...Full Story Here

Cirex News is emailed weekly to over 2,000 CRE Brokers/Agents and people interested in commercial real estate. Email Ralph or call 608-345-2880 to feature your business or properties in CirexNews...

The Facade Improvement Grant Program provides matching grants, up to $50,000, to small business owners and tenants to assist them in restoring or beautifying their facades or storefronts.

The Facade Improvement Grant Program was established to support and encourage small business to reinvest in the downtown and neighborhood business districts. Attractive building facades support and encourage local businesses. They can have a significant effect on the attractiveness and marketability of the surrounding area. To encourage business owners to reinvest in the downtown and smaller, neighborhood business areas, the City of Madison is offering grants to assist in the exterior renovations of these otherwise sound and vital properties.

The City of Madison has awarded 99 Facade Improvement Grants, totaling $1,285,200, plus $2,503,800 in private funds were invested in the improvement and beautification of Madison business districts...

Building Improvement Grant

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RSK: Two grants available from te city of Madison for Facade and Building improvements up to $50,000 each. Check to see if your property qualifies.

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Notes:

The city of Madison is making progress on the housing front, as total net new homes through the first nine months of the year have already surpassed the total for all of 2025, according to the latest update to city’s Housing Tracker.

The tracker shows a total of 2,424 net new homes of all types have been completed through Sept. 30, compared to 2,328 net new homes completed in all of 2025.

Net new homes include total new homes created minus demolitions.

The Housing Tracker counts each individual dwelling unit — a single-family home, a duplex, or an apartment unit — as a home.

With 4,750 new homes completed since the Housing Tracker was launched in 2025, Madison is now 32% of the way to its goal of 15,000 new homes by 2030...

HOUSING TRACKER

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RSK: I would think the number of single family homes was quite small, maybe even minute.

Ken Notes: Great data in the Tracker, now how do we get owner occupied workforce housing in the community.

How can cities become more pedestrian-friendly?

It’s a question dozens of local transportation planners, advocates and residents sought to answer, sometimes in minute detail, as they wandered neighborhoods this month during a pair of “walk and roll” audits in Sun Prairie and Madison.

The audits came as part of the national Week Without Driving initiative, designed to spotlight the opportunities and challenges for non-automotive transportation in communities across the country. Locally, representatives from AARP Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Council of the Blind and Visually Impaired joined planners from the Greater Madison Metropolitan Planning Organization and cities to explore sidewalks and shared-use paths from the perspective of pedestrians.

Armed with clipboards, participants were generally looking for whether their trip was comfortable, safe, functional and interesting, said Zia Brucaya, RoundTrip manager for the Greater Madison MPO...

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RSK: About time....now if people will obey the rules is another question.

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The Brief

• Madison, Wisconsin, ranked No. 17 among America’s top college towns for 2027 in WalletHub’s study of 415 cities across 31 metrics, including affordability, academic quality and career opportunities.
  
  
• Austin, Texas, placed first, followed by Ann Arbor, Michigan, Charlottesville, Virginia, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia, rounding out the top five.
  
  
• The rankings considered factors such as cost of living, university quality, employment prospects, crime rates and recreational activities to help students find cities that balance academic success with affordability and quality of life.

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RSK: Seems about right!

Madison’s Sub-Zero is proposing a nearly 800,000-square-foot warehouse in the Verona Technology Park on the city’s southeast side, according to a report in the Wisconsin State Journal.

The company, which manufactures luxury residential and commercial kitchen appliances, would use the massive facility to distribute materials to Sub-Zero’s manufacturing facilities in Fitchburg and Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Verona Technology Park, already home to a Costco, is located near the intersection of County Highways M and PB and U.S. Highway 18/151.

The warehouse, which would be located about 3 miles south of the Fitchburg facility, would employ about 140 people and have about 70 truck trips daily — most of them between 4 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Sub-Zero is headquartered in Madison and in addition to its manufacturing plant in Fitchburg, it has a manufacturing facility in Arizona and regional warehouses in Florida and California.   ...Full Story Here

RSK: One large distribution center for Verona. I am sure there will be objections but the job creation and tax base could offset them.

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RSK: The political side of the data center debate.

Wisconsin Housing Preservation Corp. will celebrate the groundbreaking of the Prairie Haus Senior apartment building on Oct. 20, at 3 p.m.

Located at 1003 Elmer Road in New Glarus, the $10.8 million development will add 50 mixed-income apartments for adults age 55 and older when it opens in mid-summer 2027.

