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Category: Business/Technology

TIF approved for University Crossing

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Wisconsin State Journal

Madison will deliver $1.37 million in public assistance to the developers of the $21.9 million University Crossing mixed-use project on the West Side. The City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to approve the tax incremental financing (TIF) loan to GI Clinic LLC, which is building a 60,000-square-foot digestive health clinic and 265 parking stalls on the former Erdman properties at University Avenue and Whitney Way. The clinic and parking will be leased by the UW Hospital and Clinic Authority.

Madison’s Freakfest Attendance, Arrests Down

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WISC-TV 3

Freakfest, Madison?s annual downtown Halloween party, attracted at least 5,000 fewer people this past weekend, but still got approval from the event?s organizer. Frank Productions, the company that operates Freakfest, sold 26,000 tickets to Saturday night?s event held on State Street. Various factors influenced this year?s attendance, but fewer ticket sales don?t mean the company will stop running the event, said Charlie Goldstone, of Frank Productions.

$4.6 million grant will help Stratatech start clinical trials of skin substitute

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Wisconsin State Journal

Madison-based Stratatech Corp. is getting a $4.6 million grant to help fund the start of clinical trials of ExpressGraft, a skin substitute designed to heal diabetes-related foot ulcers. Founded in 2000 based on discoveries at UW-Madison, Stratatech makes tissue products described on the company’s website as “nearly identical” to human skin. The company has 32 employees and will likely add more staff in 2012, Allen-Hoffmann said, but she could not yet estimate how many.

Local stores move opening hours earlier for Black Friday shopping

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Wisconsin State Journal

Waking up early for some of the best deals of the holiday shopping season may be on its way out. Now, it?s a matter of staying up.

“It’s a huge day,” said Jerry O’Brien, executive director of the Center for Retailing Excellence at UW-Madison. “There’s too much risk for a retailer not to jump on board (a midnight opening) right now.”

LifeGen Technologies to be sold to Utah company

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Wisconsin State Journal

LifeGen Technologies, a Madison company studying the genes associated with aging, will be purchased by Nu Skin Enterprises, of Provo, Utah, for $11.7 million. The letter of intent announced Thursday includes LifeGen?s genetic research, patents and tissue bank and says the transaction is expected to be completed before the end of 2011. UW-Madison School of Medicine professors Richard Weindruch and Tomas Prolla founded LifeGen in 2000.

Biz Beat: School cuts were big piece of job losses

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Capital Times

“Clearly, the recovery has lost some of the strength seen in early 2011, when jobs grew steadily through the first six months of the year,” says a new report from the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, a UW-Madison think tank. The COWS report notes Wisconsin now has a jobs deficit of 195,300 — the difference between the number of jobs Wisconsin has now and what it needs to return to pre-recession levels.

“The jobs deficit should be a national and state priority,” the group says. Whether Republican, Democrat or Wall Street occupier, nobody is arguing that point.

On Campus: Spooked Downtown landlords put limits on residents for Freakfest

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Wisconsin State Journal

Some Downtown landlords ? spooked by Freakfest ? are putting limits on the number of guests some of their residents can host this weekend. Madison Property Management last week alerted residents of three properties near the State Street event that they need to wear wristbands for entry into their apartments Friday and Saturday and can only have two guests, said Kari Stopple, vice president of Madison Property Management. She said exceptions would be made for people who already planned to have more guests.

Roche Madison sold to California firm

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Wisconsin State Journal

Roche Madison, formerly part of Mirus Bio Corp., has been purchased by Arrowhead Research Corp. of Pasadena, Calif. Roche Madison, 545 Science Drive in University Research Park, has more than 40 scientists who will stay with the company, according to Monday?s announcement. Mirus Bio was founded in 1995 based on UW-Madison research and developed a platform using RNA interference technology that turns off certain genes, for use in drug discovery. That division was split off and sold to Roche in 2008 for $125 million.

Galleries, walkways open to students

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Badger Herald

Since the groundbreaking ceremony of the Chazen Museum of Art?s expansion more than two and a half years ago, a diverse assortment of art lovers have anxiously awaited the opportunity to experience the new addition. This weekend marks the end of a long construction period, as the Chazen opens its doors to students, faculty and the community.

