Janesville-based Woodman's Food Markets, which recently opened a new store in Oak Creek, plans to build two more stores in the Milwaukee area and is looking for sites in the northern and western suburbs, according to Bret Backus, vice president of corporate real estate for Woodman's.

Woodman's typically looks for a site with at least 20 acres, Backus said. The prototypical Woodman's store has 240,000 square feet of space, he said. The Oak Creek store at 8131 S. Howell Ave. is about 225,000 square feet. The company's only other store in southeastern Wisconsin is in Kenosha.

Woodman's is a discount grocery store. Its core customer base comes from within a five-mile radius of the store, but some customers travel 30 miles or more to take advantage of the low prices, Backus said. If possible, Woodman's would like a site near a freeway, he said.

"We're looking for regional locations," Backus said. Woodman's is open to all possibilities, but considers the Highway 41/45 corridor in Menomonee Falls and Germantown a more likely location for the northern suburb store than the I-43 corridor in Ozaukee County, Backus said.

The Oak Creek store covers the southern suburbs for Woodman's, he said.

Backus said Woodman's has no preference yet about where the next Milwaukee area store will be built, either the western or northern suburbs. The next site will depend on the best opportunity that arises, he said.

Woodman's has 12 stores and is planning to open more stores in northern Illinois, where it currently has three stores. The company also is planning to open a store in the Madison suburb of Sun Prairie.

The Bando Chmura Group LLC, which purchased the three-story 28,000-square-foot former research lab building in the former Pabst brewery complex, also plans to buy the three-story, 14,000-square-foot building next door.

The Bando Chmura Group includes former Green Bay Packer Mark Chmura, his broker Matt Chmura, and Sonny Bando, the son of former Milwaukee Brewer Sal Bando. The group also owns The Iron Block Building at 205 E. Wisconsin Ave. and The Germania Building at 135 W. Wells St., both in downtown Milwaukee.

The 14,000-square-foot building at the Pabst complex is known as the former blacksmith, wagon and paint shop building. "We currently are in negotiations (to buy the building)," said Matt Chmura. "We hope to have it under contract shortly," said Mike Mervis, assistant for Zilber Ltd. founder Joseph Zilber, who is redeveloping the former brewery complex into a mixed-use urban neighborhood.

Zilber's plans to sell the building to the owners of an upscale flower shop in Milwaukee's Washington Heights neighborhood have fallen through, creating the opportunity for The Bando Chmura Group to buy it instead. Chris Dobs, one of the owners of the flower store, Urban Sense, confirmed that his group's deal to buy the building is "kaput."

Dobs and the store's other owners, Damingo Jones and David Block, had planned to purchase the building and move their upscale European flower shop from 5911 W. Vliet St. to the building. They also planned to create four two-story loft condos in the building. However, the project ran into problems, Dobs said. They were unable to obtain financing for the project, and the partners could not work out some issues with Zilber Ltd. representatives, he said.

Dobs said three banks had given initial approval to finance the project, but later would not approve financing at terms acceptable to the partners. Also, the partners balked at some requests from Zilber representatives, including paying for some improvements around the building, such as a manhole cover in a parking lot, and they did not want to add an outdoor staircase next to the building, Dobs said. "The Brewery Project is a wonderful real estate opportunity and it may have been more complex for them than originally thought," said Mervis.

In March, Harold Block, the attorney for the Urban Sense owners, sent a letter to Zilber's representatives, saying that his clients, "clearly are in over their heads in a business transaction such as this." The letter stated that Zilber refunded $6,000 in earnest money to the partners.

Since their plans to buy the Pabst brewery building fell apart, the Urban Sense owners have decided instead to lease space in a building at 5827 W. Vliet St., two doors down from their current location. They will add a greenhouse to that space and plan to move there in about two months, Dobs said. "We got more bang for the buck out west," he said. "It will just all work out better for us."

Brookfield-based Simon Group Ltd. has reached a tentative agreement to purchase the 174-acre historic St. Coletta's campus in Jefferson, and plans to create a 30-acre commerce center utilizing the historic buildings on the campus. Simon Group is also planning 40 acres of condominiums and 100 acres of single family homes.

"The Simon Group looks forward to working with St. Coletta of Wisconsin and the City of Jefferson to create a prosperous mixed use development in which people can live, work and be entertained," said Scott Simon, president of Simon Group. "Our goal is to maintain the character and architectural integrity that St. Coletta embodies throughout the Sanctuary Ridge development." The campus is located on Highway 18 on the east side of Jefferson. It is about a 30 minute drive to Madison and Brookfield.

Simon Group is in early discussions with city officials about tax incremental financing for the project. "This is an ideal project for TIF funding," said Jefferson Mayor Gary Myers. "There are no developer subsidies being requested, just infrastructure. Because St. Coletta is tax-exempt, the current tax income to the city is zero. All tax growth generated from the project will be positive and this project should fund itself easily."

