PabstCity in Milwaukee Rendering courtesy of WisPark LLC

Big Gigs

2004 season holds promise

Industry starts its engines

By Jeremy Harrell

In today's climate, economists look for signs of life almost anywhere.

They'd probably do well to look at Wisconsin, where the pulse is getting stronger thanks to a staggering amount of construction work set to begin in the coming months.

A spate of building projects is favorable news in any economic environment, said Dennis K. Winters, vice president and research director for North Star Economics Inc., Madison. But particularly for this state's economy, where construction has dipped for two straight years, an increase signals that investors are optimistic enough to be plugging the market with capital.

"It's an indicator that you're moving ahead economically," said Winters, who wrote a report last year for the Associated General Contractors of Greater Milwaukee assessing the industry's effect on the state's economy.

GE Medical Systems Information Technologies Headquarters in Wauwatosa Rendering courtesy of Eppstein Uhen Architects Inc.

What's more, these aren't simple projects. They're multiyear jobs, which will not only provide a long-lasting shot in the arm for the industry but for the economy as a whole, Winters said.

"The size of the projects means they have some longevity to them," he said.

Most of the large-scale activity is focused in Madison and Milwaukee, with owners ranging from state government to health-care companies to real estate developers.

Commercial construction in northern Wisconsin isn't quite as robust, but the state Department of Transportation and utility companies are filling in many of the gaps.

Looking ahead to 2005, some of the biggest projects the state has ever seen are scheduled to begin. Those include the first major leg of the $810 million Marquette Interchange reconstruction, a $175 million upgrade of General Motors' plant in Janesville, a $170 million expansion of St. Marys Hospital in Madison, a $165 million medical-research facility at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and, pending the outcome of lawsuits, the largest single construction project in the state's history, We Energies' $2.4 billion power plant job in Oak Creek.

But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. This year isn't even half over, and the state's construction economy is just beginning to hum. So here's a glimpse of some of the biggest projects of the year, the Big Gigs of 2004.

Nicolet National Bank Building in Green Bay Rendering courtesy of Performa Inc.

Wisconsin is quickly making a name for itself in the health-care and medical-research industries, and those markets have provided some of the most consistent and lucrative work for the construction industry in the last few years. Not surprisingly, contractors firing up their machines for several of the 2004 Big Gigs will be working for the health-care and biotech fields.

In Madison, the University of Wisconsin is poised to start construction of the Microbial Sciences building, the second of the four projects envisioned in the $300 million BioStar Initiative. For this $105 million project, Milwaukee-based Plunkett Raysich Architects LLP is creating what the UW hopes to be the "hub of microbiology," said Scott Kramer, a partner in the firm and project manager.

"This has got to be the greatest project to work on," he said. "It's a project that, from the get-go, everybody wants to be a success."

The building will consolidate the school's microbial sciences facilities under one six-story roof, with four floors beneath for parking. It will bring together researchers, professors and students who are now spread throughout several buildings.

The idea is to foster collaboration among the scientists, Kramer said, and to that end, the architects have designed a building that encourages physical interaction and begs for intellectual cross-pollination.

Student Union at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls Rendering courtesy of Workshop Architects Inc.

Meanwhile, health-care companies and medical manufacturers have big plans of their own. Later this year, Columbia St. Mary's will break ground on a megaproject to combine two northern Milwaukee hospitals on an 18-acre Lake Drive campus. The project is still in the planning stages, but hospital officials estimate the total cost to be "several hundred million dollars."

Columbia St. Mary's has hired a national architectural firm, Hellmuth, Obata + Kassebaum Inc., St. Louis, to head up design work, with Milwaukee firms Plunkett Raysich and Kahler Slater Architects providing local support. The hospital has also chosen its construction team, a combination of Barton Malow Co., Southfield, Mich., and CG Schmidt Inc., Milwaukee.

The project, scheduled for completion in 2009, will include the expansion of the Columbia St. Mary's campus in Ozaukee County.

