MADISON, Wis. (WEAU) - The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development today released estimates of employment and unemployment statistics for Wisconsin from last month.

The data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics from July 2024 shows that in nine of 12 metropolitan areas unemployment rates decreased or stayed the same over the month. Rates decreased or stayed the same in six metropolitan areas over the year.

Unemployment rates for 24 of 35 of Wisconsin’s largest cities decreased or stayed the same over the month. Over the year, rates decreased or stayed the same in 22 cities.

July unemployment rates for 45 of 72 counties decreased or stayed the same. Rates decreased or stayed the same in 44 counties over the year...

SHEBOYGAN, WI- Sheboygan County Economic Development Corporation (SCEDC) has submitted a rezoning request for thirty-two (32) acres in Plymouth. Wisconsin. This rezoning request begins a potential housing development by the SCEDC in the City of Plymouth. The SCEDC will work with the city over the next several months to finalize the development scope as part of the project’s due diligence period. 

State Department of Workforce Development: Wisconsin set new record for total employment in July

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Business reporter Tom Daykin has covered commercial real estate and development for more than three decades, since the 100 East office tower at Wisconsin Avenue and Water Street was known as the Faison Building.

Built in 1989, that 35-story building is largely empty today, and the new owners hope to transform it into nearly 400 apartments. It`s one of many dramatic changes seen in Milwaukee in recent years, as employers shift thousands of jobs downtown, the office market changes thanks to remote work, and demands for housing increase.

The most recent downtown development is proposed for the site of the Marcus Performing Arts Center parking garage and would include Wisconsin`s tallest building, a hotel and apartments...

...We asked this veteran reporter to reflect on the state of commercial real estate and development in the Milwaukee area:...

Ben Kvalo had a good run in the game industry, most recently in a role where he helped Netflix expand into the game business. His way of giving back and carving out a new path is starting Midwest Games.

After nearly five years at Netflix, Kvalo left California and started his company in Green Bay, Wisconsin, a state which has a growing community of game developers. He got it going at the end of 2022 as he was watching the indie space that he came to know well while working at Netflix.

Kvalo is trying to create a groundswell of growth in the region with support for MDEV, a Midwestern version of San Francisco’s Game Developers Conference. And he’s raising a new round of funding soon.

And since the fledgling industry needs a boost, Midwest Games is also working with the Entertainment Software Industry, the naitonal game industry trade association, to get a 30% video game development tax incentive in the state of Wisconsin...

At its Tuesday meeting the Milwaukee County Committee on Parks and Culture heard a report on the results of a Request for Information (RFI) released in spring seeking ideas for the future of two other county-owned cultural assets: the Villa Terrace and Charles Allis Art Museums.

MADISON — Gov. Tony Evers, together with the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA), today announced the final 2025-2026 Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP).

The QAP is the plan for administering federal and state tax credits that finance low- to moderate-income housing and establishes parameters and priorities for awarding the coming years’ housing tax credits, including federal nine percent and four percent credits, as well as state four percent credits.

“Building affordable housing in every corner of our state is critical to making sure that Wisconsin is prepared to meet the needs of a 21st-century workforce in a 21st-century economy, including addressing our state’s generational workforce challenges and recruiting, training, and retaining talented folks across our state,” said Gov. Evers...

Proposed changes have led to divisions between some residents who don`t want to see their neighborhoods change.

Dozens of Madison residents gathered in a meeting room at a church this spring for an open house about a subject of major controversy: a 39-page document drafted by city planners.

It’s called the West Area Plan — one of 12 such drafts covering different parts of the city to prepare for expected population growth. City planners project Madison will add more than 100,000 residents by 2050. The plan calls for more housing density, more mixed-use development along transit routes and changes to parks and open spaces.

The plan has drawn crowds at raucous public meetings who argue the city’s process has been opaque and the plan is being forced upon residents.

But not everyone is opposed to the plan...