The three-story development will include 35 one-bedroom and 15 two-bedroom apartments, including 30 market-rate rentals and 20 for low-income households earning up to 60% of the area median income...

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RSK: Not exactly a NORC (naturally occurring retirement center) like the Hilldale area, but you are seeing more of these located in suburbs and surrounding smaller communities.

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We offer the experience, quality and service you deserve, but with the personal attention and dedication that only a family business can provide. We’re not just your landlord, we’re partners in your success.

Utility costs drive much of the opposition

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RSK: Sometimes, money doesn't talk. Data Center developers are finding this out.

The proposed Hiawatha West Amtrak line connecting Milwaukee and Madison has received a $218 million federal grant for its design and construction, according to a report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

While the new line will still require about $55 million in state funding, the federal money brings the line, which will include stops in Pewaukee and Watertown, closer to reality.

“We’ve been working hard to build the safe, reliable 21st-century infrastructure needed to support Wisconsin’s growing 21st-century economy and workforce, and we’re excited to move this critical project forward to do just that,” Gov. Tony Evers said in a statement.

Hiawatha West service could start as soon as 2030 with two round trips daily...

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RSK: This will change the value of the real estate near the stations and along the route.

The city of Madison’s proposed data center regulatory framework would limit the size of new data centers, prohibiting so-called “hyperscale” data centers larger than 100,000 square feet and data center campuses in the city limits, the city announced Tuesday.

The city’s Department of Planning & Community & Economic Development will hold a virtual public information meeting on Oct. 27 to update the public on its draft framework for proposed zoning regulations for data centers within city limits.

Oct. 27

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RSK: Madison joins the growing ranks of dumbing down data centers for now until issues get sorted out.

For years the office story was about too much space. The third-quarter numbers suggest the more pressing problem, at least at the top of the market, is too little of the right kind.

Savills’ Q3 2026 market reports show availability falling year over year in 21 of the 24 U.S. markets it tracks. Manhattan’s rate is down 280 basis points, San Francisco’s down 640. At the same time, the pipeline of new buildings has almost vanished. Cushman & Wakefield puts the Americas construction pipeline 82% below its 2020 peak, and Atlanta has no office projects under construction for the first time in 15 years. Tenants with big requirements are discovering that a market with 25% availability can still have very few good buildings with a contiguous 50,000 square feet to offer.

The pipeline has nearly run dry...

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RSK: With almost zero construction in the office market, vacancies diminish and class A Trophy space is hard to find.

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The Madison Office Lifestyle Portfolio consists of 13 Class A, amenity-rich office properties ranging in size from approximately 25,000 square feet to over 300,000 square feet and is home to more than 130 tenants. The portfolio is located on the west side of Madison and Middleton, with the majority of properties situated in the Far West submarket.

Wisconsin’s statewide economic development agency has signed at least five nondisclosure agreements with developers of artificial intelligence data centers, adding a previously unknown level of secrecy to the billion-dollar projects.

The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., a quasi-government state agency, signed one of the NDAs nearly two years before a proposed data center in Menomonie was announced to the public and six months before the city signed its own NDA....

• Wisconsin’s statewide economic development agency has signed at least five nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) with data center developers.
  
  
• Wisconsin Watch previously reported that five communities had signed local NDAs with data center developers. The statewide disclosure increases to eight the number of Wisconsin projects that used an NDA.
  
  
• NDAs have drawn criticism for keeping the public in the dark about the multibillion-dollar projects while government officials negotiate the terms of a project. Economic development officials say NDAs are necessary to attract businesses to Wisconsin.

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RSK: KInd of a catch 22 but data centers and disclosure are a hot topic right now.

The capital flowing into artificial intelligence has reached a scale that makes previous technology cycles look modest. CB Insights put US private AI funding at $206 billion in the first quarter of 2026 alone, approaching what the entire prior year produced. That money is going into model development, data center capacity, chips, and the engineering talent required to build any of it.

Hiring engineers means putting them somewhere, and the companies doing the hiring have reached a conclusion about where that should be. Nick Romito, co-founder and CEO of VTS, has watched the posture of tech tenants reverse over the past few years. “Post COVID the tech companies were pushing back against the return to the office,” he said. “Now they are driving the return, a lot of companies are even bringing people in on Saturdays because they know they can’t win this race to innovate if they are remote.”...

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RSK: AI is helping reduce office vacancy as well. How long it will last is a question in my mind.