Biz Beat: Student apartments eyed at Brooks and Dayton

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Capital Times

While few developers are building single-family homes or condos these days, the market for student housing on the UW campus seems immune from the economic downturn. To that end, developer Joe McCormick is pursuing a new five-story, 14-unit apartment project at the corner of North Brooks and West Dayton streets. The project, which was presented to the city Urban Design Commission this week, totals 38 bedrooms in a mix of unit sizes.

Biz Beat: Soglin says food and music could offer economic opportunity

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Capital Times

Mayor Paul Soglin has thankfully yet to claim he?s “focused like a laser” on creating jobs. But Soglin wants to make sure economic issues are front and center in a city often rapped for working against, not with, the private sector.

“I?m trying to get us to the point where everything we do, we think about the economic implications,” Soglin told the city Economic Development Committee Wednesday evening. It hasn?t always been that way. Buoyed by the twin pillars of state government and the UW-Madison, the city has historically been insulated from economic realities.

Biz Beat: Desperate times demand a ‘laser focus’ from politicians

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Capital Times

Given the depth of the Great Recession, it?s no longer enough for politicians to say they are working to improve the economy. No, these desperate times require a “laser focus” on job creation. And nobody is tossing around the term “laser focus” more than Gov. Scott Walker.

Quoted: UW-Madison physics professor Thad Walker, who says he’s been amused by the growing use of the term “laser focus” by public officials.

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Soglin pushes to ?end the uncertainty? for Downtown Plan, zoning code rewrite

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Wisconsin State Journal

The Downtown Plan, the first in 20 years, addresses issues from land use and design to transportation, recreation and culture. The plan envisions more public access to the city?s lakefronts, including a major park at John Nolen Drive and Broom Street and a walkway connecting James Madison Park and UW-Madison?s Memorial Union, principal planner Bill Fruhling said.

High-tech machines show a new age of vending

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Wisconsin State Journal

Kyle Rampone went for the Sour Patch candy, while Ben Overeem chose the Jack Link?s beef jerky. The products were free, but the UW-Madison students weren?t impressed with the price. Rampone, 19, from New Berlin, and Overeem, 19, of Green Bay, retrieved their selections from a vending machine that looked more like a giant iPhone or iPad.

Tech and Biotech: Washington connections could boost Wisconsin business chances overseas, a tech leader says

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Wisconsin State Journal

The Wisconsin Technology Council says it has signed an informal agreement with a Washington, D.C. investment firm, Monument Capital Group, giving the firm a “virtual presence” in Wisconsin. What that really means is: “They just want to stay in touch with what?s happening in the R&D (research and development) world here, primarily in defense and homeland security,” Tech Council president Tom Still said. He said Monument wants to look at possible involvement with companies as varied as startup level to those ready for merger or acquisition. Still also plans to funnel information to the firm about pertinent research at the UW-Madison.

Economic expert urges central Wisconsin to build on strengths to compete globally

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Wausau Daily Herald

Much of what the early speakers at a University of Wisconsin Marathon County conference on the economy chose to emphasize already is well known here.

Leaders need to focus on advanced manufacturing, health care and other service industries while playing to the fact that Wausau could develop into a transportation hub for the state, said Michael Knetter, president and CEO of the UW Foundation in Madison and former dean of UW-Madison?s business school.

Another great team

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

This is Wisconsin at its best: A team that includes the state?s four largest engineering schools and several large Milwaukee-area employers is working on a new project that aims to make Wisconsin a leader in the creation of “microgrids,” energy islands that can function off a main power grid.

Wisconsin’s economy has a long climb to prosperity

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Capital Times

….Getting more money into the venture capital pipeline could help turn more of the research at the UW-Madison into functioning companies that could produce a product, generate sales and hire employees.

The UW-Madison remains among the top five universities in the nation in terms of landing research dollars but those dollars have been slow to translate into start-ups. A 2010 report from the Chronicle of Higher Education showed the UW-Madison with just one new company formed ? despite $1.1 billion of research spending here.

Quoted: Tim Smeeding, director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at UW-Madison

Top Fed official says chance of another recession is low, despite ‘disappointing’ recovery

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Wisconsin State Journal

The slow pace of the nation?s economic recovery is “disappointing” but the U.S. is not likely to head into another recession, a top official of the Federal Reserve Bank told reporters in Madison on Monday. Nationwide data on consumer spending, housing and manufacturing over the past three months have been lower than officials might like to see but are “still broadly consistent with economic growth at a moderate pace,” said Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Richmond, Va. Federal Reserve Bank. The chance of a return to a recession “looks low now,” he said.