Since 2015, Wisconsin has added over 15,000 new biohealth jobs, helping the industry workforce grow to more than 129,000

Communities like Middleton and Eau Claire land on rankings for more than just cost of living metrics

Think Ability Wisconsin is a collaboration of the Down Syndrome Association of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., the Department of Workforce Development, Islands of Brilliance, Disability In Wisconsin, Engage Workforce Solutions, Friendship Circle, MATC and many more. Powered by the Down Syndrome Association, this statewide collaborative works to address the issues of worker shortages and the high unemployment rate of people with disabilities by working with employers to break down barriers to employment for people with disabilities.

Since its inception in late 2022, Think Ability Wisconsin has enrolled more than 2,500 people in support services or programs, created more than 225 community-integrated, employer-embedded work sites and served nearly 25,000 people. The collaborative has also trained more than 1,500 employer-side participants in hiring people with disabilities and the benefits for companies.

A hotel proposed for Brady Street is inching closer to a groundbreaking.

A demolition permit has been filed for the two-story retail building on the site, 1709-1723 N. Farwell Ave. According to Department of Neighborhood Services records, it is anticipated to be issued to contractor HM Brandt on Sept. 18.

The 130-room, 11-story hotel that is slated to replace it would be flagged as a Hilton Tapestry hotel, according to an April press release from the International Luxury Hotel Association and BLVD Hospitality’s website, which lists the hotel as a “lifestyle hotel” in development.

Klein Development, led by Michael Klein, and Jeno Cataldo, a frequent Klein collaborator and Brady Street business owner, secured zoning approval for the development in April 2023...

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) - Affordable housing was in the spotlight as Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez toured the Prairie Heights project on the north side of Eau Claire.

The project will be able to provide 60 apartments to those in need.

Elmer Moore Jr., the executive director of the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority, says the project is a good example of what happens when many partners come together.

“Affordable housing means, that a family pays no more than 30% of their monthly income towards their housing costs... Every development like this, is a step taken in the right direction. We know that when families can afford their housing, they can make critical, other investments whether it’s their healthcare, their nutrition, their education, their kids or taking care of loved ones,” Moore said.

He also added that the state of Wisconsin is roughly 120,000 housing units short of being able to house the people of Wisconsin in an affordable way...

ASHEVILLE - As local leaders work to balance housing prices in Western North Carolina, a 100% affordable housing project that received funding from both Asheville City Council and the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners will soon be reviewed by local officials as the developer seeks a conditional zoning request for the project near Brevard Road. If approved, the complex will be one of several funded by the local governments in the hopes rental prices decline.

Pine Lane Apartments is a 126-unit apartment complex proposed for West Asheville off of Brevard Road by the Minnesota-based real estate investment firm Roers Companies. Every unit will affordable at 60% area median income, making it one of the few entirely affordable apartment complexes commercially built in the city...

Land donation from community employer will help build 200 units, public park, urban farm.

Green Bay broke ground last week on the first steps toward developing what the city said will be its largest-ever housing development.

Plans call for the development of a minimum of 200 single- and multi-family homes, a public park and urban farm on a roughly 26-acre parcel donated by a local employer, according to Amaad Rivera-Wagner, the city’s project manager for the redevelopment and the mayor’s chief of staff.

“We are essentially building a brand new neighborhood on land that has been essentially a farm or not utilized for nearly 100 years,” Rivera-Wagner said...

CALEDONIA, Wis. — Caledonia officials have approved a developer agreement for a $440 million, 10-building project in place of a former country club.

Ashley Capital, a commercial real estate firm with offices in Chicago, Florida and New York, wants to build a multi-phase, master-planned business park with 10 Class A industrial buildings of up to 3.8 million square feet, according to a Caledonia village agenda.

The development agreement passed with a 5-1 vote on Aug. 14, village officials said. Ashley Capital’s project, called the “South Hills Commerce Centre,” will be developed in a new tax increment district...

A lease will soon be finalized for a long-awaited grocery store on South Park Street. 

“I think we`re probably within a week or so, pending any legal jargon, of having a lease signed,” Kristie Maurer, the grocery store’s owner, said at an Aug. 19 Zoom meeting of the South Metropolitan Planning Council, a collection of south-side Madison neighborhood and business groups. 

Maurer’s Urban Market was expected to open by the end of 2023 on the first floor of Park Cedar Apartments. Maurer will lease the city-owned storefront and control operations. Maurer signed on to operate the grocery in 2022, after Luna’s Groceries pulled out in 2021...