Commercial real estate has long resisted automated valuation. Unlike residential properties, commercial buildings are fundamentally more complex. Valuing a house is largely an exercise in finding comparable sales. The large deal volume and asset conformity make automating valuation relatively straightforward. CRE valuations depend on factors that vary widely by asset, market, and moment. Context is key.

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RSK: Even AI can have a confident solution that is dead wrong.

It’s likely the end of the road for the Wonder Bar after Madison’s Plan Commission unanimously approved an application this month to tear down one of the city’s more storied buildings and redevelop its site.

Demolition of the Wonder Bar, along with the nearby Coliseum Bar across from Olin Park, would allow for redevelopment of the property, which has sat vacant for five years. This summer, Range Hill Partners presented initial plans to build a seven-story apartment building with roughly 190 units. Apartments would range from studio to three-bedroom units, and the building would have over 1,600 square feet of ground-floor commercial space.

Range Hill’s Dan Kennelly, a Bay Creek neighborhood resident, said the location at the intersection of Olin Avenue and John Nolen Drive is “an important location in the city” and the project is in line with the city’s comprehensive plan for the area, which calls for denser mixed-use development.

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RSK: A bit on the sad side, but a higher and better use for the site. The building is in such a disarray of repair, it would be less expensive to construct a similar one from scratch.

See All Listings Here...

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“At Investors Associated, we make it easy for brokers to match clients with well managed, high quality spaces. Our team prioritizes clear communication, quick turnaround times, and a seamless leasing experience. Partner with us to provide your clients with properties backed by dependable service and long term value.”

Global spending on data centers and other digital infrastructure is accelerating amid an artificial intelligence arms race. But for companies to see a return on this massive investment, they will need to generate trillions of dollars of new AI revenue that doesn’t exist today, according to a report released this week.

The report from consulting firm Bain & Co. projects that the artificial intelligence industry will need to generate $6T in annual revenue by 2031 to justify the unprecedented wave of capital pouring into data center development.

Existing AI services — both consumer-facing products and enterprise AI applications — could generate up to $1.8T of that total, the report’s authors estimate. But that leaves a $4.2T gap in annual revenues that will have to emerge in the next four and a half years...

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RSK: And they way things are shaping up, those tax advantages me be dissipating fast.

As market conditions evolve, the greatest opportunity in commercial real estate may lie in improving the buildings that already exist.

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RSK: Definitely an opportunity but not without its challenges.

Data centers, a once-obscure commercial real estate sector, have suddenly become a fixture of campaign ads blaring into living rooms across the United States.

With candidates from both parties attacking their opponents by framing them as supporting the data center industry, the issue could have big implications for who controls Congress and statehouses after November's midterm elections.

Before this summer, data centers rarely appeared in political advertising anywhere in the U.S., according to advertising analytics firm AdImpact. But by the start of this month, television viewers in 38 states were seeing political ads focusing, at least in part, on data centers. The ads range from high-profile races for governor and the Senate to down-ballot contests for Congress, state legislatures and local offices...   ...Full Story Here

RSK: Do not use all our water, do not jack up our electric and energy rates and cut the noise pollution is the answer.

Seattle House, a 1,131-unit development near Amazon’s headquarters, opens to its first tenants on November 15 after seven years of construction. Developed by Vancouver, British Columbia-based Concord Pacific and Seattle-based HB Management, the $371 million project features two 45-story towers connected by a 13-story podium across a half-block site. General manager Nathan Leible reported more than 200 tours and over 50 signed leases in the first four weekends of showings, though he declined to share overall occupancy rates.

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RSK: Could smaller units with more amenities be the future of apartment buildings? Seems it might work.

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The $20 million community program accompanies a planned data center campus as the company and city work to finalize details

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RSK: Data centers are not the only reason utility rates are going up. All the green energy in solar and wind, which is not reliable in our climes and the closing down of fossil fuel generation is driving rates sky-high. Also, power companies are paid to shut down fossil fuel power plants and also get paid as if they are producing electricity and giving a 10% return. Just not right.

A 4.66-acre parcel of land in Fitchburg zoned for mixed-use development has been sold by Fairchild Development to Louisville, Kentucky-based Trilogy Health Services for $2.23 million.

The sale was announced Thursday by the commercial real estate and investment firm CBRE, which represented Trilogy, a developer of senior living communities.

The acquisition of the land, which is located at the northwest corner of County Highway MM and U.S. Highway 14 in Fitchburg, marks Trilogy’s third location in the greater Madison market.

