The state Department of Administration has issued a request for proposals (RFP) seeking developers to purchase the Department of Natural Resource's 48,900-square-foot building located on a 3.6-acre site at 2300 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., Milwaukee, and build a new office building in its place that will be leased to the DNR.

The DNR's South East Regional Headquarters occupies the building, and has been at that location since the building was constructed in 1983. A portion of the building includes the historic façade of the former Breakers Bank building.

The DNR no longer wants to own the building, said David Helbach, administrator for the Department of Administration's Division of State Facilities.

"The DNR's core function is not on maintaining buildings," Helbach said. "They want to focus on their core function."

When constructed in 1983 the state hoped the DNR building would help revitalize the King Drive area. The King Drive corridor has improved and attracted several new businesses in recent years. The state wants to keep the DNR office at the site to continue its impact on the neighborhood, but also wants a larger development on the site, Helbach said.

"The hope is we would be the partner in a much larger development," he said. "A high-density, mixed-use development in the neighborhood would be good for the community, and would increase the value of the land."

All responses to the RFP are due on Nov. 25. A tour of the facility will be held on Nov. 4. For more information on the RFP, contact Vic Villacrez at (608) 261-6796.

The Milwaukee area's office market had a negative absorption of 90,383 square feet of space during the second quarter, according to the second quarter office market report from Milwaukee-based Inland Companies. It was the second consecutive quarter of negative office space absorption and brings the year-to-date negative total to 177,044 square feet of office space.

The downtown office space vacancy rate is now up to 20.1 percent, according to the report. However the class A office space vacancy rate is much lower, at 11.9 percent, according to the report.

The entire metro Milwaukee area has an office space vacancy rate of 17.0 percent, 12.7 percent for class A space and 19.8 percent for class B space, according to the report.

The western submarket, running along I-94 from Brookfield to Delafield, has an office space vacancy rate of 12.9 percent, the lowest vacancy rate for the region's submarkets, according to the report.

The metro Milwaukee area had an industrial space vacancy rate of 9.4 percent and had a negative net absorption of 463,193 square feet of space during the second quarter, according to Inland's second quarter industrial market report.

The developers for a proposed 160-room Aloft hotel northeast of West Juneau Avenue and North Old World Third Street along the Milwaukee River in downtown Milwaukee may be close to obtaining financing for the project.

The Wisconsin Community Development Legacy Fund, a partnership of the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA), Milwaukee-based Legacy Bancorp and Impact Seven Inc. has approved a $10 million allocation of new markets tax credits for the $40 million Aloft hotel development, according to a WHEDA news release.

In addition Allison Rozek, senior planner with the Department of City Development, told the city's Redevelopment Authority last week that, "the developer (for the Aloft hotel) is now in the process of closing on the project's construction loans." The Redevelopment Authority voted to approve a cost sharing plan for construction of a riverwalk segment along the property. The city will provide tax incremental financing (TIF) funds to cover 70 percent of the riverwalk costs, 70 percent of the costs of a public plaza on the property and 50 percent of the costs of a dockwall.

The developers for the project are Rob Ruvin and David Florsheim. The project has been delayed since last year. However the delays have been a result of design changes and the length of the approval process, not the credit crunch that has made it difficult for developers to obtain financing for projects, Ruvin and Florsheim said.

Originally the project included office space and residential condos. Advertising and marketing firm Kramer-Crasselt planned to move its Milwaukee offices to the building, but later backed out because of the construction delays. Then Ruvin and Florsheim developers dropped the office space from the project and earlier this year eliminated the condos from the project.

Florsheim and Ruvin said they hope to have their construction loan closed "shortly" and plan to begin construction as soon as possible, but they declined to provide additional details.

Florsheim said they are talking to a "national bank" for the financing, but declined to name the institution.

Construction of the riverwalk segment along the property should be completed by the fall of next year, Rozek said.

In addition to the 160-room hotel, the five story building will also have 3,200 square feet of retail space.

Mark and Brett Stinebrink will convert the Pick 'n Save store they own at 100 E. Geneva St., Lake Geneva, into a Piggly Wiggly store. They also plan to take over the operations of the Piggly Wiggly store at 1414 E. Geneva St. in Delavan. They will also close the Pick 'n Save store they own at 207 S. Wright St. in Delavan.

The changes will be effective on Nov. 2.

"We are excited to bring the Piggly Wiggly product and value to Lake Geneva and we believe the move in Delavan will allow us to strengthen our commitment to Delavan and provide the city's shoppers with a far better shopping experience," said Mark Steinbrink. "Our customers are going to love the values in the weekly ad flyer as well as the quality bakery, deli, produce and meat products."

