Category Archives: Local Business

by | May 4, 2012 · 10:48 pm

Welcome To “Downtown” Oak Creek: Delphi Site’s Future Revealed

Update: Oak Creek Patch has more details in this story.

Oak Creek will finally get a “downtown” with the redevelopment of the former Delphi property — plans that were formally revealed on Friday.

Learn more about the Drexel Town Square project at BizTimes.com, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Oak Creek Patch and The Business Journal.

From BizTimes.com:

The eastern third of the site will feature junior box retail stores (about 20,000 to 40,000 square feet each) and some outlot retail development, said Wispark president Jerry Franke.

The middle third of the site will have a “Main Street,” lined with multi-story buildings with retail on the ground floor and apartments on the upper floors.

A Town Square on the Main Street could be a community gathering place and it used for ice skating in the winter and farmers’ markets in warmer months, Franke said. The Main Street area will also be the site of the city’s new library and city hall.

The western third of the site will have “Third Ward” style apartment buildings, Franke said.

“We’re hoping to attract young professionals working on the south side by offering them something different,” he said.

The residential component of the development could also include an assisted living building, Franke said.

Not to be forgotten is that the groundbreaking of the new Interstate 94 interchange at Drexel Avenue was also held Friday. That’s a significant project for South Milwaukee, too, as it provides another easy entry point into our city.

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by | May 2, 2012 · 11:24 pm

Meijer Coming To Oak Creek? And Other Headlines

Last week, the Business Journal broke the story that grocery and general merchandise chain Meijer is interested in a site in Franklin — near Loomis Road and Highway 100 — for its first Wisconsin store.

Now comes word from BizTimes.com that the retail giant is also pondering Oak Creek for a store.

Check out the story here, and click here for the Oak Creek Patch follow. Here is Business Journal coverage.

And check out these other local headlines:

And be sure to read this story on the South Milwaukee girls’ track team, which won the Woodland Conference Relay Meet this week.

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by | April 27, 2012 · 7:37 pm

South Milwaukee Chamber Awards Announced

The South Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce held its annual spring social and awards banquet last week, and I was proud to be named Ambassador of the Year.

Congratulations to all of the winners, and big thank you to the Chamber for all it does to unite the business community in South Milwaukee.

Here is the full list of winners …

  • Business of the Year Golden Key Award: MJ Media LLC. Active participation in the Chamber, involvement in the community and events held in it and an active interest in the development of the business community in the City of South Milwaukee.
  • Pride in Premises Award: The Azteca Restaurant. Must be an established business and located in the City of South Milwaukee.  The overall appearance should be considered – decorations, plantings, the building’s interior and exteriors, renovations made to the building, cleanliness, lack of graffiti, refuse.  The business should be an improvement in our business districts.
  • V.I.P Award (Volunteer in Partnership): John Haslam. Demonstrates involvement, in time commitments or monetary value, in a project that benefits the school or community.
  • Ambassador of the Year Award: Erik Brooks. Candidate who makes other members feel welcome, spreads goodwill within the Chamber, supports and encourages new members and carries the spirit of the Chamber into the community.
  • Rookie of the Year Award: Chad Piechocki. Candidate is a newer member that demonstrates enthusiasm and active involvement in the Chamber as an officer and or Chamber activities.
  • Dedicated Service: Bryan Lorentzen. Candidate demonstrates outstanding dedication and service for the South Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce.

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by | April 5, 2012 · 2:15 pm

Lakeshore Photography To Close Downtown Studio And Other Chamber News

Downtown South Milwaukee is losing a longstanding business.

Lakeshore Photography is closing its South Milwaukee studio on Saturday, with the owner of the business working out of her home instead of the Milwaukee Avenue storefront.

Learn more in the new South Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce newsletter. From it:

We would like to thank all the people that have helped us over the 25 years. We’ve made so many friends and met such wonderful people! We hope the memories we created with our portraits will make you smile for many years to come.

Also check out items on the April 20 Chamber Spring Social and May 17 128th Air Refueling Wing Civic Dinner Dance.

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by | March 27, 2012 · 10:17 pm

Sullivan Turns Focus To Worker Training

Former Bucyrus CEO Tim Sullivan has long championed worker training as a key issue for growing Wisconsin’s economy.

Now, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, he is “drafting set of recommendations that will change how Wisconsin allocates hundreds of millions of dollars each year in federal job training funds and simultaneously reform the state’s education system.”

“It’s a big task with a lot of moving parts,” he told the newspaper.

Is it ever.

One key part of Sullivan’s work is taking a fresh look at high school curriculum, better matching student skills with companies’ needs — something that I know the South Milwaukee School District is already focused on as part of its long-range planning process. From the newspaper:

He cited a study by Georgetown University that found that Wisconsin will need an estimated 925,000 skilled workers by 2018 just to replace those on the verge of retiring or meet the creation of new jobs. At least 588,000 of those jobs will require a minimum of a two-year technical training degree.

