Mequon-based Ruvin Development Inc. plans to purchase the Riverfront Plaza building, which is the former home of the Third Street Pier restaurant, at 1104-21 N. Old World Third St. in downtown Milwaukee.

"We have it under contract," said Ruvin Development owner Rob Ruvin. "We're going through our due diligence. We like the property." Ruvin said he plans to close on the purchase in June.

The six-story, 105,328-square-foot building was built in 1923 and is owned by Hoffman Management Co. Ruvin said he is working with Hoffman Management to attract a tenant to the space in the Riverfront Plaza building that was vacated by Third Street Pier, which was owned by Hans Weissgerber III and closed in October. "There's been a high level of interest," Ruvin said.

The building is also the home of Lucille's Rockin' Pianos. The upper five floors have office space that is about 80 percent occupied, Ruvin said. According to city records, the building has an assessed value of $8.8 million. Ruvin declined to disclose the purchase price.

However, an even more significant part of the deal could be two parking lots that Ruvin Development will acquire with the building. The parking lots, and the building, sit along the west bank of the Milwaukee River. One of the parking lots is at the southeast corner of Old World Third Street and Juneau Avenue and the other is at the northeast corner of the intersection.

Each parking lot is about one acre is size. The lots are in the Park East corridor, where a freeway stub was torn down to clear land for development, which is now starting to occur. The lots are in a prime location, about two blocks from the Bradley Center and about two blocks from where Manpower Inc.'s new corporate headquarters is under construction.

Ruvin said he plans to eventually develop the parking lots. "They're in the development pipeline," he said. "Eventually those will get developed. We've been in some brief discussions, but nothing concrete yet."

Ruvin Development partnered with Milwaukee-based Fiduciary Real Estate Development Inc. to convert the apartments in the former Blatz brewery in downtown Milwaukee into condominiums.

Ruvin Development is also partnering with Dallas-based Gatehouse Capital Corp. to do a mixed-use development of the Sydney Hih block. The block is located in the Park East corridor across Old World Third Street from one of the parking lots Ruvin is acquiring from Hoffman. Most of the block is vacant and is being sold to Ruvin and Gatehouse by Milwaukee County.

Some of the Sydney Hih building, located at the northwest corner of Juneau Avenue and Old World Third Street, will be demolished and the rest will be redeveloped, Ruvin said. As part of the project, the former Gipfel brewery building will be moved from 423-27 W. Juneau Ave. next to the Sydney Hih building next month. On the rest of the block, Ruvin and Gatehouse plan to build a mixed-use development with a 180-room boutique hotel, 70 residential condominiums and 50,000 to 100,000 square feet of office space.

The development also will have about 30,000 square feet of ground floor retail space when complete. The centerpiece for the development will be a 25-story tower for the hotel and condos. The hotel will be operated by San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotels.

The Sydney Hih property development is expected to break ground in August or September, Ruvin said, and be complete in 2009. "We're working with the city through the approval process," Ruvin said. "Everything is going smooth."

Milwaukee-based Roundy's Supermarkets Inc. on Tuesday opened a new, 59,000-square-foot Pick 'n Save grocery store at 1202 N. Green Bay Road in Mt. Pleasant, just outside of the City of Racine.

The store was built on the former site of a Kohl's grocery store. The new store has created more than 180 jobs, according to Roundy's. It is the sixth Pick 'n Save store in Racine County.

Roundy's also plans to open a new Pick 'n Save store in March at the former site of General Electric Co.'s Hotpoint appliance factory in West Milwaukee.

In addition, the company purchased five Jewel Osco stores in the Milwaukee area, which closed Tuesday and will re-open on Friday as Pick 'n Save stores. Those stores are located at: 1735 W. Silver Spring Drive., Glendale; 1100 E. Garfield Ave., Milwaukee; 2355 N. 35th St., Milwaukee; 13995 W. National Ave., New Berlin; and 11111 W. Greenfield Ave., West Allis.

Office space rents during the fourth quarter of 2006 changed little in the metro Milwaukee area, according to a recent report by Boston-based Colliers International.

Meanwhile, office space rents are rising in the rest of the country.
During the quarter, downtown class A office space rents in Milwaukee were about $22.00 per square foot, a zero-percent change from a year ago, according to the Colliers report.  However, Milwaukee's average downtown class A office space rent is still higher than rents in several cities including Atlanta ($21.86 per square foot), Cincinnati ($21.78), Phoenix ($21.43), Nashville ($20.87), St. Louis ($20.58), Kansas City ($20.53), Cleveland ($20.31) and Indianapolis ($19.41), according to the report.

The highest downtown class A office space rent in the nation is $79.57 per square foot in Midtown Manhattan, and the lowest is in Little Rock, Ark., at $14.75 per square foot.

