Excerpted from Portage Daily Register
By Craig Sauer

The Associated Milk Producers Inc. plant in Portage might expand again.

Company representatives told the city’s Plan Commission on Monday that they would like to expand the facility in the city’s First Ward as soon as this fall.

“The production at our facility has increased dramatically this year and we are needing to do some automation (robotics) to keep up with that growth and to continue with it going forward,” said AMPI’s Director of Engineering Wayne Jorgenson.

“It is nice to see AMPI expanding again. It seems like every few years we are sitting here looking at expansion,” said Common Council member Michael Oszman, the Council’s representative on the Plan Commission. “It is good to see.”

More details about the project likely will emerge at future Plan Commission meetings.

AMPI is a dairy marketing cooperative with 2,900 member farms, 5.6 billion pounds of milk and $1.7 billion in annual sales, according to its website.

Members operate dairy farms located throughout the Midwest states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota. They own 10 manufacturing plants and market consumer-packaged dairy products.

AMPI is one of the city’s largest employers.

Read the full article.

Excerpted from Wisconsin State Journal
By Andrea Anderson

The Constellation, the new upscale high-rise apartment complex on the Near East Side, opened its doors to residents at the beginning of the month and is dividing its commercial space to accommodate several companies, including Google.

Google, which will be moving its Madison office from its current Blount Street location, has signed a 7-year lease for a 9,000-square-foot space occupying most of the second floor of the development, at 754 E. Washington Ave., according to Otto Gebhardt, owner of Gebhardt Development.

The company, which plans to expand in Madison, expects to be moved into the 12-story building by the end of this year, Google spokeswoman Katelin Jabbari said. Jabbari did not have an exact number of employees the company could have working in the new office but said Google wanted to stay in close proximity to the wide talent pool from UW-Madison. The company currently has more than 30 employees in Madison.

“I think it’s a great fit,” Gebhardt said. “They are a great, innovative company with a lot of sharp people working for them.”

The $39 million building includes 32,500 square feet of commercial space and 220 apartments. Other commercial tenants include Star Bar, a high-end cocktail and craft beer bar, and Cargo Coffee, a coffee and sandwich shop. The two local companies will be occupying part of the retail space on the first floor.

“These are not the typical chain stores you can see in any complex,” Gebhardt said. “We wanted more local establishments.”

Read the full article.

As appeared in Janesville Gazette
By Neil Johnson

It’s sensible to make Madison the focal point of an economic development group involving Dane and seven surrounding counties.

After all, many business executives around the country are familiar with Madison, what with its world-class university and research facilities.

So it’s logical that Thrive, which has struggled to gain traction since it began in 2007, has renamed itself the Madison Region Economic Partnership.

Critics here in Rock and in Columbia, Dodge, Green, Iowa, Jefferson and Sauk counties might have some merit in believing the organization now dubbed MadREP is little more than a bunch of Madisonians trying to lure even more developers to the Capitol city, which remained largely insulated from the recession that hit five years ago. “Call us when something happens,” these critics might suggest.

Paul Jadin, former head of the embattled Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., is MadREP’s president. When Gazette reporter Jim Leute asked him about MadREP success stories, Jadin offered no specifics and acknowledged they’re “meager.”

Maybe its name was part of MadREP’s problem—that moniker didn’t identify or bring recognition to the group and thus didn’t help it.

Local leaders involved with MadREP understand how Madison’s resources—including the UW, the growing University Research Park, the Dane County Regional Airport, and experts in international relations and business development—could benefit outlying counties. These leaders include Rock County Economic Development Manager James Otterstein and three members of MADRep’s Board—BMO Harris Bank’s Janesville President Mary Willmer, Blackhawk Technical College President Tom Eckert and J.P. Cullen & Sons Chairman Mark Cullen.

For years, The Gazette has asked why tax dollars spent by the UW and the research park couldn’t be spread beyond Dane County. It’s a reasonable question.