The company owns senior living campuses in Waunakee and Sun Prairie...

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How unpopular are large data centers in Wisconsin?

Very unpopular, as 74% of voters in a new poll said they believe the costs of data centers outweigh their benefits.

The poll, released Wednesday by the Marquette University Law School, said opposition to large data centers is up nearly 20 points from the 55% that opposed them a year ago.

For data center operators, the news is actually better than it was a month ago in the Marquette poll, when 78% opposed them...

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RSK: Eventually, most of the objections will be ironed out. . . .but it is going to take time.

Developer and Madison native Julian Walters on Wednesday opened the 44 unit Park Lofts building that includes apartments and services for young adults who have aged out of foster care, according to a report in the Wisconsin State Journal.

Walters, president of Eminent Development Corp., was born into foster care and led the development of the $17 million facility, located at 1150 S. Park St.

Of the 44 units, 11 are dedicated to young adults who are former foster care youths and there is space for the support services of JustDane, which advocates for underserved populations.

Seven of the 11 units are already leased...

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RSK: Sometimes the best feeling comes from giving back....and this is one of them.

SEE ALL LISTINGS HERE

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Madison’s west side could see a housing infusion within the next three years after a vote this week of the city’s Plan Commission, which followed objections from some neighbors over a proposed development.

By unanimous vote, the commission rezoned the property at 301 S. Westfield Road, several blocks north of West Towne Mall, and approved accompanying plans that would see an existing three-story office building turned into a mixed-use, infill redevelopment.

Canada-based developer RFA’s proposal calls for 578 apartments — a mixture of studios, and one- and two-bedroom units — across four buildings, with a new east-west road running through the site. The buildings would range from four to five stories tall...

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RSK: That is a large amount of apartments, but I am sure RFA will do it right and listen to neighbors concerns where feasible.

A Sixth Avenue lot just off Times Square has been home to a magazine building and a pop-up shopping court, and outlasted its owner’s decision to abandon plans for a luxury hotel there.

Last month, construction signs on its plywood fence announced what’s next: a 41-story hotel, due in 2029.

It’s one of the last hotel projects to win approval before the city made new ones far harder to build.

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RSK: A huge demand for new hotels in NYC but the new regime has enabled crippling hoops to go through.

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RSK: Just a quick tidbit on high office rents in certain metros....and they are leasing up.

Industrial Sector Moves Toward Balance From Oversupply

While market performance remains uneven geographically, the industrial real estate sector as a whole continues its transitional trend from the supply excess of the start of the pandemic to a more balanced phase.

Despite the various headwinds of recent years — such as the tariffs situation, economic uncertainty and the spike in energy prices — demand for industrial space has remained relatively solid, largely due to investment in supply chain resiliency and distribution networks...

Key Takeaways:

• The construction pipeline grew 32% year-over-year (Y-o-Y) from more than 338 million square feet in August 2025 to nearly 447 million square feet in August 2026.
• Year-to-date industrial sales reached nearly $60.5 billion, a 40% increase Y-o-Y
• The average leasing rate across top markets was up 5.4% year-over-year in August.
• Inland Empire, Calif., industrial rents grew by nearly 7% in a 12-month period.
• Columbus, Ohio, vacancies reach 7.5% following 600-basis-point (bps) year-over-year decrease.
• Year-to-date industrial sales volume in Tampa, Fla., doubles in August, hitting $1 billion.

Regional Highlights:

• Sale prices in Los Angeles went up 9% Y-o-Y to approach $300 per square foot.
• Indianapolis commands the highest regional premiums on new leases.
• Construction activity more than doubled year-over-year in Charlotte, N.C., and Baltimore.
• New Jersey topped year-to-date sales in the Northeast, while Boston commanded the highest average sale price per square foot in the region.

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RSK: September Industrial Sector report.

CARW Deal of the Year Awards and Annual Meeting

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• Leasing volume continues to increase, up 6.4% in the last 12 months, with gateway markets leading growth (+13%). While gateway markets have seen the most momentum of late, Sun Belt markets and smaller tertiary markets’ activity more closely mirrors last cycle’s peaks—both have seen >95% of 2019 leasing volume in the past 12 months.
  
  
• The market registered its fifth consecutive quarter of positive net absorption with +6.0 million s.f. of occupancy gains, bringing YTD totals to +21 million s.f.
  
