience, information technology and manufacturing industries in Wisconsin.
The new venture, hamilton.gsp, will provide a range of services that identify and maximize public sector funding opportunities for its clients. The venture brings together Hamilton Consulting's strategic expertise and legislative success in Wisconsin with GSP Consulting's track record of securing more than $400 million in government funding for bioscience and advanced manufacturing companies, non-profits, economic development organizations, and universities.
"hamilton.gsp is a welcome addition to the efforts to expand Wisconsin's innovation economy," said Mark Bugher, director of the University Research Park in Madison. "Its strategy to accelerate the formation and growth of new companies by leveraging private funding with public sector funding resources should pay dividends for emerging companies here."
In addition to its public-sector funding services, the new venture also will craft and advocate for technology-related public policy and assist in the development of groundbreaking economic development initiatives on behalf of its clients.
"hamilton.gsp understands that Wisconsin's emerging industries and its base of mature manufacturing companies are connected and complementary," said James Haney, president of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. "Their commitment to supporting both is critical to the continued development of the state's economy."
GSP Consulting, which has 10 offices in six states and represents more than 100 companies across the nation, made its decision to form its partnership with Hamilton Consulting after 12 months of national market research and due diligence on 30 metropolitan areas.
"Wisconsin is one of the most robust and fastest-growing technology hotbeds in the country, but emerging companies here haven't secured the level of government funding that their counterparts in other states have," said John Dick, principal and co-founder of GSP. "GSP believes that our experience and track record can have a major impact on efforts to secure public sector funding for Wisconsin enterprises. We are very pleased to form hamilton.gsp with Hamilton Consulting, which stands out as the most effective and progressive firm of its kind in the state."
"We have created a powerful team through the formation of hamilton.gsp that can make a difference not only for our clients, but in the continued development of Wisconsin's economy," said Robert Fassbender, managing partner of the Hamilton Consulting Group.

The Wisconsin Athletic Club (WAC) will officially open its sixth location, a new club in Glendale, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony tonight.
The new North Shore club at 7601 N. Port Washington Road features state-of-the-art fitness and cardiovascular equipment, group fitness classes, pools and court sports. The WAC is partnering with Advanced Healthcare S.C., the largest physician owned, multi-specialty group practice in southeastern Wisconsin.
Deb Orr, general manager of the new club, said, "We knew we hit a home run with the design. It's been even more rewarding hearing the 'Wow!' on the way out, too."
The WAC's other locations include West Allis, Waukesha, Greenfield, Wauwatosa and downtown Milwaukee. Additional information is available at www.thewac.com.

Southeastern Wisconsin small businesses and individuals are invited to attend the Green Bay Packers' Holly Day Blitz, a holiday-themed party that will take place Dec. 8 at the Lambeau Field Atrium.
The party, from 5:30 to 10 p.m. on the Associated Bank Club level, will feature live music by Big Mouth and the Power Tool Horns, a complimentary champagne toast, food stations, hors d' oeuvres and a collectable tree ornament.
"We're excited about the buzz growing for the event," said Steve Klegon, the Packers' director of Atrium business development. "Several businesses will be treating their employees to a fun holiday night out with no worries about the details and planning. A number of groups and individuals have purchased tickets, too. It promises to be an enjoyable night."
Lambeau Field will be illuminated for the evening, with opportunity for attendees to view it through one of the stadium's private boxes.
Tickets, priced at $25 per person, are on sale at the Packers ticket office and can be purchased in person or by telephone at (920) 569-7501. A limited amount of table reservations are still available for eight or more.

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday night approved the 2007 Military Construction Appropriations Bill, which includes a request by Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) for $32.5 million in funding for the Spinal Cord Injury Unit at the Milwaukee Veterans Administration Zablocki Medical Center.
"The highly specialized work being done at the Zablocki Spinal Cord Injury Unit cannot be easily replicated anywhere else in the state. Our veterans, including the stream of soldiers returning from perilous work in Iraq, deserve the highest quality of medical care and the most advanced treatment available. The much-needed upgrade at Zablocki will bring state-of-the-art technology to Wisconsin's veterans, and I'm pleased that the Senate recognized the value in this project," Kohl said.
U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) said, "The Department of Veterans Affairs listed Zablocki's Spinal Cord Injury Unit as a priority for inclusion in the 2007 budget, and I fought so hard to have Zablocki included in the House Military Quality of Life bill. In spite of the VA's endorsement and my efforts, the House Appropriations Committee left Zablocki off its list of veterans' facilities to be upgraded, and it became vital that this funding be included in the Senate version of the Military Construction Appropriations Bill. I am so grateful to Sen. Kohl for doing all he could to make this happen, and will work together with him to try to keep the funding in the final conference bill. Our veterans have risked their lives to defend our country, and deserve the highest quality of care."
Zablocki has the only spinal cord injury unit in the state and is one of only 23 nationwide.
Veterans returning from Iraq are adding to the 44,000 patients currently receiving treatment for serious spinal cord injuries. In Wisconsin, the V.A. center cares for 500 veterans as inpatients, but reaches out to another 10,000 a year with outpatient services.

The BizTimes Stock Index gained 2.77 points to close at 174.33 Tuesday, and local stocks kept right on rising in early morning today, as the market was buoyed by the news that U.S. Airways Group had made an $8 billion hostile takeover bid for bankruptcy Delta Air Lines. Analysts said the proposal reflects the ongoing recovery of the American airline industry. U.S. Airways chief executive officer Doug Parker said in a letter to Delta chief Gerald Grinstein that the airline decided to launch a hostile bid after Grinstein declined a meeting between the two carriers. The largest local advancers this morning were Manpower Inc. (up $1.21 to $72.97) and Johnson Controls Inc. (up $1.05 to $85.75). The largest local decliners this morning were Fiserv Inc. (down 39 cents to $52.34) and Wisconsin Energy Corp. (down 12 cents to $46.17). The BizTimes Stock Index was created by Small Business Times and is monitored by North Shore Bank. The index, which measures the stock values of publicly held companies based in southeastern Wisconsin, is updated daily and can be viewed at www.biztimes.com.