The Lake Geneva store is the second southeastern Wisconsin grocery store to be converted to a Piggly Wiggly store in recent months. Jim and Judy Semrad, who have owned the Sentry grocery store at W189 S7847 Racine Ave. in Muskego since it was built in 1995, have become Piggy Wiggly franchisees and recently converted the store to a Piggly Wiggly store.

The Piggly Wiggly chain is owned by Sheboygan-based Fresh Brands Distributing Inc. A few years ago, Fresh Brands was a struggling publicly held company. Several Piggly Wiggly stores were closed, including one on the east side of Muskego. Fresh Brands went private in 2006, and last year, chief executive officer Paul Butera bought out the other owners of the company to gain sole control.

Now the company is growing again, Jim Semrad said. “They’ve really turned everything around,” he said.

Piggy Wiggly and Sentry, owned by Eden Prairie, Minn.-based SuperValu Inc., have similar food quality, but Fresh Brands reduced its wholesale prices to help its retail franchisees, Semrad said. Therefore, he will be able to sell groceries at lower prices as a Piggly Wiggly store than as a Sentry store. So far customers are appreciative, Semrad said.

“Since (the change to Piggly Wiggly) we’ve been booming,” he said.

There are fewer than 30 Sentry stores in the state now, compared with 94 Piggly Wiggly stores Wisconsin and northern Illinois, giving Fresh Brands stronger buying power, Semrad said.

RedPrairie Corp. has decided to move its headquarters to Delafield, rather than downtown Milwaukee.

The growing consumer-driven optimization company, which has been leasing space in the Crossroads Corporate Center along Interstate 94 in the Town of Brookfield, had been discussing a move with officials from the City of Milwaukee over the past few years.

Instead, the company announced plans to move to a new Delafield technology park, in partnership with RP Technology Development Group LLC. The city of Delafield, state of Wisconsin and RedPrairie are working on an incentive package, including tax incremental financing (TIF), that has not yet been finalized. The project is contingent on TIF funding, RedPrairie said in a news release.

"We have a long-standing commitment to this area and are excited about a new Wisconsin-based location," said Mike Mayoras, chief executive officer of RedPrairie. "With our current leasing arrangement nearing conclusion, we have evaluated a variety of possible scenarios. We found the RP Technology Development Group to be very interested and aggressive in creating a solution that will allow RedPrairie to remain close to its current location. Simply put, we find this to be the best balance of location, amenities and cost. It is time that RedPrairie created an office space more appropriately matched to our growing and changing organization."

The four-story, 120,000-square-foot RedPrairie building will anchor a 24-acre technology park development southeast of I-94 and County Highway C. Up to five buildings with up to 310,000 square feet of office space could be built in the technology park said Rob Gerbitz of RP Technology Development Group. RedPrairie will have room to expand its building by 60,000 square feet in the future.

RedPrairie expects to begin leasing space in the new technology park by 2010.

The company issued a prepared statement, explaining its selection of the Delafield location: "As part of a location analysis map exercise, RedPrairie plotted out every locally based employee on a map of southeastern Wisconsin. A substantial majority of our employees are within a 30-mile radius of the new location. Delafield's central location along the Interstate 94 corridor between Milwaukee and Madison greatly expands RedPrairie's access to top technology talent in both cities. The new location would create more recruiting opportunities in the Madison area that would complement our existing recruiting efforts that have been so successful in the Milwaukee metropolitan area."

RedPrairie has 355 employees in the Town of Brookfield. The new offices will accommodate 450 to 500 people as the company grows, RedPrairie spokeswoman Kari Janavitz said.

Over the last few years, RedPrairie has transitioned from a regional warehouse management system provider to a global supply-chain execution and retail store operations solutions company.

RP Technology Development Group LLC consists of developers who have come together in the joint venture. The partners include:

George Erwin III, who has more than 28 years of legal experience developing in southeastern Wisconsin, including assisting in the recently constructed 486,000-square-foot warehouse facility for GE Healthcare as well as assisting in other commercial office parks, including Silver Spring Corporate Park and Westridge Corporate Park.

Gerbitz, the former chief operating officer of NSL Holdings Ltd., has been directly involved with the development and re-gentrification of downtown Delafield.

Briohn Building Corp., a fully integrated design build firm.

Zilber Ltd., a Milwaukee company led by developer and philanthropist Joseph Zilber.