GE Healthcare Technologies, based in Waukesha, has seen substantial growth in the last few years, so its decision to build a new headquarters for its information technologies, ultrasound and e-business divisions should come as little surprise.

"If you track where we are economically, GE Healthcare is an engine for GE generally," said Shannon Troughton, a spokesperson for GE Healthcare Technologies, adding that the new headquarters is expected to generate 10 percent growth annually.

GE plans to break ground this summer on an $85 million, 475,000-square-foot project in the Milwaukee County Research Park in Wauwatosa.

Pier Wisconsin in Milwaukee Rendering courtesy of Pier Wisconsin

The firm has tabbed Irgens Development Partners LLC, Milwaukee, to head up the job, with design work shepherded by Eppstein Uhen Architects Inc., Milwaukee. Initial occupancy is slated for 2005.

Health care isn't the only economic driver, however. Utility and private power companies across the state are beefing up their facilities after a nearly two-decade lull in energy construction activity. No company is taking a bigger lead than Wisconsin Energy Corp., whose subsidiary, We Energies LLC, is embarking on a mammoth, multibillion-dollar initiative to replace its aging coal fleet in the Milwaukee area.

This summer, We Energies turns its attention to Port Washington, where construction on the second of two new gas-fired units begins with the demolition of an old coal plant. Work on the first unit began last year, and We Energies now employs more than 350 workers in a variety of trades. All of them are working to meet the utility's 2008 deadline of having both plants online, said Margaret Stanfield, a spokesperson for the company.

The utility, under the guidance of construction manager Washington Group International, Boise, Idaho, is taking the $640 million Port Washington project in stages.

Despite having 70 percent of the concrete work for the first phase complete, there's still more than 75 percent of the overall job left to do, Stanfield said.

We Energies' Port Washington Generation Station Photo by Brian Ebner

As part of the project, We Energies will also start later this year on a 16.5-mile, natural-gas lateral connecting Port Washington with a site in Jackson.

But energy production isn't We Energies' only fire in the iron. Its development subsidiary, WisPark LLC, is starting work later this year with The Ferchill Group, Cleveland, on the $350 million PabstCity real estate venture. The huge project involves refurbishing parts of the old Pabst Brewery in downtown Milwaukee, tearing some parts down and building more than 1.2 million square feet of shops, restaurants, entertainment venues and condominiums. The project also includes parking for 3,500 vehicles.

WisPark's building adviser, Turner Construction Co., New York, is putting PabstCity on a fast track. The developer wants to have the entire project open at one time in 2006 so visitors and residents don't have to negotiate a work site while dining out or going home, said Jerry Franke, WisPark's president.

"You can't have construction going on while businesses are opening," he said.

Microbial Sciences Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Rendering courtesy of Plunkett Raysich Architects LLP

WisPark and Turner are planning to hire a roster of general contractors to make sure everything remains on schedule. Already on board, Franke said, are J.H. Findorff & Son Inc., Milwaukee; Berghammer Construction Corp., Milwaukee; and Cleveland-based Marous Brothers Construction.

Less than three miles away, on Milwaukee's lakefront, a group of civic-minded investors started construction this spring on Pier Wisconsin, a $45 million project that will serve as a home to Milwaukee's maritime past and future.

The project has been gestating since 1992 but found new life after Pier Wisconsin Ltd. completed construction in 2000 of the Denis Sullivan, a nearly exact replica of a historic Great Lakes schooner. One of Pier Wisconsin's main objectives is to provide a permanent home for the ship, but the new center will take on other important duties, said Frank Steeves, chief executive officer of Pier Wisconsin Ltd.

The project, won in a design competition by Jim Shields of HGA Inc., Milwaukee, will feature an Aquatarium showcasing Lake Michigan's marine and plant life. In addition, Pier Wisconsin will house Discovery World, an interactive museum of science and technology.

Topping off the project is a huge park and what Steeves predicted will be the "finest dock in the Great Lakes" for private boaters looking to visit Milwaukee's lakeshore.

