Category: Business/Technology

With apartment vacancy rates at the lowest level in 16 years, Madison developers said now is the time to act. From studios to five-bedroom apartments, redevelopment projects are targeting University of Wisconsin-Madison students. Nick Garcia, a UW-Madison junior, lives at 1323 W. Dayton St., and he said the location was a big reason he wanted to live there.

With apartment vacancy rates at the lowest level in 16 years, Madison developers said now is the time to act.From studios to five-bedroom apartments, redevelopment projects are targeting University of Wisconsin-Madison students.

Microloans are common in developing countries to help the poor start a business. A Wisconsin micro-lending organization started by UW students operates on the same principle.

A university committee recommended Friday UW-Madison put top apparel manufacturer adidas on notice after an allegation of workers? rights abuses in Indonesia.

While the market for owner-occupied housing remains weak, the interest in new apartment construction in Madison is soaring. A number of major projects are envisioned, including plans for a 12-story apartment tower near the UW-Madison campus and an architecturally intriguing 115-unit project facing Monona Bay.

Members of a city business group scrutinized a proposed design for remodeling the Memorial Union, a controversial plan that could alter the famed campus landmark and increase student accessibility.

Success in national collegiate entrepreneurial competitions landed two UW-Whitewater students at the White House on Monday. Andrew Hoeft of Onalaska and Daniel Fink of Ashwaubenon were selected to represent the university?s Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization, or CEO, at the “I Am An Entrepreneur” event.

Two University of Wisconsin students teamed up to create the nonprofit Madison Fund in an effort to combat the effects that recent years of economic uncertainty have had on small businesses in the community.

A new group has been formed to try to give a helping hand to people in Madison who may not be able to be helped through traditional lending practices.

Boxes are stacking up in Murfie.com?s airy offices on the eighth floor of the U.S. Bank building on Capitol Square. But that?s a good thing. The brown packing boxes hold dozens, if not hundreds or thousands, of music CDs that Murfie will catalog, store and make available for their owners to download or sell. It?s the latest business venture for serial entrepreneur Matt Younkle, a UW-Madison graduate and Ashwaubenon native who invented the TurboTap beer dispensing device and began selling it to sports stadiums in 2005.

Taking a cue from the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, two University of Wisconsin-Madison juniors are aiming to lift people out of poverty by lending them money.

The Madison Fund, founded by Alex Rosenthal and Andrew Tapper, recently made its first loan to a local man who used the money to apply for U.S. citizenship. The man found the not-for-profit organization by doing a Google search, said Rosenthal, the fund?s co-founder and executive director.

City officials approved the first phase of a revised plan for the Wisconsin Union Redevelopment Project Monday, which included a smaller theater lounge than what was proposed in the former plan.

A city committee on Monday night unanimously approved phase one of a plan to renovate the Memorial Union, a proposal that comes a month after a previous plan to renovate the Union was voted down by just 23 votes in the Associated Students of Madison fall elections.

Members of the Student Labor Action Coalition held a demonstration Monday protesting UW-Madison?s main licensing partner, saying it fails to give severance pay to recently unemployed factory workers. The demonstration was a response to an Indonesian factory contracted by Nike and UW partner Adidas that closed abruptly in January, leaving 2,800 workers jobless. Legally, the companies still owe 1.8 million of the original 3.3 million employees monetary compensation for the factory?s closure.

A former UW-Madison student who faced more than $400,000 in fines for operating an illegal liquor delivery business got his penalty reduced to about $3,000. The city of Madison filed a 575-count complaint against Danny Haber in May 2010 for operating Campusdrank.com, a website that sold and delivered alcohol to customers, mainly to UW-Madison students. The complaint charged Haber and fellow student Matthew Siegel for selling alcohol without a license and to underage customers.

They?re here, they?re hungry and they need haircuts. The explosive growth in the number of Chinese students at UW-Madison has created boom times for Chinese-owned businesses near campus.

It took a couple of years to complete the deal but a new $5 million, mid-rise apartment is going up behind the historic Acacia fraternity house on the UW campus. A groundbreaking ceremony is Thursday at 229 W. Lakelawn Place, just off Langdon Street at 4 p.m. The five level building has 14-units and 59 bedrooms of student housing, along with 20 moped and 61 bicycle parking spots. No vehicle parking is provided.

Madison officials say bar policies that deny entry to anyone without a valid driver?s license or passport could be discriminatory, and the city is working on educating bar owners about what is and isn?t acceptable.

“It?s been clearly documented who does and doesn?t have driver?s licenses in the state of Wisconsin,” said Mark Woulf, alcohol policy coordinator for Madison, citing a vast divide between blacks and whites. “That alone raises eyebrows and could easily be determined to be discriminatory.”

A Madison developer and architect presented their plans for two new student apartment complexes that, if approved by city and neighborhood councils, will be erected on North Bassett Street.

A city commission approved the construction of an eight-story student apartment building on the property of the University of Wisconsin campus? Episcopal student center on University Avenue after months of controversy Wednesday night.