Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley is the planned keynote speaker at the sixth annual BizTimes Commercial Real Estate & Development Conference, to be held on Friday, Nov. 14, at the Italian Community Center in Milwaukee.

The annual conference has become a major networking and information event for members of southeastern Wisconsin's commercial real estate industry. Last year, a sellout crowd of about 600 people attended the conference.

The theme of this year's conference will be "The Fresh Coast Advantage."

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 Milwaukee conference will explore how being positioned amid the largest supply of freshwater in the world will be a key driver of economic growth and commercial real estate development. From high-valued lakefront property to suburban communities needing Lake Michigan water to continue their growth, southeastern Wisconsin real estate development will benefit from the region's access to the fresh water resource of the Great Lakes.

The growth of the Chicago area north along the "Fresh Coast" is already benefiting southeastern Wisconsin, driving more commercial real estate development in Kenosha County.

Daley is the invited keynote speaker of this year's BizTimes Real Estate & Development Conference, and he will attend, barring any unforeseen emergencies related to his city.

Daley has been mayor of Chicago since 1989, following in the footsteps of his father, the late Richard J. Daley.

Chicago is one of four finalist cities being considered as the site of the 2016 Summer Olympics. If Chicago lands the Olympics, the Milwaukee area could benefit from regional infrastructure improvements and a spillover of visitors looking for accommodations near Chicago.

At the Milwaukee conference, Daley will discuss how regional collaboration between Chicago and Milwaukee will be beneficial for both cities and how being located in the Great Lakes will be a competitive asset in the 21st century.

Daley will be introduced at the conference by Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. In addition to Daley, other featured panelists at this year's BizTimes Commercial Real Estate & Development Conference will be:

• 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. 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.
• Jim Villa, president of the Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin (CARW), will provide an executive summary of an exclusive market outlook survey for the region at the conference.

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

A special supplement, the BizTimes Commercial Real Estate & Development Book, featuring exclusive editorial content and data, will be published in conjunction with the conference.

Additional information about the conference will be available at a later date. For more information, contact BizTimes sales and marketing assistant Mary Ernst at (414) 336-3125.

Milwaukee-based Direct Supply Inc. held a grand opening ceremony Tuesday to celebrate the completion of the first phase of its $85 million, 500,000-square-foot expansion project.

The recently completed portion of the project is a three-story, 90,000-square-foot building.

Direct Supply, located at 6767 N. Industrial Road, on Milwaukee's northwest side, is a supplier of equipment for nursing homes, assisted living centers and retirement communities. The company also operates a supply chain ecommerce network for those customers.

The company occupies a complex of nine, single-story buildings. The expansion project, including the recently completed structure, will consist of seven multi-story buildings that connect the existing nine buildings, created a single connected structure. The largest portion of the expansion project will consist of a four- to five-story administration building, said Bob Klein, senior vice president of corporate and legal affairs for Direct Supply.

The project will take 10 to 15 years to complete and will create about 2,500 new jobs, according to the company. "We have been hiring well over a hundred people for the past couple of years," Klein said.

The expansion project is a public-private partnership of Direct Supply, its landlord KJ Greentree LLC, the state of Wisconsin and the city of Milwaukee. The state is providing $6 million in tax credits and the city created a $13 million tax incremental financing (TIF) district for the project.

Foreclosures in the state contine to rise dramatically, according to a pair of new reports. Wisconsin foreclosures increased from 9,254 for the first half of 2007 to 12,523 for the first six months of 2008, an increase of 35.3 percent, according to a report by ForeclosureAlarm.com. "The information we released today suggests the housing crisis in Wisconsin is far from over," said Phil Crawford, president of ForeclosureAlarm.com. "In every county of the state, the number of homes lost to foreclosure is climbing."

According to newly released data compiled by ForeclosuresWI.com, there were 1,885 foreclosures filed in June in the state. "Wisconsin foreclosures have been building up to the current levels for the past three years," said Robert Jansen, president of ForeclosuresWI.com. "Annual foreclosures averaged 11,687 from 2003 to 2005, and then spiked to 16,473 in 2006 and 20,995 in 2007. We expect foreclosures to remain at escalated levels through 2008, with some experts not predicting a housing market recovery until at least 2010. It will take time for these properties to get through the system, with an average foreclosure taking over a year from the initial filing until sale at public auction."

In Milwaukee County, foreclosures increased from 1,233 in the first six months of 2004, to 2,326 for the first half of 2007, to 3,210 for the first half of 2008. In Waukesha County, forclosures increased from 392 for the first half of 2007 to 507 for the first half of 2008. Foreclosures in Racine County are up from 343 for the first six months of 2007 to 515 in 2008. Kenosha County foreclosures are up from 364 for the first half of 2007 to 500 in 2008.

In Walworth County, foreclosures are up from 254 in the first half of 2007 to 270 in 2008, in Ozaukee County foreclosures are up from 63 in the first half of 2007 to 103 in 2008, in Washington County foreclosures are up from 164 in the first half of 2007 to 217 in 2008 and in Sheboygan County foreclosures are up from 156 in the first half of 2007 to 209 in 2008.

A groundbreaking ceremony will be held on Wednesday, July 9, to celebrate the start of construction for a two-story, 25,000-square-foot office building at the southeast corner of Highway 164 and Capitol Drive in Pewaukee.

