Construction of the new Hilton Garden Inn hotel in the Pabst Farms development in Oconomowoc is nearing completion. The hotel will host a grand opening reception Thursday, June 7, at 4 p.m.

The three-story hotel will have 100 rooms, a restaurant and 1,000 square feet of flexible meeting space. The hotel's address will be 1443 Pabst Farms Circle. It will be operated by Fitchburg-based S&L Hospitality.

Pabst Farms is the massive residential and commercial development being built at Highway 67 and Interstate 94.

The hotel and an M&I Bank branch, which opened last year, will co-anchor the 35-acre Village Square portion of the Pabst Farms development.

Other parts of the Pabst Farms development are progressing. Last week, Aurora Health Care held a groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the beginning of construction for the new Aurora Medical Center in the Pabst Farms development. The $189 million hospital will have 110 patient rooms and will be built at the southeast corner of Interstate 94 and Highway 67 in the Town of Summit. The hospital will anchor the health care and wellness campus portion of Pabst Farms. The hospital is expected to open during the summer of 2009.

Milwaukee-based Paul Wiese Real Estate Corp. has dropped plans for a hotel in a development that Wiese is planning southeast of I-43 and Highway 60 in Grafton, according to village administrator Darrell Hofland. Wiese could not be reached for comment. He had proposed plans for an 88-bed Hampton Inn & Suites in the development. Now, in place of the hotel, Wiese plans to build an 18,607-square-foot multi-tenant retail building, Hofland said. In addition, Wiese's plans for the 16-acre site still include a 6,000-square-foot restaurant building and a 3,450-square-foot convenience store and gas station. Village officials support Wiese's new plans, despite the elimination of the hotel, Hofland said. "There are other opportunities to site hotels," Hofland said.

The Milwaukee County Board is putting the brakes on plans to issue a request for proposals (RFP) from developers who want to purchase and develop the 1.9-acre, county-owned parking lot at the southwest corner of West State Street and North Sixth Street in downtown Milwaukee.

The board recently declined to approve the RFP, and instead sent the matter back to its Economic and Community Development Committee.

"(Some supervisors) didn't feel that this project fit into the master plan for the courthouse and for county property," said County Board spokesman Harold Mester. "They wanted a more coordinated effort to redevelop that site, especially considering that a lot of county employees park there. There is kind of a shortage of parking spots for county employees and people coming to the courthouse to conduct business."

Supervisors want to take a comprehensive look and create a plan for the courthouse area before moving forward with development for the Sixth and State streets site, Mester said. That could include coordination with city officials, who are working on a redevelopment plan for MacArthur Square, which is still in the conceptual phase. The preliminary plans for redeveloping MacArthur Square include a ramp in front of the Sixth Street side of the Sixth and Streets streets county parking lot property that would connect southbound traffic to a bridge that would elevate West Kilbourn Avenue up to MacArthur Square. The city's plan also envisions development on the Sixth and Street streets parking lot site.

Another major reason that supervisors sent the RFP back to committee is because of the budget deficit in the county's economic and community development division, Mester said. The county board was notified in March that there is a $3 million budget deficit for community development programs, which are administered by the economic and community development division, according to Supervisor John Weishan Jr.

"They didn't want to put yet another project on that department when they already have so much stuff going on, they have a lot of other projects they are doing, and they're losing money right now," Mester said. "I'm sure that eventually this project will be coming back to the board and they will be looking at doing an RFP for the long haul, but this time it just didn't go through."

Company: NAI MLG Commercial

Title: Senior vice president

Education: Master's degree in urban affairs, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Family: "I have five children: Bryce in Chicago, who is a Web site developer; Jeremy in San Diego, who has a master's in corporate psychology; daughter, Melissa Halleen from Milwaukee who has a master's in early childhood education who has our first grandchild; daughter, Mia, who just graduated from UW's medical school and is doing her residency in New York; and Ryan, a senior majoring in classical voice at Chicago's Roosevelt University."

City of residence: Wauwatosa

Hobbies: Forming redevelopment projects and business and professional associations for economic development. Responsible for forming the Riverworks Development Corp, the Flatiron Business Association in Racine, the Racine County Economic Development Corporation, the Wisconsin Economic Development Association (WEDA), and the Wisconsin Chapter of SIOR (Society of Industrial and Office Realtors). Currently serving as treasurer of the Riverworks Development Corp. Board and vice president of the Wauwatosa Economic Development Corp.; coaching basketball and baseball; and sitting for 2-year-old grandson, Ben.

What are you working on?  "As a buyer rep, I'm working on the relocation of the United States Postal Service's downtown Milwaukee's processing and distribution center consisting of 775,000 square feet, the sale of the 186,000-square-foot Midas Muffler Plant in Hartford and the sale of the Seneca Foods Canning Plant in Coleman (Marinette County)."

How does the market look to you?  "Milwaukee has long enjoyed a very stable industrial market due to its diversification. As numerous companies announce plant closures, just as many companies continue to expand. Vacancy is at about 6 percent, which is the lowest in the USA. However, we do need to improve the industrial and office infrastructure in Wisconsin, including mass transit, rail, ports and public incentives so we can begin to compete with other states when major corporations plan on opening new manufacturing plants."

