HarborView Development LLC, which had been working for more than two years to open the first Bob Chinn's Crabhouse franchise in Kenosha, has scrapped those plans and now plans to open a Bob Chinn's franchise in the Milwaukee area.

Located in the Chicago suburb of Wheeling, Ill., Bob Chinn's Crabhouse is one of the largest independently owned restaurants in the country.

The fallout from the economic crisis and credit crunch killed the deal in Kenosha, said HarborView spokesman Frank D'Angelo.

"Kenosha is a great location and has ideal demographics, but with the economic downtown, we need to relocate to a more high-profile location," he said. "We have seen the downtown of the lending industry firsthand and literally have had financing pulled days before we were to close. We believe in the Kenosha market, or we wouldn't have stuck it out so long. Unfortunately, it's just not economically viable for us to continue at this location."

HarborView is now looking for a location in the metro Milwaukee area.

"We're basically starting from scratch again," D'Angelo said. "We're looking at several sites in the Milwaukee area. We are looking primarily in the suburbs, but we are keeping all of our options open at this time."

Bob Chinn's is a seafood restaurant serving seafood delivered from around the world each day, but also serves steaks.

"We are a destination restaurant," D'Angelo said. "It's a casual dining experience. It's a place you can go in wearing a suit or a pair of flip-flops after washing the car."

HarborView wants to move the project forward as soon as possible, so it would prefer to find an existing building for the restaurant, D'Angelo said. The restaurant needs 10,000 to 12,000 square feet of space, ideally in a high-traffic location. To reach HarborView Development, building owners can contact Ralph McCarthy at (262) 515-3524.

Originally, HarborView planned to open the restaurant in the former Sears building at 5500 Sixth Ave. in downtown Kenosha. The group still plans to redevelop the two-story, 21,000-square-foot building with a mixture of commercial uses, D'Angelo said.

The metropolitan Milwaukee area's office space vacancy rate rose to 17.4 percent in the third quarter, up from 16.61 percent in the second quarter, according to NAI MLG Commercial's third quarter office market report.

The north shore, south side/West Allis, and Park Place submarkets had the largest increases in vacancy rates, according to the report.

The downtown area was stagnant during the third quarter, according to the report. The downtown east area had a slight increase in vacancy rate to 13.2 percent, up from 13.14 percent in the second quarter. The downtown west area had a 31.2 percent vacancy rate in the third quarter, down a bit from 32.0 percent in the second quarter.

Submarket office space vacancy rates, according to the report are:

• Brookfield, 15.8 percent
• Downtown East, 13.2 percent
• Downtown West, 31.2 percent
• Mayfair, 15.6 percent
• North Shore, 17.9 percent
• Park Place, 17.4 percent
• South Side/West Allis, 16.3 percent
• Third Ward/ Walker's Point, 22.8 percent
• Pewaukee/Waukesha, 6.6 percent

The U.S. economic crisis has had a devastating effect on retailers, resulting in several store closings. According to a new report from Boston-based Colliers International, the vacancy rate for neighborhood and community retail centers in the U.S. was up to 9.3 percent at the end of September, up from 7.5 percent at the end of 2007.

However, retail space vacancies in the Milwaukee area bucked the national trend and actually fell during that period, to 11.2 percent at the end of September from 11.5 percent at the end of 2007.

Of the largest markets in the United States, Columbus, Ohio, had the highest retail space vacancy rate, 14.8 percent, and San Francisco had the lowest, 2.8 percent, according to the Colliers report.

The retail real estate market in the Milwaukee area has a mall cap rate of 7.0 percent and a strip center cap rate of 7.2 percent, according to the report.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held Monday for a 446-bed residence hall west of White Hall, near Starin Road, on the UW-Whitewater campus in Whitewater. Construction of the building is expected to be complete in 2010. It will be the first new residence hall built on the campus in 40 years.

“The new central core of campus will provide significantly improved teaching, learning and living opportunities for students and faculty and staff,” said Steve Summers, interim assistant chancellor of Student Affairs

The dormitory building will also have a computer lab, multi-purpose room and dividable seminar room.

The new facility is also expected to be the first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified residence hall in the state.

Company: Korb Tredo Architects

Title: Principal

Education: B.S. in Architectural Studies from UW-Milwaukee, 1994; certificate from SARUP in Urban Planning

Family: Daughter, 13 years old

City of residence: Fox Point

Hobbies and Interests: "'Playing and coaching soccer, Harley-Davidson, bicycling, snowboarding."

What are you working on? "A 90-unit supportive housing facility in Milwaukee for Mercy Housing; Marquette Apartments, 91-unit residence hall for Marquette University; a welcome center addition to St. John's Church on 68th and Forest Home; a new K-8 school in Milwaukee for HOPE Christian Schools; academic expansion and renovation projects at UW-Milwaukee and UW-Madison."

How does the market look to you? "We are optimistic about the work we have for 2009, especially in the institutional sector. We are also seeing positive activity in the planning stages of future mixed-use developments."

What was the best deal you've ever been involved in? "The upcoming Mercy Housing development: an adaptive re-use of, and addition to, the historic Johnston Emergency Clinic on Milwaukee's south side."   

What was the funniest moment of your career? "Walking into a project interview for a church and school addition at my alma mater and realizing that my grade school principal - who I was terrified of as a student - was still the principal and now heading up the selection committee."