Suburban class A office space rents in the Milwaukee area were $21.00 per square foot during the fourth quarter, also unchanged from a year ago, according to the report. Milwaukee's average suburban class A office space rents exceeded rents in some metro areas including Nashville ($20.04 per square foot), Cincinnati ($19.80), Charlotte ($19.71) and Indianapolis ($19.25), according to the report.

The highest suburban class A office space rent in the nation is $35.88 per square foot in the San Diego area, and the lowest is in the Boise, Idaho, area at $16.24 per square foot, according to the report.

In Chicago, downtown office rents were $36.00 per square foot in the fourth quarter, up 5.9 percent from a year ago, and suburban office rents were $22.27 per square foot, down 5.7 percent from a year ago.

Most metro areas, unlike Milwaukee, are seeing rental rates for office space increase, according to the Colliers report. The national average for office space rents during the fourth quarter was $41.01 per square foot for downtown office space and $25.84 for suburban office space, according to the report. Nationally, downtown rents were up 18.2 percent and suburban rents were up 7.5 percent for the year.

"The story of Q4 was, without question, rents," said Ross Moore, senior vice president and director of market and economic research at Colliers International. The company's Milwaukee affiliate is Colliers Barry Inc. "Our forecast for 2006 entailed a 10 percent increase in downtown rents and a 5 percent increase in suburban rents. We were considered bullish, but now with 2006 behind us, we were obviously too conservative. For 2007, we'll see more of the same. As tenants rush to secure space before vacancies drop even more, downtown rents are anticipated to rise another 12 to 15 percent, and suburban rents another five to seven percent before the year is out. Rent spikes will again occur in a handful of markets."

Company: Siegel-Gallagher Construction Co.
Title: Executive vice president
Education: Bachelor's degree, UW-Milwaukee
Family: Wife, Jennifer, and two children
City of residence: Muskego
Hobbies: Sports, traveling, hanging out with family

What are you working on? "We're finishing up a 22,000-square-foot tenant improvement job for Children's Hospital at Fair Park Business Center. It's expected to be completed in less than 55 days."

How does the market look to you? "Strong, but challenging. The industry is trending toward a commodity approach. Everyone wants speed and price. Our focus is to stay competitive on cost and still bring speed, exceptional customer service, high quality workmanship and safety to every project."

What was the best deal you’ve ever been involved in? "Dick Carlson, Kyle Harmon and Niels Nielsen at Whitnall Summit Co. really gave us our first big break doing a number of high profile build-outs at Summit Place in West Allis. They push hard to ensure their tenants get the best, but it helped us raise our game to a new level."

What was the funniest moment of your career?  "Very early in my career I took a customer golfing (I am not very good). After hitting a great shot after a duff, I jumped up and got very excited. Remembering mid-jump I was entertaining a client, I looked back sheepishly and apologized. He had a huge grin on his face, and he told me to go on right ahead. He was a very good golfer. It defined our relationship for a long time, and I learned much from him. We still laugh about it."

Shoreline Lake Bluff LLC, led by Garrison P. Benson, recently purchased the Lake Bluff at East Pointe luxury apartment community from Milwaukee-based Mandel Group Inc. Shoreline paid $27.5 million for the four-story 110-unit apartment building at 1300 N. Prospect Ave. on Milwaukee's east side. The sale price was considerably higher than the property's assessed value of $16.68 million, according to city records. Matthew Lawton, senior managing director of the Chicago office of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler and directors Marty O'Connell, Sean Fogarty and Dave Nachison managed the sale for Mandel Group. Lake Bluff at East Pointe was built in 1998. "We are currently at a time in the real estate cycle and economic environment when, due to historically low interest rates and low capitalization rates, both sales and refinancing are extremely attractive," said Barry Mandel, president of Mandel Group. "We evaluated our entire portfolio recently and completed a number of refinancings as well as deciding to sell Lake Bluff."

The Wisconsin Department of Commerce announced this week it has delegated the Town of Grafton authority to provide commercial building alteration review services as well as conduct inspections of all commercial buildings. The Town of Grafton joins over 160 other state municipalities that have been delegated the authority to provide specified plan review services and conduct inspections on behalf of the Department of Commerce.

The Neighborhood Perspective: a Milwaukee BID panel discussion, hosted by BOMA Wisconsin/AOMA of Greater Milwaukee, on Tuesday, Feb. 13, 11:30 a.m., Milwaukee Athletic Club, 758 N. Broadway, Milwaukee. The panel will include Department of City Development commissioner Richard "Rocky" Marcoux, East North Avenue Business Improvement District (BID) executive director Jim Plaisted, Historic King Drive BID executive director Teig Whaley-Smith, Milwaukee Downtown BID executive director Beth Nicols, Menomonee Valley BID executive director Laura Bray and 30th Street Industrial and Economic Corridor BID executive director Brenna Holly. Call (414) 278-7557 for additional information.

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