What was the best deal you've ever been involved in? "The sale/partial leaseback of the 224,000-square-foot Leeson Electric plant in Grafton, which sold for $24.82 per square foot, which won Commercial Association of Realtors Award for the Industrial Transaction of the Year (2006)."

Decade Properties Inc., a Waukesha-based private investment group, recently purchased the 83,810-square-foot Crossroads Corporate Center I office building at 20900 Swenson Drive, Brookfield, and the 71,290-square-foot office building at 330 Executive Drive, Brookfield, from Capri Capital Partners, a Chicago-based pension fund advisor. Decade paid $7.7 million for Crossroads Corporate Center I, which has an assessed value of $7.25 million according to Waukesha County records, and $5.6 million for the building at 330 Executive Dr., which has an assessed value of $6.5 million. Crossroads Corporate Center I was built in 1987 and is now 81 percent leased. Its tenants include Chicago Title Insurance Co., GZA Geoenvironmental Inc. and Konica Business Technology. The 330 Executive Drive building, which was built in 1986, is now 70 percent leased and its tenants include FedEx, New England Financial and T.E. Brennan. EnTrust Realty Advisors LLC brokered the deal for Capri Capital Partners and Decade Properties represented itself. "The upscale Brookfield/Waukesha submarket, recognized as Milwaukee's top suburban location for business, comprises 8.3 million square feet or 26 percent of the metropolitan market and has a favorable outlook for rent growth and new absorption," said James Clark, EnTrust managing principal. "Many corporations are embracing Milwaukee as a viable alternative to core markets because of its quality office product, corporate neighbors, and availability of a well-educated workforce. Active investments by REITs, institutional capital and private investors totaling $434 million in the last 12 months offers a liquid market to facilitate exit strategies for buildings." EnTrust is an affiliate of Chicago-based The Alter Group.

Inland Companies Inc. recently hired Eric Hansch as an office broker and Joel Winkler as a construction superintendent. 

Milwaukee-based Kahler Slater recently hired two new employees for its business environments team. Sally J. Hanson was hired as an interior designer. Marlisa Kopenski was hired as a senior marketing and communications strategist.

Wauwatosa-based Irgens Development Partners is developing a three-story, 50,000-square-foot, Class A, multi-tenant office building on a 2.3-acre property at 5055 E. Washington St. in Phoenix, just northeast of the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The building will be the new home for Irgens' Phoenix office and will be located in close proximity to the new Valley Metro light rail line. CB Richard Ellis is helping Irgens attract tenants to the building. "Continued employment growth and low office vacancy has created a great opportunity for this infill development," said senior vice president Michael O'Connor. "5055 East Washington will be an ideal place for growing businesses like ours that are looking to locate in a state-of-the-art facility that is in an accessible and dynamic urban location." Irgens, which also has an office in the Chicago area, expanded into the Phoenix market last summer. The 5055 East Washington project is Irgens' second business venture through the Phoenix office. The company's first project there, First Chandler Business Park, a 30,000-square-foot multi-tenant office/warehouse project in Chandler, Ariz., is expected to be complete by the end of the year.

Milwaukee Alderman Joe Davis announced that he attended the International Council of Shopping Centers annual convention, held this week in Las Vegas, to help woo potential tenants to Midtown Center, a 340,000-square-foot shopping center at Capitol Drive and Fond du Lac Avenue, which is located in his district. "This event provides a prime opportunity for Midtown Center to attract potential tenants in anticipation of the additional 75,000 square feet of retail space that will open there in the fall," Davis said, referring to the coming completion of four free standing buildings that will be home to Office Depot, Casual Male and Fashion Bug. "The development project at Midtown Center is vitally important to the growth of our community and to the economic wellbeing of our city, and it's a must for us to market ourselves and show what we can bring to the table."

Eleven building projects have been recognized for excellence in architectural design by the 2007 Design Awards program of AIA Wisconsin, the state society of The American Institute of Architects (AIA). The architects and projects selected to receive honor awards for overall design excellence include: St. Anthony Catholic Parish, Menomonee Falls, designed by HGA Architects and Engineers, Milwaukee; The Blatz Lobby and Roof Pavilion, Milwaukee, designed by Johnsen Schmaling Architects, Milwaukee, and AG Architecture, Wauwatosa; Camouflage House, Green Lake, designed by Johnsen Schmaling Architects. The architects and projects selected to receive merit awards for excellence in particular aspects of architectural design include: Fine Arts and Design Center | DeVos Art Museum, Marquette, Mich.; designed by HGA Architects and Engineers and Duce Simmons Associates, Troy, Mich.; The Kenilworth Building , Milwaukee, designed by HGA Architects and Engineers; David R. Obey Center for Health Services, Wausau, designed by Kahler Slater Architects Inc., Milwaukee; Schlitz Audubon Nature Center Pavilion, Milwaukee, designed by The Kubala Washatko Architects Inc., Cedarburg, Urban Ecology Center , Milwaukee, designed by The Kubala Washatko Architects Inc. and The Johnson Athletic Center, Racine, designed by Zimmerman Architectural Studios Inc., Milwaukee.