But the state’s schools don’t produce those numbers – which is all the more troublesome in a state that leads the nation in per-capita manufacturing employment, Sullivan said. Starting in the 1980s, many high schools discontinued shop classes, industrial arts, and trade and technical schools. Educators, parents and students focused on curriculum that prepared students for four-year college degrees, even though a degree in the humanities will not land anyone a job on a production line, he said.

That will require a new approach to the way high schools structure their curriculum. It also means a renewed educational push in grade school to supply high schools with students that have basic math and reading skills.

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by | March 11, 2012 · 3:12 pm

Caterpillar Integration: Eight Months Later, Leaders Look Back

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a story in Sunday’s business section about the impacts of Caterpillar’s acquisition of Bucyrus International last year.

It paints an overwhelmingly positive picture.

Check it out here. From it:

Caterpillar has added about 200 jobs in South Milwaukee since it acquired Bucyrus and now has 1,600 employees. The company is spending $6 billion on capital expenditures, much of it in the mining equipment division.

“We have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in our U.S. manufacturing plants. We are confident that, for a lot of our products, it makes sense to have a large North American presence,” Wunning said.

Last July, it seemed as if 131 years of Bucyrus history was wiped clean when Caterpillar took over, dropped the Bucyrus name and rebranded everything in its own name.

The change seemed sudden, but Caterpillar spent months preparing for it.

The Peoria, Ill., company wanted one face for the mining division, not two, Wunning said of dropping the Bucyrus name.

“We can grow our businesses faster together than we could individually,” he said.

I’d like to know what you think. Post your comments below, and vote in the poll!

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by | March 5, 2012 · 4:20 pm

Bottoms Up, South Milwaukee: What Do You Think?

The new Bottoms Up South location on 5th and Madison (at the former Bickler’s) is causing some controversy with neighbors.

Fox 6 has the story here. What do you think? Post your comments below.

As background: The Legislation & Permits Committee did approve the bar’s license some months ago, but we typically don’t ask much about the concept for a new bar when one is proposed. (I did ask on this one, and the answer I got was pretty open-ended, if I recall.)

And I’m not sure what role, if any, the committee should even play in deciding what is a “right” concept vs. a “wrong” one, short of a concept disallowed by ordinance, of course. Should the council dictate a business plan?

Also, the bar owners — who have successfully opened three other bars in the area, and who include the owner of Milwaukee Harley-Davidson — checked out fine … and in fact had more experience with this than most applicants we see. But even with that, I don’t look at bar-owning experience as a prerequesite for a license, either.

Anyway, check out the Bottoms Up website here. Here is their Facebook page.

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by | February 16, 2012 · 5:55 pm

New State Post For Sullivan

Gov. Scott Walker’s newest adviser is former Bucyrus CEO Tim Sullivan.

Sullivan will head Walker’s office of business development, it was announced Thursday.

Check out coverage in the Journal Sentinel and the Business Journal, and here is the press release.

From the release:

Job creators from all across Wisconsin have identified a skills gap between the jobs they have available and the workers applying to fill them. Manufacturers, in particular, identify this skills gap as one of the top barriers to business growth. Similarly, our technical colleges report difficulty in filling many of their manufacturing training courses with qualified students. That’s why Governor Walker has worked closely with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and the Department of Workforce Development on ongoing strategies for tackling the problem.

To help develop and drive these strategies across a variety of agencies and institutions, the Administration is utilizing the expertise of a consultant who brings a track record of private sector success and vast experience and understanding of the workforce development issues job creators look at when deciding where to grow.

As Special Consultant for Business and Workforce Development, Sullivan will be help identify barriers to business development and job growth in Wisconsin. He will focus especially on workforce, employment environment, and policy issues. He will also help identify and cultivate business prospects for expansion and relocation to Wisconsin.

Sullivan will also head up the Office of Business Development, serve as Chairman of the Council on Workforce Investment and as member of the College and Workforce Readiness Council. Sullivan is serving the state as a volunteer.

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by | February 5, 2012 · 10:31 pm

Skating Away From South Milwaukee To West Allis

Downtown South Milwaukee is losing another business.

FNF Skate Shop, an up-and-coming skateboard shop at 1203 Milwaukee Ave., has closed and will reopen later this month at 7332 W. Becher St. That’s according to a sign on the store’s door and its website.

While you may have never shopped there, this is a blow to downtown.

These are exactly the kind of destination, specialty retailers I’d love to see more of in our city center. In a big box world, it’s businesses like these that will make South Milwaukee competitive — and potentially lead the way in a downtown rebirth.

Now, we do have other businesses like this downtown, but it hurts to lose even one on that list.

What do you think? Post your comments below!

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by | January 26, 2012 · 10:58 pm

Big Profit Jump For Caterpillar … And A Strong 2012 Could Be In Store

Caterpillar had a strong 2011, and there’s optimism for the new year. Is that great news for South Milwaukee?

