Wisconsin

BROOKFIELD, WIS. — Blue Vista Finance LLC has provided a $19.5 million loan for the refinancing of the Sheraton Milwaukee Brookfield Hotel in the Milwaukee suburb of Brookfield. The six-story hotel features 389 rooms. Built in 1972, the hotel underwent a $4.3 million renovation in 2014. The property features more than 19,000 square feet of meeting space, a 24-hour business center, fitness center, indoor and outdoor heated pools and The Craft Room restaurant. Located at 375 South Moorland Road, the hotel is just off I-94 and adjacent to the Brookfield Square Mall. Scott Hall, Jeff Bucaro and Aaron Lapping of HFF arranged the three-year loan on behalf of the borrower, LLJ Ventures. Loan proceeds will be used to pay off the hotel’s existing loan and to fund additional strategic capital improvements.

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Milwaukee-area communities have woken up and embraced tax-increment financing (TIF) as a way to stimulate retail and commercial development. Unlike our neighboring state of Illinois, Wisconsin is not afforded the same luxury of allowing retail sales taxes to flow to municipalities, which allows for greater financial flexibility and helps offset the cost of infrastructure and municipal services as a result of retail development. Wisconsin municipalities do not impose local sales or use taxes on purchases of goods and services. Based on a 5.6 percent tax rate for average Wisconsin communities, 5 percent flows to the state, 0.5 percent flows to the county and 0.1 percent would flow to a specially created district, such as a stadium or entertainment venue. TIF allows cities or villages to finance commercial development in a designated area, called a tax incremental district (TID), to promote a tax base expansion and economic development. The property taxes within the TID are placed in a special fund and are used to pay for improvements within the district. When the property values rise within the TID, the taxes paid on the increased value can be used to pay back public project costs, which otherwise can’t occur. Developers eye mixed-use …

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MADISON, WIS. — Royal Capital Group has begun development of The Flats at Grandview Commons in Madison. The $20.3 million affordable housing property will feature 94 units. The property will include six two-story buildings with 28 two-bedroom units and 66 three-bedroom units. Amenities will include a library, computer lab, meeting space and playground. The project is slated to open in fall 2018. The project team includes architect Engberg Anderson and general contractor Horizon Construction. ACC Management Group will manage the property. The Wisconsin Housing & Economic Development Authority provided $11 million in both construction and permanent financing, as well as approved the use of low-income housing tax credits. UnitedHealthcare provided $5.4 million in equity funding through a partnership with Cinnaire and Minnesota Equity Fund. The partnership plans to invest over $85 million to help build 13 new communities in Wisconsin and the Great Lakes region.

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MOUNT PLEASANT, WIS. — Seda International Packaging Group has renewed its 61,162-square-foot industrial lease at Park 94 in Mount Pleasant, approximately 30 miles south of Milwaukee. The Italy-based manufacturer of food packaging products also owns a 323,610-square-foot building at Park 94 for its North American manufacturing and distribution center. Owned and developed by HSA Commercial Real Estate, Park 94 is a 184-acre business park. Roger Siegel of The Dickman Co. represented ownership in the lease transaction.

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MILWAUKEE — Developer Janko Group and operator Janko Hospitality hosted a topping out ceremony for the Hyatt Place hotel under construction at The Brewery in Milwaukee on Thursday, Nov. 2. The 150-room, six-story hotel is slated to open in July 2018. Located at 800 W. Juneau Ave., the hotel is part of The Brewery neighborhood redevelopment project located on the site of the former Pabst Brewing Complex. The topping off ceremony took place on site in the hotel’s recently completed first floor. The Hyatt Place will feature a bar and lounge, 2,000 square feet of meeting space, fitness center and outdoor terrace.

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SLINGER, WIS. — The Dickman Co. Inc./CORFAC International has arranged the sale of a 53,000-square-foot industrial building in Slinger, about 35 miles northwest of Milwaukee. The sales price was not disclosed. The property is located at 3767 Scenic Road. Scenic Cedar Creek LLC purchased the asset from the sellers, Robert and Ann Schoenke. Nick Keys, Samuel M. Dickman Jr. and Samuel D. Dickman of the Dickman Co. brokered the transaction.

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The Milwaukee multifamily sector is plowing forward on a number of different fronts. Development activity is continuing its impressive run with a series of high-rise towers in various stages of construction or planning. Popular neighborhoods such as Walker’s Point, Bayview and the East Side are filling in with low- and mid-rise projects, many of which feature a mixed-use component. From an investment standpoint, multifamily is still the sector du jour, with a widening investor pool of both local and out-of-state buyers. Leading the charge on the development front is Northwestern Mutual’s 7Seventy7, which is currently under construction in downtown Milwaukee with an anticipated opening in summer 2018. The 34-story complex will feature 322 apartments, ground-floor commercial and 1,400 parking spaces, many of which will service employees at the company’s recently completed 1.1 million-square-foot headquarters located only one block away. Other major projects yet to break ground but slated to reshape the skyline in the coming years include: • The Couture — Barrett Lo Visionary Development is planning to build a 44-story tower with 300-plus units, retail and parking across the street from the planned Lakefront Gateway Plaza, which will connect the area between the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Summerfest …

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MADISON, WIS. — Marcus & Millichap has arranged the sale of River’s Edge and Fordem Towers in Madison for $37 million. Together, the two multifamily properties total nine buildings and 420 units. Both are located approximately two miles east of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. River’s Edge, completed in two phases in 1974 and 1984, consists of seven three-story buildings totaling 312 market-rate units. Fordem Towers, built in 1982, features two seven-story buildings totaling 108 units. The units, 27 of which are earmarked for low-income housing through a housing assistance payments (HAP) contract, range from 390 to 1,666 square feet. Matthew Whiteside of Marcus & Millichap represented the seller, an Illinois-based limited liability company, and procured the buyer, a Colorado-based limited liability company.  

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CHICAGO — Chicago-based Aries Conlon Capital has arranged a $62.4 million non-recourse loan for the refinancing of a seven-hotel portfolio in seven states. The portfolio, owned by Inner Circle Investments, includes six Radisson hotels, which are located in Cromwell, Conn.; Billings, Mont.; Highpoint, N.C.; Albany, N.Y.; Appleton, Wis.; and Cheyenne, Wyo; as well as one independent, boutique hotel in St. Louis. Rushi Shah of Aries Conlon arranged the interest-only loan with an international investment bank. Instead of refinancing its assets as fee-simple properties, Inner Circle split ownership of the land parcels and the hotels into leased-fee and leasehold entities respectively, entered into 99-year leases with its hotels as tenants and then refinanced the land/leased-fee portions at a higher loan-to-value ratio and more attractive terms. Aries Conlon is now refinancing the corresponding leaseholds to effectively close the loop.

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MILWAUKEE — CBRE has arranged the sale of Sunset Ridge in Milwaukee for an undisclosed price. The 144-unit apartment property is located at 8183 N. 107th St. Constructed between 1981 and 1992, the property features a mix of one- and two-bedroom units across seven buildings. The property was 98 percent occupied at the time of sale. Patrick Gallagher, Benjamin Schmitt, Peter Langhoff and Max Schultz of CBRE represented the seller, Mandel Group. Weidner Apartment Homes purchased the property.

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