Manpower Inc. unveiled its new global corporate headquarters in downtown Milwaukee during a media event Tuesday. The $78 million, 280,000-square-foot, four-story building is located along the Milwaukee River, southeast of North Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Cherry Street.

"(Manpower is) part of the renaissance of the city," Mayor Tom Barrett said during the ceremony. "There are a lot of exciting things happening in the city, and (Manpower) is front and center of them."

During the event Tuesday, employees raised 30 flags, each representing one of the top countries that Manpower does business in.

The building was developed by RiverBend Place LLC, a firm led by Milwaukee developers Gary Grunau and Scott Sampson.

"This is a milestone for Milwaukee," Grunau said. "Look around the country. How often do you see a Fortune 200 company move into the city center?"

About 900 Manpower and Jefferson Wells employees will move from Glendale and Brookfield to the new headquarters building on Sept. 17. Manpower president and chief executive officer Jeffrey Joerres said the company has an annual growth rate of 10 to 12 percent, and the firm has projected that it could add another 300 employees at the new headquarters over the next five years.

If the company outgrows the building, it could expand into the parking lot just to the west of the facility, along King Drive, Grunau said. However, that will probably not happen for several years, he said.

RiverBend Place also plans to redevelop the historic North Powerhouse building, located just south of the Manpower building. Grunau said that project will begin later this fall and be complete next summer, creating 55,000 square feet of office space.

The media tour of the new Manpower building revealed several of its features. The building's front door and a plaza faces the river with a view of the Park East corridor and the downtown skyline. Wi-fi service will be available in the plaza. The plaza will also have a water wall with the Manpower logo. The third floor of the building has an outdoor patio, which features a view of the downtown.

The City of Milwaukee is providing $25 million in tax incremental financing (TIF) to pay for a parking structure for the Manpower building.

"If you bring me 1,000 jobs, we'll start talking about a serious TIF," Barrett said.

The city will also provide police officers to help with traffic issues during the first few days after the Manpower employees move in.

"When people say Milwaukee is difficult to do business with, we did not see that," Joerres said.

City officials are hoping the Manpower headquarters attracts more development and brings more people downtown to live, work and play.

"For the last several months I've talked to several Manpower employees that are going to be moving downtown," Barrett said. "You're going to see more development that will come as a result of this decision."

To see photos of the Manpower building and the media event, visit the latest edition of SBT Around Town.

P.M. Patel and Paramjit Kaur, who earlier this year opened the Panchero's restaurant at 2923 S. 108th St., West Allis, plan to open another 11 locations in the Milwaukee area and are scouting possible sites. "I'd love to have the next location open within six months and then four or five more next year," Patel said. "We've had such a great response from the first day, with sales of $800 to $1,400 per day when we estimated around $500." Panchero's is a Coralville, Iowa-based chain of Mexican restaurants. The company currently has 45 locations and plans to open 25 more this year and wants to have 100 locations by the end of next year.

Racine-based Knight-Barry Title Group is expanding its downtown Milwaukee office. The firm is adding an additional 2,300 square feet of space at Plaza East, 330 E. Kilbourn Ave. The office, which serves as Knight-Barry's commercial division, now has a total of 6,216 square feet of space. In addition the company announced that attorney Ellen Wagner was hired recently. She will focus on difficult title and closing transactions. The Knight-Barry Title Group is the only title agency in downtown Milwaukee. The Commercial Division of Knight-Barry Title Group first opened their doors in the downtown market in the summer of 2004 with only four employees. Today the Commercial Division has more than quadrupled in size with 18 experienced title and closing professionals. The downtown office provides a full range of commercial title services including title insurance, closing services, tax-deferred exchanges, construction escrows and national coordination of commercial transactions. "Despite what is happening with residential real estate, 2007 has been a year of growth in all areas of commercial real estate for Knight-Barry. We took a risk opening an office in downtown Milwaukee and it’s paying off as we continue to grow," said Jeff Green, president of Knight-Barry Title Group.

DeVry University and its Keller Graduate School of Management on Tuesday welcomed students to its new location in the Stone Ridge Corporate Center at N14 W23833 Stone Ridge Dr., Waukesha. The 10,000-square-foot space includes five classrooms, a lecture/computer lab, a study lab, a student lounge, a testing center room and administrative offices. "We are very excited to open the doors of this new location and get classes underway," said David George, dean of DeVry University Waukesha. "The larger space we now have enables us to serve more students, addressing a growing demand for business and technology professionals in the Waukesha area. And for the first time we will be offering undergraduate classes, which enables us to serve an even broader range of students." The recent addition of the school's undergraduate degree programs will begin October 29. DeVry University in Waukesha offers graduate programs in accounting and financial management, business administration, human resource management, information systems management, network and communications management, public administration, and project management. Undergraduate programs will include business administration, technical management and computer information systems.

Several large industrial buildings have sold in the southeastern Wisconsin this year, and another big deal closed recently. CenterPoint Properties Trust recently purchased a 585,475-square-foot industrial building at 7100 Durand Ave., Mt. Pleasant, from Galveston, Tex.-based American National Insurance. Dan Linder and Jim Babiasz of The Boerke Company Inc. represented CenterPoint in brokering the deal.

The building is occupied by Liquid Container, which occupies 218,000 square feet of space and JohnsonDiversey Inc., which occupies 365,000 square feet of space. However, JohnsonDiversey is vacating 210,000 square feet of space because it is moving some operations to a new 550,000-square-foot distribution center in the Renaissance Business Park in Sturtevant. The company plans to still occupy 150,000 square feet of space in the CenterPoint building for the time being. Linder and Babiasz will help CenterPoint find tenants to fill the space being vacated by JohnsonDiversey. Oak Brook, Ill.-based CenterPoint is the largest owner, manager and developer of industrial real estate in the Chicago area. The company is owned by Columbus, Ohio-based CalEast Global Logistics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sacramento, Calif.-based California Public Employees' Retirement System.

Milwaukee-based Eppstein Uhen Architects will host a 100th anniversary celebration on Thursday, Sept. 6, from 4:30 to 10:30 pm. It will be a street party in front of the firm's offices at 333 East Chicago Street. Chicago Street will be closed between Milwaukee and Broadway. Hundreds of the firm's clients and partners, as well as several local officials, are expected to attend.

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2007 C.G. Schmidt Ovation Award for Corporate Support. Designed to inspire giving in small and medium-sized businesses, the award honors smaller, lesser-known companies that give back to their communities in the form of in-kind support, board involvement or the encouragement of employee volunteerism. The C.G. Schmidt Foundation will donate $2,500 to either the nominating non-profit organization or the charity of the winning business's choice. A $1,000 contribution will also be made to an honorable mention candidate. The Ovation Award for Corporate Support will be presented at the Donors Forum of Wisconsin's Annual Statewide Conference on Philanthropy on Oct. 17. Nomination forms can be obtained at: www.cgschmidt.com/pdfs/ovation_nomination_form07.pdf. They must be turned in by Sept. 14.