The new Harley-Davidson Museum opens this weekend at the east end of the Menomonee River Valley, just south of downtown Milwaukee. The three-building, 130,000-square-foot museum complex includes a main museum building, an archives building and a building with a retail store (called "The Shop"), café and a restaurant. The restaurant will serve American cuisine "inspired by the road," according to Harley spokeswoman Amanda Lee.

The museum is expected to attract about 350,000 visitors a year. Visitors will see motorcycle models from the company's 105 year history, an exhibit dedicated to Harley motorcycles in the movies and on television and artifacts from the company's history including early stock certificates and workers "on-strike" sign.

The museum sits on a 20-acre site, which includes a significant amount of green space, a new riverwalk and a statue of a hill-climbing Harley rider. The site has enough room to host an event with up to 15,000 people, and the museum complex has indoor meeting space that could accommodate groups of 1,000.

The site's landscaping includes 700 plants, shrubs and trees. "This is like a cool new green area to hang out downtown," Lee said.

The Harley museum is the second major tourism development in the Menomonee Valley this year. In June, Potawatomi Bingo Casino, 1721 W. Canal St., opened the first phase of its 500,000-square-foot, $240 million expansion. Additional phases of the expansion will be opened during the remainder of this year.

Silverstone Partners Inc. will receive a $409,500 Blight Elimination and Brownfield Redevelopment (BEBR) grant from the Wisconsin Department of Commerce to help it redevelop an unoccupied and underutilized property in Kenosha County. Silverstone Partners plans to construct a four-story apartment building containing 89 units on a one-acre parcel located at the intersection of Seventh Avenue and 51st Place in Kenosha.

The company will use the BEBR funds to address soil contamination on the site, which was formerly occupied by a tannery. An estimated 80 of the 89 living units will be priced as affordable housing targeted for seniors. The total project cost is $8.5 million. "Brownfield grants help renew damaged or vacant land and provide communities with opportunities for additional reinvestment," said Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle. "I'm pleased that we could help Silverstone Partners Inc. improve the local supply of rental units, particularly for senior citizens."

The Department of Commerce BEBR Program provides grant funds to municipalities, local development corporations, and the private sector to support assessment, remediation and return of contaminated lands to productive use. Brownfields are abandoned, idle, or underused industrial or commercial properties where redevelopment is hindered by real or perceived contamination.

The sixth annual BizTimes Commercial Real Estate & Development Conference will held from 7:30-9:30 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 14, at the Italian Community Center in Milwaukee. Registration begins at 7 a.m. 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 at the Italian Community Center.

The theme of this year's conference will be "The Fresh Coast Advantage." Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley is the planned keynote speaker.

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 there growth, Southeastern Wisconsin real estate development will benefit from the region's access to the fresh water resource of the Great Lakes.

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.

Small Business Times presents the conference in partnership with Marquette's Bell Real Estate Program and the Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin (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.