Dallas-based Gatehouse Capital Corp. announced that it has selected Rockville, Md.-based WTS International Inc. to manage the 6,800-square-foot spa and fitness facility at the proposed Milwaukee Palomar Hotel and Residences, that would be built in the Park East corridor in downtown Milwaukee.

Marty Collins, chief executive officer of Gatehouse Capital, recently announced that the Palomar project will not begin construction for at least a year, because of the credit crunch that has made it extremely difficult for developers to obtain financing for their projects.

However, plans for the development are moving forward said spokeswoman Lisa Todd.

"When the capital markets come back we want to have everything ready to go so we can move full-steam ahead," she said.

The addition of WTS to run the spa and fitness center is an important part of the project, Todd said.

"They do some pretty fabulous spas around the country," she said. "The closest one (to Milwaukee) is at the Trump (International Hotel and Tower) in Chicago."

Other facilities that WTS has provided leisure consulting and management services for include: The Spa at Trump International Hotel and Tower in Las Vegas, The Aqua Star Spa at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., The I Spa at the Willard InterContinental hotel in Washington DC, and Fern Tree, The Spa at Half Moon, in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

An array of massages, body treatments, nail services and skin care options will be available at the spa to Palomar hotel guests and residents of the project's condominiums.

"WTS has an impeccable reputation for providing world-class spas and lavish services," said Marty Collins, chief executive officer of Gatehouse Capital. "With the addition of WTS, we have increased the roster of high-end amenities offered at the Milwaukee Palomar Hotel and Residences. Residents and guests will have access to the ultimate pampering services within steps of their hotel room or personal residence."

The Milwaukee Palomar Hotel and Residences would be built at the northwest corner of West Juneau Avenue and Old World Third Street. The $150 million development would include 63 condominiums, a 175-room boutique hotel, a restaurant, nightclub, the spa and fitness center, retail space, and a parking structure.

Commercial real estate developers, brokers and property owners are encouraged to nominate their best sites for consideration in the annual BizTimes Honor Roll of Prime Leasable Commercial Real Estate.

The directory will include the best leasable office, retail and manufacturing sites in southeastern Wisconsin, including Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington, Racine, Kenosha, Walworth and Sheboygan counties.

The guide will be included in the annual BizTimes Commercial Real Estate & Development Book, which will be unveiled at the BizTimes Commercial Real Estate & Development Conference on Wednesday, Nov. 14.

To nominate a site, visit www.biztimes.com/site/honorroll. To register to attend the conference, click here.

The conference will focus on the strategic competitive advantage the Great Lakes region will have in the 21st century, when "water becomes the new oil." While heavily populated regions such as California, Arizona, Texas and Georgia are draining their supplies of fresh drinking water, the Great Lakes region contains 20 percent of the world's surface freshwater and 95 percent of America's surface freshwater.

The expert panel for this year’s SBT Commercial Real Estate & Development Conference will include:

Sean Linnane, vice president of Magellan Development Group LLC, one of downtown Chicago's most prominent real estate development companies. Linnane is overseeing the development of Chicago's $4 billion, mixed-use Lakeshore East community, believed to be the largest parcel of downtown land under development in any major U.S. city. Loewenberg will speak about the intrinsic value of waterfront development, and he will provide an outsider's perspective on Milwaukee's commercial real estate market and its use of the lakefront.

Franz Hoffman, president of Procorp Enterprises LLC in Milwaukee and chair of the Milwaukee 7 Water Council. Procorp specializes in sustainable water and wastewater treatment solutions. Hoffman will speak about the Great Lakes water resource and the need to use sustainable real estate development practices and products.

James Randel, commercial real estate attorney, broker investor and author. Randel is a leader in "added value" investing, an approach to real estate that attempts to boost the value of a property well beyond normal appreciation or inflation. His strategies have been followed by investors throughout the country. He is the author of "The Real Estate Game And How To Win It" and "Confessions of a Real Estate Entrepreneur." Randel is a distinguished commentator on real estate issues at conferences throughout the nation, including the Harvard Business School. A native of Ohio, Randel will speak about the future strategic advantages of developing real estate in the Great Lakes region.

The opening remarks of the conference will be provided by Richard "Rocky" Marcoux, commissioner of the Milwaukee Department of City Development. Jim Villa, the new president of the Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin (CARW), will provide some exclusive market data at the conference. The conference will be moderated by Mark Eppli, Ph.D., professor of finance and chair of the Robert B. Bell Real Estate Program at Marquette University.

Small Business Times presents the conference annually in partnership with Marquette's Bell Real Estate Program and CARW.