The building will be the new corporate headquarters for Jannsen & Company S.C. The accounting firm will occupy part of the building and lease the rest out to other tenants.

Jannsen & Co. will occupy the second floor of the building. Frett/Barrington Ltd. and 1st Choice Mortgage will occupy office space on the first floor. A 2,700-square-foot space remains to be leased.

Gerald Nell Inc. is the general contractor for the $4.5 million construction project, which is expected to be completed in May.

Jannsen & Company currently leases 6,500 square feet of space at W229 N1433 Westwood Dr. in Waukesha. The company will nearly double its space in the new building.

A Qdoba Mexican Grill restaurant will occupy 3,000 square feet of retail space in the 14-story hotel and condominium building that Fort Myers, Fla.-based Development Opportunity Corp. is building at the southeast corner of Water Street and Juneau Avenue in downtown Milwaukee.

The building will have a 123-room Staybridge Suites hotel, scheduled to open in December, 31 condominiums and 14,000 square feet of retail space.

In addition to the Qdoba restaurant, Development Opportunity Corp. has "two strong prospects" for retail tenants, said Lisa Aldrich, the general manager for the Staybridge Suites. Those prospects are "food outlets," which would include a "larger restaurant and bar," Aldridge said.

The Qdoba restaurant in the development could open in August, Aldrich said.

Wheat Ridge, Colo.-based Qdoba Restaurant Group has about 400 locations in the United States, including locations at the Shops of Grand Avenue in downtown Milwaukee and two locations on the east side at 2228 N. Prospect Ave. and 3101 Oakland Ave.

So far nine of the development's 31 condominiums, called The Residences on Water, have sold, Aldrich said. The condos in the development are priced between $234,000 and $2.3 million.

Pak Technologies to add former Tower Auto buildings
Kevin Schuele, the owner of Milwaukee-based Pak Technologies Inc., recently purchased two buildings with a total of 180,000 square feet of space at 3522, 3600-20 N. 35th St., Milwaukee, from Murphy Real Estate LLC for $1.75 million. The buildings, a 120,000-square-foot building and a 60,000-square-foot building, are part of the former Tower Automotive complex in Milwaukee's central city. Sam Dickman Sr. and Sam Dickman Jr. of the Dickman Company Inc. represented the buyer and the seller in brokering the deal.

Pak Technologies is a contract manufacturer. Schuele said the former Tower Auto buildings are useful to his company because of their access to rail lines. Schuele said acquiring buildings with rail access is a strategic move to counter the skyrocketing price of fuel, which is dramatically increasing shipping costs for materials and for Pak's finished products. "The dynamics of $4.50 a gallon diesel is going to change the country," he said. "I'm very concerned because the country has taken out a lot of rail lines. These are valuable assets for infrastructure. We've got to think about how we're going to use it." Pak Technologies will move into the former Tower buildings late this year or early next year. About 25 people will be working there, Schuele said. The company is headquartered at North 27th Street and Silver Spring Drive and has facilities at 80th Street and Good Hope Road and on North 37th Street.

BreakWater condos 61 percent sold
The 101-unit BreakWater Condominiums development, being developed by Peter Renner of Renner Architects, is now 61 percent sold, the company announced recently. The project is located at 1313 N. Franklin Place, at the intersection of E. Knapp and N. Prospect Avenue on Milwaukee's east side. The 20-story construction project has now reached the 15th floor and has just completed finishing out two model units. The building is expected to be enclosed in mid-September and that units will be ready for occupancy in January of 2009.  

Port Washington added to state's Main Street program
Governor Jim Doyle announced recently that three additional Wisconsin cities, Port Washington, Manitowoc and Tomahawk, have been named "Main Street" communities. With the distinction, each community will receive five years of intensive technical service from the state Department of Commerce's Main Street team in the areas of organization, design, economic restructuring and promotion. The Wisconsin Main Street Program was established in 1987 to encourage and support the revitalization of downtowns in Wisconsin communities. "For 20 years, the Main Street Program has not only helped restore pride and community spirit to downtowns across the state, but has also provided an important economic boon, attracting new businesses and creating new jobs for hard-working Wisconsin families," Doyle said in a news release. "Since the program's inception, Main Street communities have generated nearly $1 billion in new investment in the state." Port Washington has a 25-block Main Street district that features 153 businesses that employ 1,466 full-time employees. A portion of the district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The other Main Street communities in southeastern Wisconsin are Lincoln Village (in the City of Milwaukee), Pewaukee, Sheboygan Falls, West Allis, West Bend and Whitewater.

Prince Hall Village grand opening
State and local officials recently celebrated the opening of Prince Hall Village at 1200 W. North Ave. in Milwaukee. The building consists of 14, two-bedroom apartment style housing units in a three story, mixed-use building. An additional 10, two-bedroom townhouse units were constructed at 2207 North Teutonia Ave, less than a block away from the North Avenue site. The Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) allocated $5.9 million in affordable housing tax credits, as well as $4.1 million in financing for the development. Kalan Haywood of Vanguard Development Group partnered with Fond du Lac-based Commonwealth Development Corporation to construct the complex. Haywood participated in WHEDA's Mentor Protégé program.