  
• Technology-led markets have made a notable bounce-back in occupancy gains, with many of the leading markets for YTD net absorption being technology hubs.
  
  
• Just 3.5 million s.f. of new office product was completed in Q3, matching the near-record-low delivery volume from Q2. Over the course of the quarter, 9.6 million s.f. was removed from inventory, driving another net decline in U.S. office inventory. Inventory has fallen more than 45 million s.f. from peak levels in late 2023. Only 23 million s.f. is under construction.
  
  
• Asking rates continue to marginally increase as landlord leverage is expanding more broadly across Class A markets. Asking rents grew 60 bps QoQ to $40.51 nationally.
  
  
• Effective rents have grown exceptionally quickly in trophy and new construction segments as space becomes extremely scarce in most markets.

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RSK: Subleasing space shrinks....you can download the whole report here.

Developers around the country are continuing to scrap commercial projects as soaring diesel prices and the rising cost of construction materials are breaking the budgets of long-planned undertakings. 

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RSK: Getting to the point where unless you find a building that suits your needs pretty much as is, it doesn't make sense to buy and rehab.

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With over 350 experienced real estate professionals, Knight Barry provides exceptional support and service. Visit our website for more information about our 50+ commercial and residential offices throughout Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota.

MADISON: 2450 Rimrock Road, Suite 204, 608-255-2700
CAP SQUARE: 44 E. Mifflin Street, Suite 101, 608-255-2700

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RSK: Madison had a slight lull with landlords giving some rent concessions, but there are several large projects coming online.

The WRA has developed a new optional form to help real estate firms and agents disclose referral compensation arrangements to consumers. The WRA-DRC Disclosure of Referral Compensation provides a simple, standardized way to inform consumers when compensation may be paid in connection with a referral, without requiring disclosure of the amount.

Referrals are a common part of the real estate industry. A licensee may refer a buyer or seller to another real estate firm because the consumer is relocating, purchasing property in another market or seeking services from a firm with particular expertise. In other situations, consumers may be connected with real estate firms through relocation companies, referral networks, online platforms or other referral sources....

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RSK: A new non-mandatory form for referral compensation...

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RSK: It is coming down to having data centers have their own power generating plant on site.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has moved from emerging disruptor to a major force in the office market. In the first half of 2026, AI companies leased 2.9 million square feet (msf) in San Francisco and 1.7 msf in Manhattan. San Francisco further cemented its position as the global leader in AI tenant footprint, while Manhattan recorded more AI leasing in six months than in the preceding two years combined. That scale has changed how they lease office space. What began as opportunistic take-up of discounted sublease space has become direct, long-term commitment to Class A buildings. This report tracks the shift across leasing volume, submarket concentration, the sublease-to-direct mix, building quality and lease economics—and the indicators pointing to more demand ahead...   ...Full Story Here

RSK: AI putting some pressure on office space. Good graphics.

Ken Notes: PDF...

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With the largest Real Estate Practice of any law firm in Wisconsin, Reinhart offers clients custom-tailored real estate insight.

Rising competition is driving pricing for both.

Every week I talk with owners of retail and office properties who assume the debt markets have written them off. The headlines have spent years telling them so. Right now, that assumption is wrong for retail and only half right for office, and knowing the difference is worth real money at maturity.

Over the last 12 to 18 months, my team has closed approximately $150 million across six retail financings and approximately $100 million in office transactions. The two asset classes tell very different stories.

Retail: Lenders competing hard...

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RSK: Retail is still the shinning star but office is slowly coming around.

ARLINGTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--U.S. office leasing has rebounded substantially over the past year, but demand and supply issues are making it difficult for volume to fully recover to pre-pandemic levels, according to data from CoStar, the leading global provider of online real estate marketplaces, information and analytics in the property markets.

Office tenants signed new leases for an average of 105 million square feet over the past four quarters – an improvement over the prior four-quarter period but remaining roughly 10 million square feet below the 2015-19 average.

“Earlier in the decade, many large occupiers consolidated into smaller footprints in response to post-pandemic ways of working, which may have been the dominant factor in bringing down average lease transaction sizes,” said Phil Mobley, national director of office analytics at CoStar Group. “Since then, per-worker space requirements have stabilized. However, elevated construction and financing costs have stifled construction activity, and renovations remain unusually slow, which means that major occupiers seeking to relocate to updated space have relatively few options.”..

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RSK: It may not be back to precovid days but it could be the new norm since work at home and desk sharing continues.