Check out the Wall Street Journal story on Cat’s annual earnings here. From it:

Caterpillar said it is racing to expand capacity for mining equipment and has such a big backlog that it won’t be able to deliver on some orders for large mining trucks until 2014. Whether those delays lead to a loss of business depends on how fast Caterpillar and its competitors can expand production, Edward Rapp, Caterpillar’s chief financial officer, said in an interview. “We are absolutely committed to hitting goals” for higher capacity, he added.

“The orders are there,” said Lawrence De Maria, an analyst for brokerage firm Robert W. Baird. “Now they just have to get capacity up to meet that demand.” The company expects to spend about $4 billion on capital investments in 2012, about half of which will be in the U.S.

Let’s hope some of that investment comes in South Milwaukee.

(Check out similar stories in Bloomberg, the New York Times, and Reuters.)

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by | January 23, 2012 · 9:46 pm

Welcome To South Milwaukee, Educators Credit Union

Educators Credit Union recently opened a new branch in South Milwaukee at the former home of Kyle Credit Union.

As you’ll recall, Educators merged with Kyle, 1201 Marquette Ave., in a deal effective Jan. 1.

Learn more about Educators here and here, and here is a list of Educators locations. South Milwaukee is the 17th.

Welcome to South Milwaukee!

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by | January 16, 2012 · 11:47 am

Local Laughs: Some South Milwaukee Comedy And More Local Headlines

Update: Here is a Journal Sentinel story on the wandering boy in Cudahy.

Comedian Jackie Kashian is returning to South Milwaukee to poke some fun at her hometown — including a visit to the 4th District’s newest bar and eatery, Daddy’s Rockin’ Statehouse on 17th Avenue.

Learn more in this Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story, and here is a YouTube clip where she references her roots. And here is Kashian’s opening act.

Andheck out these local headlines of note from around the South Shore …

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by | January 7, 2012 · 10:43 pm

Gurda Draws Parallels And Differences Between M&I, Bucyrus Acquisitions

Local historian John Gurda has another great piece in Sunday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel — this one taking a closer look at the acquisitions of M&I Bank and Bucyrus International in the past year.

“Before 2011 disappears completely in the rear-view mirror,” Gurda writes, “we should pause to consider two local business giants who lost their independence during the year. One succumbed to failure and the other, ironically, was a victim of its own success. Those icons, you may have guessed, are M&I Bank and Bucyrus International. They’re both still with us, in most of the same locations and with substantially the same products, but they operate under different principles and entirely different principals.”

As for Bucyrus, he writes:

Turnabout, I suppose, is fair play. Milwaukee snatched Bucyrus from Ohio in 1893, and now an Illinois firm was returning the favor. Caterpillar moved quickly to secure its new prize, changing the signs on the South Milwaukee plant to yellow and gold almost overnight.

The Caterpillar sale was a tribute to Tim Sullivan’s management skills, a windfall for stockholders and a testament to the quality of the Bucyrus labor force. Whether it works out for the long-term benefit of those employees and their communities is a question that only Caterpillar can answer.

Check out the column here, and post your comments below.

By the way, Gurda also spoke at the South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center on Saturday. The topic: “A Region Built on Water: Milwaukee’s Use and Abuse of a Vital Resource.” If you went to the show, I’d like to know what you thought.

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by | January 1, 2012 · 9:10 pm

Council Approves 6 a.m. Alcohol Sales

You can now buy alcohol at liquor, grocery and other “off-premise” South Milwaukee retailers starting at 6 a.m. — two hours earlier than you could before.

The City Council approved the change at its Dec. 20 meeting, aligning our start time with a new state law that took effect in late December.

Communities could enact ordinances more restrictive than state law, and some have decided to keep their 8 a.m. starting times.

Our vote was 7-1, with all but Alderman Craig Maass voting in favor of the ordinance change.

I voted yes because it could help local business, boosting sales with, among others, third-shift workers looking to purchase beer on their way home from work.

I also don’t see harm arising from the increased hours. In my mind, there is no significant difference between allowing sales at 6 a.m. or 8 a.m. — and in cases like that I will generally side with local business.

Keep in mind that off-premise retailers can still only sell alcohol until 9 p.m. each night in South Milwaukee. That does not change. This is stricter than state law, which allows for the off-premise sale of beer until midnight.

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by | December 29, 2011 · 10:18 pm

Cudahy Kmart Survives Cut

Sears Holdings — which includes the Kmart brand — announced this week that it will close 100 to 120 underperforming stores across the county.

The Cudahy Kmart is not on the list.

But a Rice Lake Kmart and West Baraboo Sears Grand/Essentials store is.

Check out stories in The Business Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Of course, this list of closures is only partial, and the fate of the Cudahy Kmart bears even closer watching once the South Milwaukee Walmart is up and running — likely not until 2014. I’ll keep you posted.

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