Joseph Zilber, the founder of Milwaukee-based Zilber Ltd. who is redeveloping the former Pabst brewery property in downtown Milwaukee into a mixed-use neighborhood called The Brewery, announced that a group of investors, including former Green Bay Packer Mark Chmura, are buying a three-story, 28,000-square-foot building in the brewery complex.

The sale was brokered by Mike Kleber of Towne Investments. The sale price was not disclosed.

Zilber has torn down some of the buildings in the brewery complex and plans to gut the rest down to their brick shells. He plans to sell some of the buildings to other developers and will redevelop some of the buildings himself.

Chmura, his brother Matt Chmura, and Sonny Bando (a developer and son of former Milwaukee Brewer Sal Bando) are the principals of BC Pabst Holdings, which is purchasing the former research lab building (also known as building 14) in the brewery complex. The three-story, 94-year-old building has 28,000 square feet of space and features a 1,200-square-foot penthouse with city skyline views.

The BC Pabst Holdings owners own two other historic building in downtown Milwaukee, the Germania Building at 135 W. Wells St. and the Iron Block Building at 200 E. Wisconsin Ave.

"They're very bright guys," said Mike Mervis, Zilber's assistant. "We've been amazed at this kind of cadre of people who know historic buildings that keep coming forward (interested in buying the Pabst buildings). Every time we turn around we find more and more of them."

BC Pabst Holdings plans to convert the building into office space. The penthouse will be converted into a conference room.

"We have established expertise in the development and management of historic buildings in the Milwaukee area," said Matt Chmura. "The Pabst project is one of the most exciting undertakings that we have ever participated in. We are extremely happy to be part of Joe Zilber's legacy and have been amazed at the initial response that we have received from potential tenants who want to become part of the Brewery and play a critical role in the building of Milwaukee's next great neighborhood."

The building is the fourth to be sold in the Brewery Project.

Urban Spaces, a partnership of Milwaukee residents Christopher Dobs, Damingo Jones and Daniel Block, are buying the three-story, 14,000-square-foot historic blacksmith, wagon and paint shop building next to the former research lab building. They plan to move their upscale European flower shop, Urban Sense, from 5911 W. Vliet St. in the Washington Heights neighborhood to occupy half of the space on the first floor of the building. They also plan to create four two-story loft condos in the building.

Madison-based Gorman & Co., plans to convert the 138,000-square-foot former keg house in the Pabst complex into the 85-unit Blue Ribbon Loft Apartments.

Boiler House LLC, an investors group led by developers Max Dermond and Charles Trainer, plans to redevelop the brewery's 55,000-square-foot former boiler house. The Albion Group Architects will move its offices to 4,000 square feet of space in that building.

"The interest in the project has far exceeded our expectations," Zilber said. "We are continuing to work on the International Trade Center and the development of the bottling building, which at 237,000 square feet is the largest in the project. We have been pleased with the response from developers who see the value in our three parcels of vacant land that we are marketing. I would anticipate that we will have another major announcement or two before the end of the year."

More information about the redevelopment of the former Pabst brewery is available at: http://www.pabstproject.com

A "ribbon-tying" ceremony was held Tuesday to celebrate the opening of the new home for Gestra Engineering, which moved from Oak Creek to 1626 W. Fond du Lac Ave. in Milwaukee's central city. The company moved into a 6,485-square-foot former Department of Public Works building. The firm has 18 employees, including three recent hires from its new neighborhood, and it plans to hire more employees, offer internships to neighborhood youth and offer employee incentives to buy a home in the central city. The "ribbon-tying" ceremony was done to highlight the ties the company plans to make with its new neighborhood.

Last Thursday, a ground breaking ceremony was held for a mixed-use development on a vacant lot at the northwest corner of Teutonia Avenue and Center Street in Milwaukee's central city. There, Maures Development Group LLC and Horizon Development Group Inc. plan to build a $5.1 million, 43,500-square-foot, mixed-use building with 24 apartments and 5,000 square feet of retail space. Some of the retail space will be occupied by the Handsome Barbershop. Some of the apartments will have market rate rents and some will be made available to families earning 50 to 60 percent of the county's median income. The project received financing from Great Lakes Capital Fund, JPMorgan Chase and the City of Milwaukee, plus $4.1 million in affordable housing tax credits from the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA).

Last-minute registrations are being accepted this morning to attend the fifth annual SBT Commercial Real Estate & Development Conference on Thursday. The deadline to pre-register, which is required to attend, is at noon today. Only a limited amount of seats are available.

To pre-register call Sarah Wilson at (414) 277-8181 ext. 129.

The breakfast event will be held from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 8 at the Italian Community Center, 631 E. Chicago St., Milwaukee. About 600 people are signed up to attend, which will be the highest attendance in the event's history.

The theme for this year's conference will be "Back to the City." The event will explore the demographic factors that are driving more people to move back to urban settings and will examine the best practices of successful downtowns.

The annual conference is presented by SBT in conjunction with the Robert B. Bell Real Estate Program of Marquette University and the Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin (CARW).