The former General Motors plant in Janesville was a cornerstone of the city’s economy for decades, peaking at more than 7,100 workers in 1977 before the main assembly line closed in 2008 during the Great Recession.

The factory was ultimately torn down and the 250-acre site, which was also home to Janesville Auto Transport Co., still sits idle today. It may remain unused for years longer if a referendum on the city’s Nov. 3 ballot passes.

A group called “No Janesville Data Center” was part of what persuaded members of the Janesville City Council to drop a developer’s plan for an 11-building data center campus this year.

Emboldened by that victory, which was partly due to lack of public transparency, the same “No” group is now behind a referendum to limit how much could be invested to pump new life into the GM/JATCO site...

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RSK: I have to agree with Tom on this one. Be careful for what you wish for...you just might get it all and then some.

Industrial has been the best performing property sector for most of the past decade, and the reasons have been consistent. E-commerce growth created demand for distribution space, the pandemic exposed the fragility of global supply chains, and retailers responded by holding more inventory closer to consumers. That combination produced a construction cycle built almost entirely around logistics, with the archetypal industrial asset being a large-format distribution center on a highway interchange.   ...Full Story Here

RSK: Maybe more individual transactions but over all size and dollars it is data centers.

See All Listings Here...

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Since 1971, St. John Properties has designed, developed, and managed spaces that fit every type of business. Our team anticipates and serves the needs of over 2,700 clients, including small, mid-sized, and large companies, nationwide.

Vacancy in the Madison life science market increased slightly to 4% but remains low, according to the latest Life Science Market Overview published by Broadwing Advisors.

The report, released Wednesday, said the 4% vacancy rate represents 193,229 vacant square feet for the market’s 89 lab properties, which total nearly 4.8 million square feet.

A vacancy rate of under 5% is indicative of strong tenant demand, but it is not always a foolproof sign of a healthy commercial real estate market.

The Broadwing report said Dane County’s low vacancy rate limits companies’ ability to quickly accommodate growth. Most available lab space is predominantly located in University Research Park and the west submarket.

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RSK: Now if we could just get some traction on Velocity Station where the old Olde Towne Office Park was. . . .that would be a real bonus.

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RSK: It seems to have slowed in Madison somewhat but there are several large ones in the pipeline.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will require data centers to provide their own electricity and sell excess power to nearby communities to hold down electricity prices.


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RSK: The right way forward but is it too little too late?

Class B office buildings across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens reached 72% of pre-pandemic visitation levels in August 2026 and have held that range for two years, according to a Real Estate Board of New York analysis of 200 properties. Midtown performed best among submarkets at 89% of pre-pandemic activity, while Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn/Queens hovered around 70%. Midtown South lagged but showed recent improvement. Twenty percent of properties studied now exceed their pre-pandemic visitation rates.

The city’s Class B inventory totals more than 235 million square feet across 1,500 buildings, housing small and mid-sized businesses, nonprofits, creative firms, and technology startups. Properties with experienced ownership, strong transit access, and diversified tenant rosters recovered faster than buildings hit by major tenant losses or coworking contractions. Forty-one percent of analyzed properties reached at least 80% of pre-pandemic visitation. REBNY executive vice president Basha Gerhards said policy must account for the wide performance gap between buildings that can compete for tenants and those facing structural challenges.

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RSK: Without much new construction, companies are turning to Class B office buildings and sprucing them up

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Park Towne is a family run Madison-based real estate company serving southern Wisconsin for over 50 years. Led by second generation brothers Mike, Jim and Joe Ring, Park Towne has a portfolio of for-lease commercial properties and offers development, management and brokerage services.

(WLUK) -- A federal grant is helping rural business development projects across Wisconsin.

The USDA announced $1.024 million in investments in 11 rural business projects through USDA’s Rural Business Development Grants Program. The grant projects will support business growth and rural prosperity across Wisconsin by helping create new jobs, strengthen local economies, and expand economic opportunities for rural communities.

In total, the 11 organizations are receiving $1,024,615 in grants from USDA Rural Development. Rural Business Development Grant Project Details:...   ...Full Story Here

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RSK: It might be prudent to wait until the November mid-term elections are over.

City leaders have changed the zoning for thousands of Madison properties in an effort to simplify permitting and allow more types of housing to be built in certain neighborhoo

By unanimous vote at this week's meeting, the City Council rezoned around 4,000 single- and two-family properties in “planned development” districts across the city. The goal of the measure was twofold, city staff said.