Lacker spoke to about 100 students, economists and finance executives at the UW-Madison. A native of Lexington, Ky., Lacker received his doctorate degree in economics from the UW-Madison.

Emily Lilburn: Solar farm in Wisconsin is good news

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Capital Times

Dear Editor: I am a student at UW-Madison, where students learn every day about the dangers of fossil fuels. Hearing about Convergence Energy?s solar farm was such a bright spot for me. It is one of the largest solar projects in the state, uses local businesses, and allows individuals to buy a stake in the project. Right now, our government is backing off on environmental protection for no good reason.

Which Wisconsin colleges offer the biggest paydays? (The Business Journal)

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PayScale Inc. has the answers. The Seattle company, which surveys compensation, has ranked hundreds of schools by the median salaries of graduates when they are at mid-career. PayScale also ranks the schools based on average starting salaries for graduates. The top school in Wisconsin turned out to be the Milwaukee School of Engineering, with graduates on average starting careers at $54,100 a year. That’s well ahead of the second-ranked school in the category, the University of Wisconsin-Madison. UW-Madison grads start at $46,900 a year, on average.

State, cranberry industry look to capitalize on growing demand in China

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Wausau Daily Herald

CRANMOOR — Gong Ruina, a graduate student at Beijing Sport University and world-champion badminton player, said harvesting cranberries is more difficult than it looks.

“It?s fun to do once, but it?s hard to imagine people doing it all the time,” said Gong, who spoke with a Daily Tribune reporter with the help of an interpreter. Gong was one of about a dozen participants of the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Chinese Champions Program who visited Elm Lake Cranberry Co., 5865 Elm Lake Lane, on Tuesday to learn about the cranberry industry and its growing importance in a global market.

Campus Connection: UW-Madison business professor loses battle with cancer

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Capital Times

Mason Carpenter, a professor and associate dean within the Wisconsin School of Business, died on Thursday at the age of 50 after a battle with cancer, the university announced. Carpenter was a professor of strategic management, the M. Keith Weikel Professor in Leadership and the associate dean of evening and executive master of business administration programs in the business school.

StubHub sees record demand for UW-Nebraska matchup

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WKOW-TV 27

This weekend (Saturday, October 1) is the highly-anticipated Wisconsin-Nebraska football game. Ticket brokers say they?re seeing record demand. The online broker StubHub says it?s the most demand it?s seen for a Badger home game in the company?s history. It says the game is the top selling event on its website this week.

College senior starts student social events site (AP)

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Madison.com

A new business designed to help college students track and share social events on and around campus has launched at seven campuses in Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin this year and plans are to expand to as many as 300 schools. Fampus, the creation of Brittany Brody, a University of Wisconsin-Madison senior, combines campus and community calendars with social networking tools. The name comes from the company?s motto: find fun fast on campus. The website service is operational for students there and at a half dozen other campuses including Iowa State University, the University of Iowa, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

New patent law favors big corporations, WARF official says

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Wisconsin State Journal

The nation?s new patent law is going to help major corporations at the expense of the little guys, said Carl Gulbrandsen, managing director of the UW-Madison?s Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. “This, basically, is a big-business patent bill,” Gulbrandsen said. “It doesn?t benefit small business and individual inventors. And we?re in an economy where you want small businesses to prosper and hire.” President Barack Obama signed the America Invents Act into law on Friday, the first overhaul of U.S. patent law since 1952. Supporters said the law will make it easier for inventors to bring their products to market and will spur invention and create jobs. But Gulbrandsen, whose office turns discoveries in UW-Madison labs into patents, said he thinks the opposite will be true.

Plan Commission OKs demolition of former Bancroft Dairy, homes for clinic

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Wisconsin State Journal

The former Bancroft Dairy that has been closed for a decade and eight South Side residential structures will be demolished as part of a redevelopment project to include a medical clinic, the city?s Plan Commission decided Monday night. The commission also recommended rezoning of the triangular parcel bounded by Fish Hatchery Road, South Park Street and Midland Street, vacating a public right-of-way segment on High Street that cuts through the parcel and a three-lot certified survey map of the subject property. The matter will go to the City Council next month. The proposed $25.2 million project would be a catalyst for significant change in the neighborhood and provide a transformational clinic to replace the Wingra Family Medical Center, said Al Fish, vice chancellor of facilities planning and management at UW-Madison. Fish said the goal is to begin operations at the new clinic within the next year.