This year's panel of expert speakers will provide insight about the rebirth of urban commercial real estate markets from a variety of perspectives. The panelists will include:

Afshin Ghazi, founder and president of The Ghazi Company, a Charlotte, N.C.-based commercial real estate development company that plans to build a $120 million mixed-use development with 200 condos, a 175-room boutique hotel and 100,000 square feet of entertainment, restaurant and retail space in downtown Milwaukee.

Tony Smith, practice leader at S. B. Friedman & Company, a specialized real estate and development advisory firm based in Chicago. Earlier this year, Smith and the Friedman team completed a strategic analysis of downtown projects for the Milwaukee Department of City Development.

Brian Vandewalle, founder and president of VandeWalle & Associates, a Madison consulting company that has opened an office in Milwaukee. Vandewalle created various economic development and downtown revitalization and master plans for several Wisconsin communities and has been hired by the City of Milwaukee as a consultant to create its City Strategic Economic Development Plan.

The conference will be emceed by Professor Mark Eppli, Ph.D., chair of the Robert B. Bell Real Estate Program at Marquette. Opening remarks will be provided by Richard "Rocky" Marcoux, commissioner of the Milwaukee Department of City Development, and Andrew Jensen, the chairman of the board for CARW.

The conference also will include the presentation of the Robert B. Bell Best Public Partner Award to Laura Bray of Menomonee Valley Partners (MVP).

The downtown Milwaukee office market, which has been soft for some time but has shown improvements in recent months, got some good news this week. Mequon-based Infinity HealthCare plans to move its headquarters to the Chase Tower at 111 E. Wisconsin Ave. in downtown Milwaukee.

The company will bring about 150 employees downtown and will occupy about 62,000 square feet of space on floors 19-21 in the Chase Tower, said Infinity HealthCare chief operating officer Gregory Cierlik. The move is expected to occur on March 1, he said.

The Chase Tower is owned by Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management Inc.’s Brookfield Real Estate Opportunity Group, which is represented by Kevin Armstrong of CB Richard Ellis. The fund bought the building a year ago for about $46 million.

Infinity HealthCare was represented by Mark Royal and Kimberly Penfold of Transwestern in brokering the lease.

With the addition of Infinity HealthCare the 22-story, 472,500-square-foot Chase Tower will still have about 63,000 square feet of available office space, Armstrong said.. The building's occupancy rate had declined because Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek moved to Cathedral Place and JPMorgan Chase trimmed its Milwaukee operations.

"Infinity HealthCare is a welcome addition to Chase Tower at Water and Wisconsin," said Michelle Berliner, vice president of Brookfield Real Estate Opportunity Group. "We have put an aggressive plan in place to attract premier businesses to the building."

Infinity HealthCare offers emergency medicine, diagnostic imaging, occupational health, medical information systems, medical billing and medical practice management consulting services.

Infinity currently leases about 30,000 square feet of space at 1035 W. Glen Oaks Lane in Mequon. The company’s space is spread out in a couple different buildings.

"It was hard for us to find 50,000 to 60,000 square feet of contiguous space in Mequon," Cierlik said.

The company was also attracted to the downtown’s restaurant and cultural amenities, its access to the workforce and professional prestige of being downtown, he said.

Wisconsin Commercial Real Estate Women (WCREW) recently announced the winners of its seventh annual Real Estate Development Showcase Awards, which recognizes significant real estate development and redevelopment projects in Wisconsin. Projects that achieved substantial completion for occupancy or opened between July 1, 2006 and June 30, 2007 were considered by a panel of judges made up of community leaders and real estate professionals.

The Showcase Award Winner was the Medical College of Wisconsin/Children’s Research Institute, Translational and Biomedical Research Center. Project Team Members: Medical College of Wisconsin, Children’s Hospital & Health System, HGA Architects & Engineers, Tsoi/Kobus & Associates, Gilbane Building Company and Hammes Company.

The Regional Impact Award winner was Bayshore Town Center. Project Team Members: Steiner & Associates, Hunzinger Construction Company, Development Design Group, Inc. and Eppstein Uhen Architects.

The Heart of the Community Award winner was Dr. Wesley Scott Senior Living Community.  Project Team Members: Gorman & Company, Milwaukee Urban League, Focus on Energy, National Survey & Engineering, Rettler Corporation, Graef Anhalt Schlemer & Associates, Pierce Engineers and Hein Engineering.

The Grssroots Award winner was UW-River Falls Student Union. Project Team Members: State of Wisconsin, UW-River Falls, Workshop Architects, Moody-Nolan and Market & Johnson.

The Phoenix Award winner was Centennial Place. Project Team Members: Boulder Venture, General Capital Group, MSI General, Total Team Construction, National Survey & Engineering and Brandenburg.

Brookfield-based Shorewest Realtors recently raised $3,800 at its charity auction for its Christmas is For Kids program. The program treats more than 400 children each year to a special holiday party.

Despite the slumping housing market, MLG Development, a division of Brookfield-based NAI MLG Commercial, announced that it recently sold the last lot in its 38-lot Carriage Hills subdivision in Delafield. The subdivision is located off of Highway C n the west side of Nagawicka Lake.