Money set aside to demolish the Marcia P. Coggs Human Services Center, 1220 W. Vliet St., could instead be used to redevelop it into affordable housing.

The county initially planned to demolish the building to create parking for the new $42 million Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) building it is developing immediately to the north at 1230 W. Cherry St. But Gorman & Company has proposed redeveloping the building into 65 affordable housing units, with commercial space on the first floor and underground parking.

Gorman plans to acquire the building through a development agreement with the county and purchase the land for $1 million with a payment plan currently being negotiated...

MILWAUKEE – If you walk along Humboldt Boulevard in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood, you’ll notice chainlink fencing has gone up around the site of the former Big Daddy’s BBQ & Soul Food and before that the Milwaukee Beer Bistro:

Prep work has begun on a unique real estate development in the City of Milwaukee: a cohousing community named River Trail Commons. While it would be a first-of-its-kind concept for Milwaukee, five cohousing arrangements can be found throughout Madison, which are part of the roughly 200 such living setups that can be found throughout the U.S.

The idea of cohousing originated in Denmark in the late 1960s. Cohousing.org defines the concept with six common characteristics: connected relationships, a smaller footprint, private homes, common spaces, participation, and shared values. Where the idea of cohousing differs from a co-op housing setup is that houses in a cohousing setup are owned by the resident much like any other private property, but with the addition of shared spaces and activities. Specific to River Trail Commons, shared facilities plans have included a geothermal heating/cooling system, a shared electric vehicle, and a common garden space....

Building relationships with Wisconsin’s Tribes

Fleming will be the first point of contact for WEDC in its relationships with administrators, grant writers, and other leaders within the state’s Tribes.

Fleming, a member of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, joined WEDC’s Office of Rural Prosperity (ORP) in January 2022 as a program specialist with the Revitalizing Economic Vibrancy After a Major Pandemic (REVAMP) program. When that appointment ended, he became one of ORP’s two rural development specialists for Thrive Rural Wisconsin, focusing on economic development in five northern Wisconsin communities, including the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.

Fleming, who earned a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Wisconsin-Superior and a master’s in business administration from UW-Eau Claire, has also served as business manager for the Lac Courte Oreilles and business instructor at the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe College in Hayward, and he has been an entrepreneur, owning and managing several businesses...

SLINGER — The Slinger Village Board met on Monday evening and approved a resolution for the village to apply for a grant to support renovations on a former downtown church that is being transformed into a microbrewery and taproom.

The board approved a resolution authorizing Village Administrator Margaret Wilber to apply to the Community Development Investment Grant Program to support restoration and development of the 7,700 square foot, historic building at 116 Kettle Moraine Drive South in downtown Slinger where a microbrewery and taproom are planned. Travis Euler and Jerome Alton are the owners of 50 Day Brewing Company, LLC and the developers on the project.

The village will work with the developers to apply for a Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) Community Development Investment Program Grant. The developers had previously asked for assistance with $250,000 in extraordinary project costs associated with restoring the historic building and establishing a business that will stimulate economic activity and create new jobs in the village. If awarded, the grant will be used for this purpose.

MOSINEE, Wis. - Mosinee has invested $50,000 from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.

The latest addition to the downtown are decorative and public parking wayfinding banners.

Other investments include new string lighting and a mural in Square Park, as well as new light poles and additions to an garage-stall-turned-event-space.

The money came from the WEDC`s Vibrant Spaces grant...

SOUTH BELOIT, Ill. (WTVO) – South Beloit officials are gearing up for a number of projects in the city, one being a multi-million-dollar development on the Illinois-Wisconsin border. 

The 12-acre piece of land is directly across Shirland Avenue from ABC Supply Stadium that has been undeveloped or years. Crews will break ground there next year on a $90 million project officials say will help transform the area

“In December, our council signed a development agreement with Rock River Development,” City Administrator Sonya Hopper said. “It’s a very mixed-use concept, a lot of residential with a handful of commercial entities as well.”

The city will first clean up the site so it’s shovel ready. 

“There’s a $317,000 grant that we were awarded to by the EPA to start cleanup on Shirland Avenue,” Hopper said...

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