AMERCO Real Estate Company recently purchased the 175,000-square-foot industrial building at 1570 S. 1st St., Milwaukee, from Grede Foundaries Inc. The building has been vacant for a few months. AMERCO Real Estate Company is the real estate division for Reno, Nev.-based AMERCO, which is the parent company of U-Haul. U-Haul is renovating the building and plans to open a truck and trailer rental center in the first floor and will use the upper four floors for rental storage said U-Haul spokeswoman Joanne Fried. Brian Parrish, Sam Dickman Jr. and Sam Dickman Sr., all of The Dickman Company, brokered the sale of the building.

Title: Executive Vice President

Company: TWP Architecture

Education: UW-Milwaukee – School Of Architecture and Urban Planning, bachelors of science/architectural Studies (1988), master's degree in architecture (1990).

Family: Wife, Betsy; children: Nicholas, 12, Kaitlyn (Katy) 10; dog: Mia (Golden Doodle) 2 years.

City of Residence: Elm Grove

What are you working on? "I am currently reviewing the marketing and business development for the firm while strategizing on new standards/opportunities for implementation."

How does the market look to you? "I believe that this market will have its challenges within the next six months. I am cautiously optimistic, that with the bumps, they may not be as severe as forecasted."

What was the best deal you've ever been involved in? "I view all of the projects in my career as incredible opportunities. Project types include: recreational, hospitality, health care and corporate office. I have had great success with many of these project/clients and for diverse reasons. They have all been opportunities to advance personally and professionally. Though, I do believe the work that I have done with Children's Hospital of Wisconsin was the most personally fulfilling because of the impact each project; large or small had on the patients and staff, while reinforcing."

CARW awards
John Czarnecki of Grubb & Ellis|Apex Commercial was recently named the Realtor of the Year by the Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin (CARW) at the annual CARW Installation and Awards Banquet. Tom Halat of Titan Building Company was named the Affiliate of the Year. CARW also announced its Deal of the Year winners at the event. The 2008 Retail Deal of the Year was awarded to Bruce Westling and Brian Vanevenhoven of NAI MLG Commercial for the retail leases of Urban Outfitters and American Apparel. The 2008 Office Deal of the Year was awarded to Kevin Armstrong, Steve White and Scott Furmanski of CB Richard Ellis for the IndependeceFirst lease. The 2008 Industrial Deal of the Year was awarded to David Buckley and James T. Barry III of Colliers Barry for the sale of 55 acres in Menomonee Falls and 388,000-square-foot a build-to-suit lease for Quad Graphics. The 2008 Investment Deal of the Year was awarded to Scott Welsh, Lyle Landowski, Tom Shepherd, Mike Fardy and Steve Pape for the sale of the Milwaukee Center in downtown Milwaukee.

CARW 2008-08 officers and directors
Barry Chavin of NAI MLG Commercial is the chairman of the board for CARW for 2008-09. Scott Furmanski of CB Richard Ellis is chairman-elect. James T. Barry III of Colliers Barry is the secretary, John Czarnecki of Grubb & Ellis|Apex Commercial is the treasurer. Andrew Jensen of The Boerke Company is the immediate past chairman. Members of the 2008-09 CARW board of directors are: Mike Fardy of Inland Companies, Peter Ginn of First Industrial Realty Trust Inc., Stephen Provancher of NAI MLG Commercial, Ned Purtell of RFP Commercial, Dan Rosenfeld of Mid-America Real Estate, Don Zien of CB Richard Ellis, Thomas Shepherd of Inland Companies and Rich Tennessen of Eppstein Uhen Architects.

BOMA/AOMA president re-elected
Jody Nelson, an executive vice president for NAI MLG Commercial, was elected to a second consecutive term as president of BOMA (Building Owners and Managers Association)-Wisconsin/AOMA (Apartment Owners and Managers Association) of Greater Milwaukee.

Jay Craig joins Redmond
Waukesha-based The Redmond Company recently hired Jay Craig as vice president of business development for the commercial market. Craig was formerly the senior real estate director for Opus North Corp.'s Milwaukee office. He has more than 20 years experience in the real estate development and financial management industry.

Mandel wins award
Barry Mandel, president of Milwaukee-based Mandel Group Inc., will receive the Award of Distinction from the Association of Licensed Architects – Wisconsin Chapter. The award will be presented to Mandel on Nov. 3 during an event from 3-8 p.m. at the Harely-Davidson Museum. The event will include a tour of the museum, dinner and the award ceremony. For more information about the event call (262) 784-8166.

New partner at TWP
Elm Grove-based TWP Architecture recently added Jim Olson as executive vice president/partner. He has 15 years of experience as a registered architect.