The sale agreement was brokered by Milwaukee-based Colliers Barry. The terms of the sale allow Simon Group until early June to complete engineering, environmental feasibility and economic studies prior to closing.

The property sale involves just 174 of the total 650 acres currently held by St. Coletta in the Jefferson area. St. Coletta plans to eventually relocate its headquarters to adjacent property. St. Coletta provides care for disabled individuals. It has been shifting its business model in recent years from an institutional approach to a community-integrated approach. Patients receiving residential services now live off campus and are served in community homes.

"The sale is a major component of a planned transformation that has been underway for the past 10 years," said Anthony LoDuca, St. Coletta president and CEO. "We have been developing state-of-the-art community-based residential and vocational/day services for the past decade. Because the campus was such a significant part of St. Coletta's history, some people have thought that the sale is taking place because our organization is closing. St. Coletta's is not closing. St. Coletta is very much alive, growing and leading our industry in the care and support of adults with developmental disabilities."

West Bend Mutual Insurance Co. plans to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, May 8, to celebrate the completion of the 214,000-square-foot expansion of the company's corporate headquarters at 1900 S. 18th Ave. in West Bend. The expansion will provide enough space for 1,500 employees, which should suit the company's needs until 2016. The company's headquarters was completed in 1991, with enough space for 500 employees. The company has about twice that many working in the facility.

"The growth we've experienced in the last five years has been incredible," said Tony Warren, West Bend Mutual chief executive officer. "We have more than quadrupled our business. Facility expansion was absolutely necessary. As our company becomes larger, we need more people to provide our customers with the service they've come to expect." The expansion includes a 14,600-square-foot dining area, a 7,100-square-foot fitness center, a 25,000-square-foot training center, a 400-space parking structure, a West Bend Savings Bank branch and lactation rooms for nursing mothers.

The construction project began in July of 2006 and is expected to be complete by the middle of this month. Renovation work will be done to the original building for six months, through mid-October.

The YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee and Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare, which are building a healthy lifestyle village in Brown Deer, are planning to build another healthy lifestyle village in Franklin. The healthy lifestyle village is a concept of creating a campus with a YMCA fitness center and a Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare clinic. The idea is people can go to the campus to learn, plan and take action to improve their health.

The Franklin healthy lifestyle village will be build on South 27th Street, just south of Rawson Avenue. There the YMCA will build a 45,000-square-foot fitness center and Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare will build a 20,000- to 30,000-squaure-foot clinic with physican offices, walk-in care, laboratory services and general radiology, including mammography.

The YMCA received a $1 million naming gift for the facility from Terry and Mary Briscoe. Terry Brisco is the CEO of National Insurance Company in Brookfield. He also serves on the board of directors of the YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee. The healthy lifestyle villages in Brown Deer and Franklin are both expected to open in 2009.

Burlington-based Scherrer Construction Co. Inc. recently announced that it has created a subsidiary called Scherrer Development Group that will provide development services. Scherrer Development Group will offer development, design and construction services, financing/investment services and property management and leasing. It will operate out of the headquarters of Scherrer Construction in Burlington.  Leslie Scherrer, the daughter of Scherrer Construction president Peter Scherrer, is the development group leader. Prior to joining Scherrer Development Group, she earned experience with a Madison-based commercial real estate development company where she focused on feasibility analysis, lender relations, investor relations and the financial strategy of the partnership. In addition, she worked for a Wisconsin-focused multi-family housing developer where she served as owner's representative by overseeing all components of property development including predevelopment, acquisition, financing, construction, leasing, and property stabilization.

Verizon Wireless moves Milwaukee office to West Allis

Basking Ridge, N.J.-based Verizon Wireless recently moved its Milwaukee office out of The Tannery office complex at 700 W. Virginia St., Suite 300, in Milwaukee's Walker's Point neighborhood, to a larger space in the Lincoln Center II office building at 2514 S. 102nd St. in West Allis.

The new location positions the Verizon Wireless office just northwest of Interstate 894 and National Avenue. The new location has more space (10,600 square feet) compared with the 7,600-square-foot space in The Tannery building. Lyle Landowski of Inland Companies and Tom Treder of Commercial Property Associates represented Verizon Wireless, and Ned Purtell and Jeanine Sweeney of RFP Commercial Inc. represented the Lincoln Center II owner in brokering the lease.

"We've seen quite a bit of growth in an employee standpoint," said Carolyn Schamberger. "We really needed the additional space. (The building) met our needs in terms of space and convenience for our employees and is able to accommodate our future growth." Verizon Wireless needed more space to accommodate the growth of its Milwaukee office. The company has increased employment in the office from about 85 employees in 2006 to about 130.