The Milwaukee area's office space vacancy rate rose to 14.7 percent during the second quarter, up from a 14.3 percent vacancy rate during the first quarter, according to new data from New York-based Reis Inc., which provides commercial real estate market information.

The Milwaukee area's office space vacancy rate is at its highest level since the third quarter of 2006 and is up from the 13.2 percent vacancy rate of one year ago. The local vacancy rate is lower than the Midwest average of 16.5 percent, but it exceeds the U.S. average of 13.0 percent, according to Reis.

Class A office space in the Milwaukee area is faring better, with a vacancy rate of 11.0 percent, down a tad from 11.1 percent in the first quarter and the same as a year ago.

Class B and C office space in the area is not faring as well, with a 17.6-percent vacancy rate, up from 16.8 percent in the first quarter. That's the highest vacancy rate for class B and C space in the area since the second quarter of 2006.

Local submarket office space vacancies, according to Reis are:

• Downtown Milwaukee, 13.0 percent
• Brookfield, 18.1 percent
• Western Waukesha County, 14.0 percent
• Northern suburbs, 12.3 percent
• Wauwatosa/West Allis, 18 percent
• Greenfield/south, 11.8 percent

The downtown office space vacancy rate is up from 12.4 percent in the first quarter.

Retail space

The Milwaukee area's retail space vacancy rate was 8.7 percent for the second quarter, according to Reis, down from a 9.1 percent vacancy rate in the first quarter. It was the third straight quarter that the area's retail space vacancy rate had declined. The area's retail space vacancy rate is well below the 10.7 percent vacancy rate for the Midwest, but is slightly above the U.S. rate of 8.2 percent.

Submarket retail space vacancies, according to Reis, are:

• Waukesha County, 7.7 percent
• Northern Milwaukee/Ozaukee counties, 9.0 percent
• Southern Milwaukee County, 9.5 percent

Apartments

The Milwaukee area had an apartment vacancy rate of 4.1 in the second quarter, according to Reis, up from 3.8 percent in the first quarter but down from the 4.4 percent vacancy rate during the second quarter of 2007.

The Milwaukee area's apartment market is faring better than the Midwest, which has a 5.8 percent vacancy rate, and the United States as a whole, which has a 6.0 percent vacancy rate.

Submarket apartment vacancies, according to Reis are:

• Brookfield/New Berlin, 2.6 percent
• Western Waukesha County, 2.6 percent
• Western City of Milwaukee, 5.8 percent
• Wauwatosa/West Allis, 2.7 percent
• Greenfield, 3.5 percent
• Cudahy/South Milwaukee, 3.6 percent
• Eastern City of Milwaukee, 4.8 percent
• Northshore/northwest, 6.4 percent

Reis has a local data sharing partnership with Small Business Times.

Waukesha-based Lauterbach Group, a provider of printing, packaging and converting products will move its corporate headquarters from a 35,000-square-foot facility at 1450 S. West Ave., in Waukesha, to a new 55,760-square-foot facility that is under construction at W222 N5710 Miller Way in Sussex. The site is located just off of Silver Spring Drive and is next to the W.O.W. Distributing Co. Inc. headquarters. Lauterbach needs a new facility to accomodate its growth said Elaine Schnier, vice president of finance. Lauterbach has 55 employees and is planning to add 15 more during the next "couple of years," she said. Oconomowoc-based MSI General Corp. designed the facility and is managing its construction, which began recently. The project is expected to be complete in March 2009. The facility was designed to be an environmentally-friendly "green" building, using the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) system and will include high efficiency lighting, water conserving plumbing fixtures, water recycling processes and other "green" features. "Our group's desire to have this building be environmentally friendly did not impede our architectural design, but enhanced it," said Heath Lauterbach, director of engineering and procurement for the company. "Not only does the building improve our operating efficiency, but it also provides our group members with a first class work environment."

The sixth annual BizTimes Commercial Real Estate & Development Conference will held from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. 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 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. 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 in partnership with Marquette's Bell Real Estate Program and 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.

CenterPoint buys 20 acres for industrial development in Racine County
Oak Brook, Ill.-based CenterPoint Properties recently purchased 20 acres at 1832 S. Sylvania Ave., in the Town of Yorkville, from the Haigh Revocable Trust. The sale price was not disclosed. The property is located along the west side of I-94, about a quarter-mile south of the Highway 20 exit. CenterPoint plans to build a 150,000-square-foot industrial building on the property, which will be directly adjacent to its 210,000-square-foot distribution center in the Grandview Business Park. The property purchased from the Haigh trust also has room for an additional 450,000-square-foot building. NAI MLG Commercial brokers Tony Haska, Steve Anderson, and Nicole Hohnstein represented Haigh Revocable Trust. The land was purchased by the Haigh Family in 1907, and it has been used for farming ever since.