Downtown office building sold for $11 million
The five-story office building at 789 N. Water St. in downtown Milwaukee was purchased recently by K&K McKinney Properties LLC from Water Street Investment LLC for $11 million. The sale price is well above the building's assessed value of $8.24 million, according to city of Milwaukee records.

The nine-year-old, 73,250-square-foot building has 66,799 square feet of leasable space, which is 97 percent occupied. Heartland Advisors Inc. is the anchor tenant in the building, occupying the upper two floors. The other tenants are Fiduciary Real Estate Development Inc., Milwaukee Employee Retirement Systems and a Cousins Subs restaurant. The only vacant space in the building is an 1,800-square-foot space on the first floor.

Eric Rapp of Encino, Calif.-based Marcus & Millichap Investment Services represented Water Street Investment in brokering the sale of the building and Mike O'Neill represented K&K McKinney. Rapp said the buyer is a retired individual purchasing the property as part of a 1031 exchange, but declined to disclose any additional information. The registered agent for K&K is Jerry McKinney of Whitewater, according to the state Department of Financial Institutions. Under section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code, when an investment property or a business property is sold, the owner can use the funds from the sale to purchase a similar property, and not be liable for capital gains taxes on the profit from the sale of the initial property.

The $11 million sale price for the building demonstrates that quality commercial real estate still has value, despite the problems with the overall economy, Rapp said. "We are seeing that quality buildings with low vacancy rates are still selling at fairly respectable prices," he said. "A lot of people think that everything is getting low-balled, but that is not the case for quality buildings. There are still people looking for a place to put money, and the stock market doesn't look too good right now."

The building, located at the southwest corner of Water and Wells streets, is considered by some area real estate brokers as one of the top 8 class A office buildings in downtown Milwaukee. However the building struggled with low occupancy rates for years until the city of Milwaukee and Fiduciary leased a large amount of space last year, said William Bonifas of CB Richard Ellis.

"(The building is) in good shape now," Bonifas said.

CB Richard Ellis

Dollar General leased 11,920 square feet of retail space at 2960 S. Chase Ave., Milwaukee.

Big Money Saver, LLC leased 2,332 square feet of retail/office space at 5960 W. Brown Deer Road, Brown Deer.

Brian Pulda leased 800 square feet of retail space at 6229 S. 27th St., Greenfield.

Grace Bagel & Deli, Inc. leased 410 square feet of retail space and The Marcus Corporation leased 283 square feet of office space at 100 E. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee.

Gerald Nell Inc.

Half Price Books leased 8,000 square feet of industrial space at 12020 W. Feerick St., Unit A, Wauwatosa, from G&N Investment Company.

Inland Companies

Peaceful Pets leased 1,646 square feet of retail space in the Helsan Retail Center, located at 3010 Helsan Dr., Richfield. 

Cricket Communications leased 1,423 square feet of retail space in the Silver Bay Plaza located at 1935 W. Silver Spring Dr., Milwaukee. 

Mid-America Real Estate

Instant Tax leased 1,177 square feet of space at Midtown Center, Capitol Drive and Fond du Lac Avenue in Milwaukee from Inland Western Milwaukee Midtown LLC.

Noodles & Company leased 2,500 square feet of space at Shoppes at Fox River, West Sunset Drive, Waukesha from Opus Northwest LLC.

Cousins Subs leased 1,810 square feet of space at Shoppes at Prairie Ridge, Highway 50 and 104th Street, Pleasant Prairie from GBMA Pleasant Prairie, LLC.

Anytime Fitness leased an additional 1,358 square feet of space at The Kenilworth Building, 2170 N. Farwell Ave., Milwaukee from Kenilworth Retail LLC.

Kay Jewelers leased 2,013 square feet at Prairie Ridge Commons, 76th Street, Pleasant Prairie from Prairie Ridge Investors, LLC.

Cottonwood Financial  leased 1,650 square feet at Windsor Pointe, Highway 50 and 118th Ave., Kenosha from Windsor Pointe Investors, LLC.

Columbia Sportswear Company leased 6,912 square feet of space in the Deco Building at South Water Works, located at the southeast corner of Pittsburgh and Barclay Street, Milwaukee from Lighthouse Development Company, LLC.

CB Richard Ellis

Petersen Global, LLC purchased 6.5 acres of land in the Germantown Business Park. Petersen Global is building a new 43,000-square-foot manufacturing facility for Krenz & Company on the site.

Wauwatosa-based Selzer-Ornst Co. recently completed the UNUM office remodeling project in Brookfield, the remodeling of the corporate Verizon store at Summit Place in West Allis and the Brookdale Senior Living Employee Clinic at Summit Place.

Mid-America Real Estate's Milwaukee office recently hired Erik Waisanen as a broker associate for its property representation team.

Milwaukee-based CG Schmidt was recently accepted into OSHA's Voluntary Protection Programs at the star level.

Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin (CARW) Holiday Party, Monday, Dec. 1, 5-8 p.m., Milwaukee Center, 111 E. Kilbourn Ave., Milwaukee. Call (414) 271-2021 for more information.

NAIOP and CARW Market Update, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 7:30-9 a.m., Italian Community Center, 631 E. Chicago St., Milwaukee. Call (262) 522-6375 for more information.

IREM Holiday Party, Thursday, Dec. 4, 6:30-8 p.m., North Hills Country Club, N73 W13430 Appleton Ave., Menomonee Falls. Call (414) 476-4736 for more information.

BOMA/AOMA Holiday Party, Tuesday, Dec. 9, Westmoor Country Club, 400 S. Moorland Road, Brookfield.