For one, it is meant to streamline city rules for residents and staff. Homeowners in planned development districts previously had to go through additional steps to receive approval for home projects like adding a new deck, pergola or egress window. Such measures are allowed “by right” in other residential zoning districts, creating less paperwork for homeowners and reducing staff workload.

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RSK: Check your address to see what if anything is now allowed.

Hoteliers are sighing in relief as the latest industry data shows positive recovery momentum.

For the fourth time this year, hotel revenue per available room rates have seen a double-digit year-over-year gain. 

During the week of Sept. 13-19, the industry reported a 10.4% year-over-year RevPAR increase, according to data released by CoStar. The average daily rate was up 5.7% to $179.30, the highest nominal weekly ADR ever recorded in the U.S...

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RSK: Good for the Hotel Industry . . .but you have to admit, the FIFA World Cup did help matters.

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See All Listings here...

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Retail vacancy continued to remain near historic lows in the third quarter.

New data from Colliers found that the national retail vacancy rate dipped to 4.3%, a decrease of 10 basis points, in the period as limited new supply continues to keep availability tight. Net absorption reached 10.5 million square feet in the third quarter, the highest quarterly total since 2023, supported by continued retailer expansion and the backfilling of available space. 

By property type, malls saw 1.9 million square feet of absorption, while shopping centers had 3 million square feet and general retail saw 5.4 million square feet get absorbed. Mall vacancy was 8.2% to end the third quarter, while shopping centers had a vacancy rate of 5.4%....   ...Full Story Here

RSK: Retail demand remains strong mainly due to not much new space is hitting the market.

Lululemon reportedly signed a lease at the Tribune Tower, weeks after the company announced plans to scale back its U.S. expansion.

The athleisure retailer is set to take up about 12K SF in the Magnificent Mile at the corner of North Michigan Avenue and East Illinois Street, Crain's Chicago Business reported. Lululemon also has six other Chicago locations.

Interim co-CEO Meghan Frank said on an earnings call earlier this month that Lululemon plans to take a "very measured" approach to store expansion. It plans to open a net 35 new stores this year...

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RSK: A Chicago update. . . .retail looking strong and the Magnificent Mile is back!

WATERLOO, WIS. — CBRE has arranged the sale of a 10.7-acre parcel in Waterloo that will be developed into Drumlin Fields Apartments, a 96-unit, garden-style apartment community. Drumlin Fields Waterloo LLC, an affiliate of Brew City Capital Group, purchased the property from Rolling Meadows Apartments LLC for $1.1 million. Waterloo is located approximately 25 miles northeast of Madison, Wis. CBRE’s Sean Beuche, Matson Holbrook and Gretchen Richards represented the seller in the transaction.

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Data centers have dominated industrial headlines — and for good reason. But, demand for warehousing and logistics space remains strong in its own right: U.S. e-commerce sales reached $340.2 billion in the second quarter of 2026, up 12.2% year-over-year and 20.2% of core retail for the highest share since 2020. And, in August, container imports hit 2.6 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs), the third-highest monthly total on record.

Much of that demand is landing in markets that were barely on the logistics map a decade ago. That’s because the e-commerce boom turned former agricultural, energy and desert metros into logistics markets in their own rights. In many of them, logistics has grown into an outsized part of the local economy by adding jobs faster than the population grew and bringing a wave of new companies and industrial space with it.

To identify where warehousing and logistics have expanded most significantly in the last decade, we ranked 131 U.S. metros with populations above 400,000 on nine indicators covering logistics employment, pay, business formation and industrial real estate, with growth weighted most heavily. See the methodology for the full breakdown. See the methodology for the full breakdown.

Here are some of the takeaways:

Overall

• Bakersfield, Calif., is the #1 industrial boomtown metro
• Six of the top 10 metros are in California’s Central Valley
• Logistics jobs grew faster than the population in 127 of the 131 metros studied

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RSK: Some interesting statistics here.

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Soaring 10-year Treasury yields have thrown ice-cold water on CRE’s typically unrelenting optimism.

The key economic benchmark hit 5.3% on Wednesday afternoon, reaching its highest level since 2002 at the end of its biggest quarterly increase since 1994. As the 10-year climbed, some of the industry’s largest players — already battered by high construction costs, inflation and geopolitical upheaval — watched the historic upswing from Bisnow’s National Commercial Real Estate Finance Event and agreed that times were about to get a lot tougher...