Sure, UW’s specialists would rather travel 3 miles to the research park than 30 miles to Janesville, but ever-improving technology effectively reduces the distance between Rock and Dane counties. A chart accompanying Leute’s July 21 report showed state statistics indicating that, in 2010, almost 9,000 Rock County residents drove to Dane County for jobs. Among the seven outlying counties, Rock trailed only Columbia in the number of commuters heading to Dane. The expansion of Interstate 90/39 will further ease travel between Dane and Rock counties.

It’s also reasonable to suggest that SHINE Medical Technologies, which hopes to build a Janesville plant to produce medical isotopes, is a prime example of technology based on Madison’s campus that could benefit Rock County.

Willmer, who is co-chairwoman of Rock County 5.0, a public-private economic development group, told Leute that 5.0 recently tapped MadREP’s database to compile information for a company exploring Rock County for a specific type of building.

If that company opens here, it should benefit the entire region. Until Jadin can point to such a victory for MadREP, he’s wise not to ask governments in outlying counties for financial support other than to lend time from employees such as Otterstein. For now, most of MadREP’s funding comes from corporations and Dane County municipalities.

Cooperation, however, offers the best hope for growing our economy in a way that makes our entire region a better place for all to live, work and play.

Read the full article.

Excerpted from Janesville Gazette
By Jim Leute

The economic development organization promoting an eight-county region that includes Rock County has a new name and a new strategy that officials think could do something the previous didn’t: Attract significant businesses to south-central Wisconsin.

Madison Region Economic Partnership is the new name for Thrive which launched in late 2007 to promote the region as one “of intellectual curiosity and innovative, creative energy.”

The region still includes Columbia, Dane, Dodge, Green, Iowa, Jefferson, Rock and Sauk counties.

The reason for the name change was straightforward, said Paul Jadin, who was named president of the organization last fall after stints as secretary of the state Department of Commerce and its replacement, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.

While the title “Thrive” captured the potential of doing business in this region, it lacked a focus, he said.

“Thrive was a great verb, but it didn’t do much to identify what we are or where we are,” Jadin said. “Thrive could have just as easily applied to Paducah, Ky., or Saskatchewan.”

“Everyone is thinking more regionally, and we’ve got to lead with our largest metro anchor,” Jadin said, noting that nearly 43,000 people commuted into Dane County for work in 2010.

MadREP’s mission is a five-plank platform that will focus on economic competitiveness; innovation and entrepreneurship; human capital; marketing, and improving the region’s cooperation, leadership and diversity.

James Otterstein, Rock County’s economic development manager, has long been involved with MadREP and its predecessors. He recently co-chaired the new organization’s economic competitiveness working group.

“From a big picture perspective, regionalism provides an opportunity to leverage accessible and useful assets that may not necessarily be physically located within a specific ZIP code,” he said.

Read the full article.

As appeared on WisBusiness.com

Press Release: July 10, 2013

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation ranked fourth for university biotechnology patents issued in the U.S. and Europe from 2008 to 2012, according to new data published by Bioentrepreneur.

The ranking showcases the success of UW-Madison scientists in biotechnology fields and draws attention to the importance of intellectual property protection. The article in Bioentrepreneur, a Nature Biotechnology online publication, notes that the number of U.S. biotechnology patents issued has climbed nearly 30 percent over the past four years to a total of 850 issued in 2012.

“We’re really seeing the tremendous work of UW-Madison researchers lead the way in biotech fields ranging from drug discovery to research tools to plant genetics,” says Michael Falk, WARF general counsel. “Through the patenting and licensing process, WARF works to move these inventions out of campus laboratories to commercial partners who use them to produce useful products for society that improve human health, offer environmental benefits and provide technological solutions for industry.”

During the 2008 to 2012 period covered in the Bioentrepreneur ranking, WARF earned 240 U.S. patents, an average of 56.2 per year. In addition, the European Patent Office issued 41 patents for an overall total of 281.

Other top-ranked institutions included the University of California system with a total of 721 U.S. and European patents issued among all of its campuses; Duke University, 303; and Stanford University, 299.

Contact: Jenny Sereno
608.890.1622 | jsereno@warf.org