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Park Towne Development: News & Notes

March Madness has spread from just college basketball to the weather. Those who are looking for spring, I would not worry as the high school boys golf season starts on Monday. The weather should be turning cold, rainy and windy soon.

Have a great week!

Joe

 

Development News for the Week of:    3/17/2012 -  3/23/2012  

 

 

A foundation created by the family of W. Jerome Frautschi and Pleasant Rowland is withdrawing plans to redevelop a block of State Street for the time being, and they may decide to drop it altogether, a spokesman said Thursday. 

 

 

Alvarado Real Estate Group is hosting a free public event Monday, March 26, aimed at helping home and business owners make environmentally conscious choices that can lead to energy savings and better health.

DANE COUNTY HOUSING STARTS DOWN 7 PERCENT IN FEBRUARY, PART OF SIX-YEAR SLUMP

 

Dane County housing starts dropped in February compared with a year ago and remain at historical lows going back a dozen years, records showed. There were 40 building permits issued in February for new single-family homes and duplexes, compared with 43 in February 2011, for a 7 percent decrease, according to MTD Marketing Services of Menasha.

 

CITY OFFICALS APPROVE BROOKS STREET APARTMENTS PROPOSAL

 

A city design commission granted final approval Wednesday for a proposed five-story apartment building, although a university planning official said it conflicts with future campus expansion plans. The proposed 14-unit apartment complex would be located at 202 and 206 N. Brooks St. near UW-Madisons Educational Sciences building and would target student renters.

 

CITY COUNCIL APPROVES PROPOSED JOHNSON STREET BUILDING PLANS 

 

City officials passed a motion Tuesday supporting the continued discussion of incorporating a potential new fire station and administration facilities in a proposed building near the Overture Center. The city wants to include a new fire station and administration complex in Hovde Properties proposal for a multi-use residence building on the 300 block of West Johnson and West Dayton streets.

 

CITY COUNCIL APPROVES CONTENTIOUS GRANDVIEW COMMONS GROCERY STORE 

 

Minds were persuaded and tears were shed, but it appears Grandview Commons will be home to a 58,000-square-foot grocery store after a two-year fight involving neighbors, council members and developers. The Madison City Council early Wednesday morning approved an amendment to the city's comprehensive plan to allow for the contentious Copps grocery store in the Far East Side community.


CRITICS SAY GRANDVIEW GROCERY IS NOT THE NEW URBANISM THEY BARGAINED FOR

 

Erin Thornley says she never would have purchased her home in the Grandview Commons neighborhood on Madison's far east side if she had known that the grand view she would be getting would be of a grand food store. But that's what the City Council approved Tuesday night, after a grueling 10-hour meeting that lasted until 4 a.m. Wednesday morning.

 

CITY'S RENTAL PROPERTY REGISTRATION GETS COOL RESPONSE 

 

A new city of Madison ordinance requiring landlords to provide two local emergency contacts is causing headaches for city officials charged with collecting the information. City building inspection director George Hank says he has received hundreds of phone calls over the past weeks from property owners confused or angry about the law -- which also charges owners an annual fee of $5 per property.

 

DANE COUNTY LANDS FARM TECHNOLOGY DAYS 

 

It may not salve the wounds of potentially losing the WIAA state basketball tournaments but Dane County has landed one of the states most prestigious farm shows for 2015. County officials on Monday said they filed an application to host Wisconsin Farm Technology Days, which old-timers might remember as Farm Progress Days.

 

 

The vision calls for new hotels, housing, offices, stores, restaurants, a bike center and a massive underground parking garage on city-owned property a block off Capitol Square. And the cost, complexity and opportunity in redeveloping the two blocks are staggering.

Another vision for State Street's 100 block was unveiled Monday, this time not by a developer but the chairman of the city's Landmarks Commission.

 

FISH HATCHERY INTERCHANGE WORK PAVES WAY FOR NEW PERKINS RESTAURANT   

 

The reconstruction of the Fish Hatchery Road interchange at the Beltline will also mean a new Perkins restaurant. The existing restaurant, just west of Fish Hatchery Road, will be razed in June to make way for a new frontage road. Work on the new restaurant began last week.

Veridian Homes, Madison, received the 2012 Avid Gold Award for Best Customer Experience in the Midwest region, with a score of 276 out of a possible 300 points.

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 Around the State and Points Elsewhere 

 

Several developments are making progress and other buildings are filling up in the Walker's Point neighborhood, located south of downtown Milwaukee and the Historic Third Ward.

 

 

Milwaukee-based Zilber Property Group plans to build a 54,000-square-foot speculative industrial building at the southeast corner of South Emmer Drive and Beloit Road in New Berlin.

   
 

In their book, "The Great Workplace: How to Build It, How to Keep It and Why it Matters," authors Michael Burchell and Jennifer Robin explain the concept of a great workplace and highlight companies such as General Mills and Google.

 

 

A 3-acre site overlooking the Milwaukee River at N. Water and E. Brady streets is being sold to a local firm that plans to develop apartments and commercial space there. The parcel runs from a vacant home, at 1693 N. Water St., through the Habhegger Wheel and Axle buildings to the pedestrian bridge, said Stewart Wangard, chairman and chief executive officer of Wangard Partners Inc.

 

 

Milwaukee School of Engineering on Tuesday completed its purchase of land from Milwaukee County in the Park East area, with work to begin soon on a parking structure topped with a college soccer field. The 780-space parking structure, to be built north of E. Knapp St. and west of N. Broadway, will be the first project on county-owned parcels in the Park East area. There have been projects built on adjacent properties.

 
Despite Mayor Tom Barrett's opposition to buying a gas station in order to convert part of N. 27th St. into a boulevard, that project remains a possibility. Ald. Bob Bauman wants the city to buy a Mobil gas station, at the northeast corner of W. Wisconsin Ave. and N. 27th St., and demolish it to make way for his proposed two-block boulevard on 27th St. between Wells and Michigan.
 

STATE'S EXPORTS GREW 11% IN 2011

 
Wisconsin exports increased 11 percent in 2011, growing from $19.8 billion in 2010 to $22.0 billion, according to International Trade Administration (ITA) data.