Mechanical Engineering Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Rendering courtesy of Zimmerman Design Group

Pier Wisconsin has tabbed GPD|Gilbane, Milwaukee, to serve as the project's developer.

Not to be outdone, businesses in Wisconsin are keeping pace in the state's drive to expand its economy. In Green Bay, Nicolet National Bank is embarking this spring on what the project architect called the "premier" building downtown.

"This building is going to have an impact," said Jeff Kanzelberger, chief executive officer of design firm Performa Inc., De Pere.

Though four stories tall, Nicolet Bank's new $13.5 million headquarters on the Fox River will have 12-foot to 14-foot ceilings, rising to meet the height of a nine-story building across the street. Kanzelberger said the owner wants a high-profile address with "the kind of amenities that are frankly more urban and sophisticated."

Green Bay developer Commercial Horizons is steering the project, with Performa and Miron Construction Co. Inc., Neenah, working in a collaborative fashion on a quasi-design/build contract. Greg Douglas, Miron's vice president of design/build services, said the project will take flight on a constricted site, so the company is erecting what Douglas believed to be Green Bay's first tower crane.

The tight site pushed Miron to consider floating some of its building materials on a barge on the Fox River, though the company has abandoned that idea, Douglas said.

But constricted access isn't the only challenge, he said.

"Like any old downtown property, there are things that are buried that no one knows anything about," Douglas said.

The Nicolet Bank project is scheduled to wrap up in August 2005

Back in the Milwaukee area, grocery store chain Roundy's Inc. is moving its distribution operations from Wauwatosa to the Pabst Farms development in Oconomowoc. Plans are in place to start building the nearly 1 million-square-foot building later this year.

Opus North Corp., Milwaukee, is spearheading the design and construction of the estimated $65 million facility and expects to have the building complete in 2005. The project will occupy about half of Pabst Farms'

200-acre Commerce Center, a site given over to light industrial uses.

One of the biggest players on the state construction scene for the last few years has been the UW System, and it shows no signs of slowing down.

Thanks to a few generous gifts, the UW-Madison has already begun demolition on a $46 million renovation and expansion of the school's mechanical engineering building. Architect Zimmerman Design Group, Milwaukee, has envisioned a two-phase project, starting with a vertical addition inside an existing 1930 structure. When that part's finished, the mechanical engineers will move in and allow the contractors to gut and remodel the rest of the building, said Greg Kempen, project architect with Zimmerman Design Group, Milwaukee.

"By the time we're finished, we'll have a state-of-the-art facility," he said of the 250,000-square-foot project that's scheduled for phased completion in 2005 and 2006.
The building will house everything from a live nuclear reactor to scanning electron microscopes to a polymers laboratory. The various lab and work spaces find a focal point in a four-story atrium that serves as a gathering spot for professors, researchers and students.

The UW System also has big plans for a school that doesn't often get a big gig. In early fall, the UW-River Falls' new $26.5 million student union will begin to take shape.

The four-story, 143,000-square-foot building is going up in the heart of the campus, and design firm Workshop Architects Inc., Milwaukee, has ima-gined a building that unites the two halves of the River Falls site, said Jan van den Kieboom, a principal with the firm.

"The campus has been split between the east and west sides, and the vision for this building is that it will draw the two sides together," he said.

One face of the student union will overlook the main portion of the campus, and its façade matches the more traditional buildings that surround it, van den Kieboom said. The other side looks out over a Class 2 trout stream, and Workshop has complimented its natural setting with a façade comprised of wood and curved-glass walls.

Led by a student initiative, the building was to be the first officially recognized "green" student union in the country. That effort ended up falling short on a technicality, but van den Kieboom said the project team won't waver from the original intention of minimizing waste, maximizing energy efficiency and buying materials locally.

The project is expected to wrap up in June 2006.

For those keeping track, these 10 projects will account for nearly $2 billion in construction. It's time to get to work.