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RSK: This is a conundrum for sure. But when oil prices drop I believe it will resolve itself to somewhat normal. But, the economy keeps rolling on even with higher interest rates

U.S. apartment concession use fell for a fourth consecutive month in September 2026, while the average discount held at a level that matches the deepest in more than 15 years.

Concessions were offered on 14.5% of stabilized U.S. units, down 0.9 points from August 2026 and the lowest reading since September 2025, according to data from Realpage Market Analytics. Concession usage has fallen for four consecutive months now, and this latest was the deepest of those monthly declines, which together have taken usage down 2.5 points from 17% in May 2026. The average concession increased modestly to 11.1% from 11%, matching the readings from June 2026 and July 2026. At 11.1%, the typical incentive equals about 5.8 weeks free on a 12-month lease.

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RSK: At this point in time. Concessions in the Madison area remain stable, and a slight decline is noticeable. But as several projects come online, that may change even if the population is still growing.

While state lawmakers and both candidates in Wisconsin’s race for governor say they want individual communities to have the final say in data center development, local policymakers say that approach puts them in a tricky position.

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Question:

Is a seller required to specify an amount of compensation they are willing to offer another firm when entering into a listing contract?

Answer:

No. The revised WB listing contracts allow a seller to indicate a willingness to offer compensation to another firm working with a buyer without committing to a specific amount when the property is listed.

The seller may choose to offer a specific amount of compensation, indicate a willingness to consider compensation without specifying an amount, or decline to offer compensation. Any offer of compensation is voluntary and negotiable.

If the seller does not establish a specific amount in the listing contract, the seller may still agree to pay compensation to a firm working with a buyer as part of a transaction. The compensation must be documented in the executed offer to purchase or option to purchase.

However, when a firm is working with a buyer-customer, the Seller Offer of Compensation (Buyer Customer) provision in the revised offer to purchase may be used only in response to an offer of compensation made by the seller. It remains unclear whether a general willingness to consider compensation without identifying an amount satisfies the definition of an offer of compensation in the WB-11...   ...Full Story Here

Question:
 
Answer:
 
Yes. A buyer may use the Seller Payment to Firm Working with Buyer Client provision in the revised offer to purchase to ask the seller to pay some or all of the compensation the buyer owes under the buyer agency agreement, even when the same firm represents both the buyer and seller.
 
In a multiple representation relationship, the same firm represents both parties. The firm has separate agency agreements with the buyer and seller, and each agreement establishes its respective client's compensation obligations.
 
The buyer may request that the seller pay an amount toward the compensation owed under the buyer agency agreement. The seller may accept, reject or negotiate that request. If the seller agrees, the payment reduces the amount the buyer owes the firm under the buyer agency agreement. It does not automatically change the compensation the seller owes under the listing contract.
 
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Question:

Can a firm working with a tenant receive compensation from the property owner in a commercial lease transaction after January 1, 2027?

Answer:

Yes. The compensation restrictions established by 2025 Wis. Act 69 apply only to transactions involving residential property containing one to four dwelling units. These restrictions do not apply to commercial lease transactions.

Therefore, in a commercial lease transaction, a firm working with a tenant may continue to receive compensation directly from the property owner for brokerage services. Unlike transactions involving residential property containing one to four dwelling units, the agreement to pay compensation does not need to be included in an offer to purchase or option to purchase.

Additionally, firms may continue to negotiate firm-to-firm compensation arrangements in commercial lease transactions, subject to applicable laws and agreements...   ...Full Story Here

	The Gialamas Company, Inc.	RFA Asset Management Madison, WI	Key Commercial Real Estate, LLC
Madison Commercial Real Estate LLC	St. John Properties	IA Management, LLC	Wisconsin Commercial Real Estate
Park Towne Realty LLC	Mullins Group, LLC	Crown Commercial	Flad Development & Investment Corp.
Evans Properties, LLC	Keller Real Estate Group		MIG Commercial Real Estate, LLC
First Weber Group, Inc - West Towne	Opitz Realty, Inc.	First Weber Group, Inc - Prairie Du Sac
The Lenhart Company, Inc	Scott Faust & Associates	Shamrock Real Estate Services, LLC	Targa, Inc
Executive Management, Inc	Stark Commercial - East	Urban Land Interests	Slinde Realty Company
Assist-2-Sell/Pohlkamp & Associates	Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Matson Real Estate	Artisan Graham Real Estate

Hovde & Hovde, Inc

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