Chris Rickert: Jobs, not workers, have changed most

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Wisconsin State Journal

….”every child can be helped to connect with the world of work starting in childhood and early adolescence,” said Dave Riley, a UW-Madison professor of human development and family studies. But it?s not likely puberty is the age when people decide to become, say, machinists or operating engineers. “Lasting commitments” to particular career paths made in early adolescence tend to be in the fields of sports, math or music, Riley said, and only if the adolescents happen to be really good at sports, math or music.

Michael Olneck: Student protesters wrongly called a ‘mob’

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Wisconsin State Journal

The press release from Doubletree general manager Tom Ziarnik describes the large group of students protesting the Center for Equal Opportunity?s report attacking the UW-Madison?s admission practices as a “mob” that “became increasingly physically violent when forcing themselves into the meeting room where the press conference had already ended.” And, it alleges that “staff were then rushed by a mob of protesters, throwing employees to the ground.”

I attended the press conference and was in the main lobby afterward. There was no “mob” that was “physically violent.”

(Michael Olneck is a UW-Madison professor emeritus of educational policy studies and sociology>)

Madison firm places third in clean-tech competition

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

AquaMost was recognized for its development of a water purification device based on patented technology developed by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It was one of two Wisconsin companies that were finalists in the competition ? the other being Lightweight Structures of Hartland, which has designed an energy-efficient, insulation-embedded wall and floor frames.

UW-Madison chancellor writes against fetal ban

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Madison.com

The interim chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has sent a letter to Wisconsin lawmakers urging them to oppose a bill that would ban the use of fetal tissue in research. Chancellor David Ward says in the letter sent to lawmakers Tuesday that the ban would affect both fetal tissue and cells derived from detail tissue, which would hamper research at the university.

Bill Berry: Soil depletion looms as potential disaster

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Capital Times

STEVENS POINT ? Autumn is at the doorstep again, and across much of the state, corn crops are bursting with promise, soybeans are yellowing out in their patient manner, alfalfa and pasture lands are lush and emerald green. Grain prices are high, boosting land values and yielding profits for farmers. In a difficult economy, agriculture seems to be thriving. That?s good news for this bedrock Wisconsin industry, at least for the short term. Not to look for clouds on a sunny day, but the words ?short-term? are important markers for some analysts.

Blog: Biz Beat

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Capital Times

The city Urban Design Commission has approved plans for a new UW Health clinic on a portion of the vacant Bancroft Dairy site at Fish Hatchery Road and South Park Street. The panel on Wednesday voted 7-1 for the $17 million project, which includes a four-story building and some 375 parking spaces in a combination of a ramp and surface stalls.

CEO firing fuels speculation that Yahoo ripe for takeover

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Wisconsin State Journal

SAN FRANCISCO ? Yahoo?s stock rose more than 5 percent on Wednesday after the company fired its CEO following more than 2½ years of financial lethargy.The ouster, which became public late Tuesday, came as investors were convinced that Carol Bartz couldn?t steer the Internet company to a long-promised turnaround.

Biz Beat: Apartments eyed to replace Ideal Body Shop on Park Street

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Capital Times

Ideal Body Shop, which has operated in a brick building on South Park Street since 1924, could be replaced by a five-story apartment building with commercial space on the ground floor. A meeting of the Greenbush Neighborhood Association at 6 p.m. Monday at the Neighborhood House, 29 S. Mills St., will hear plans to raze the iconic garage and replace it with roughly 75 apartment units. Three adjacent rental houses on Drake Street would also come down.

Some question plan for new south side health clinic in Madison

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Capital Times

Take a stroll along Midland Street, a shady two-block stretch between Fish Hatchery Road and Park Street on the city?s near south side. The mix of apartments and single-family homes, most with porches out front and garages behind, seems right out of the New Urbanism planning book. If you were going to create an affordable, walkable neighborhood, it?s already there.

Psst! Have you heard about Kelley?s Country Creamery?

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Wisconsin State Journal

Even without advertising or a highway sign, plenty of people have found their way to Kelley?s Country Creamery just south of Fond du Lac. The ice cream parlor and plant on a fifth-generation farm pulled in 80,000 visitors last year, its inaugural year, and people continue to flock to the family business just off Highway 41. Karen Kelley attended value-added conferences to learn how to complement the family?s dairy operation. Once she settled on ice cream as a product, she took two UW-Madison dairy short courses and another at the University of Florida.