Johnson Controls CEO Molinaroli tells employees about affair

In emails sent to employees this week and obtained by the Milwaukee Business Journal, Johnson Controls Inc. president and chief executive officer Alex Molinaroli admitted to having an affair with a woman who owns a Milwaukee consulting firm that was doing business with the Glendale-based company. Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI), a global diversified company in the building and automotive industries, is Wisconsin’s largest publicly traded company and a major employer in greater Milwaukee with about 3,000 local employees and about 170,000 workers worldwide. Bloomberg.com was the first to report Molinaroli’s extramarital affair in an online article posted Oct. 8. Read the Milwaukee Business Journal’s past coverage by clicking here. In the emails, Molinaroli told employees that he is divorcing his wife, Patsy Molinaroli, and is still in a personal relationship with Kristin Ihle, a principal at Lichter & Ihle, a Milwaukee-based executive coaching firm. Molinaroli wrote that the board had determined that no conflict of interest had occurred, but that the board had discontinued its relationship with Ihle’s consulting firm. Ihle, a licensed psychologist, worked as a management consultant for Johnson Controls. “First, it is true that my wife and I are in the process of a divorce. It is also true that I am involved in a personal relationship with a partner of a consulting firm with whom Johnson Controls did business,” he wrote. “All matters involving senior leadership are addressed by the Board of Directors. They determined no conflict of interest occurred. To avoid any perception or potential future conflicts, we decided to discontinue further work with the firm. “It’s unfortunate today’s coverage may have caused a distraction and embarrassment. However, the company considers this to be a closed matter.” Molinaroli ended the message by writing: “This is an exciting time for Johnson Controls. We have a compelling vision and great strategies to move the company forward. Let’s focus our energy and attention on our future.” Fraser Engerman, a spokesman for Johnson Controls, said the company would not be providing any further response “regarding the issue surrounding Alex” and the company considers “the matter closed.”

Downtown Milwaukee apartment high-rise gains another approval

Plans for a 37-story tower with high-end apartments near downtown Milwaukee on Tuesday gained another key endorsement from the city. Chicago-based Carroll Properties proposes the building, with 275 apartments, at North Van Buren Street and East Kilbourn Avenue. Milwaukee’s Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee on Tuesday unanimously approved the project, sending it to the Common Council for a final vote. The approval came after a short discussion between Carroll Properties president Bob King and aldermen over participation by minority workers on the construction project. Ald. Willie Wade prompted the talk after confirming the project is not seeking city subsidy. Historically, Milwaukee officials have placed participation requirements on projects that receive city money. “I’m very sensitive to the minority issue, obviously,” King said. “I’ve worked for a number of years on minority housing in Chicago.” King said the project will be union-built. Ken Kraemer, executive director of the Building Advantage union construction group, said he is open to discussions of voluntary hiring programs, similar to those in place on Irgens 833 East office project in downtown Milwaukee. He said the $76 million Carroll Properties project would create almost 700 construction jobs.

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First Financial Centre office at Water and Wisconsin up for auction

The 14-story First Financial Centre building in downtown Milwaukee is being auctioned off this month, making it the second underperforming office building on East Wisconsin Avenue that could soon change hands. Also this week, an office property in the former Pabst Brewing Co. campus in Milwaukee failed to attract any viable bids in a court-approved auction. The reddish First Financial Centre building and its neighbor, the 250 Plaza at right, are being sold. In downtown Milwaukee, the two struggling office buildings that line East Wisconsin Avenue between North Water Street and North Broadway, are being auctioned off separately. Both are roughly 30 percent occupied, and are being marketed as turn-around opportunities. An investor could buy them at a relatively low cost and have money available for extensive rehab, making them more attractive to new tenants. Other ailing downtown buildings have been converted into housing or hotels. The 20-story 250 Plaza on the corner with North Broadway had an Aug. 14 auction deadline. The neighboring First Financial Centre at 700 N. Water Street will be sold via Auction.com in bidding that will last from Aug. 25 through Aug. 27, said Patrick Gallagher, president and chief executive officer of Siegel-Gallagher Inc. The opening bid for the 154,000-square-foot First Financial building is $1 million, said Gallagher, whose firm is the sales broker for the property. That auction will include standing leases for 225 parking spaces in neighboring structures, he said. The building currently is assessed at $6.15 million. “There have been a handful of buyers making inquiries on both properties and looking into the economies of scale,” Gallagher said. “The real intriguing thing is to have one or two new owners of these nice Milwaukee assets, and get them into private hands and out of the lenders’ hands.” Ownership of the First Financial Centre property in 2012 transferred to a mortgage trust created by J.P. Morgan Chase Commercial Mortgage Securities Corp. Curt Smith, first vice president for CBRE Group Inc. in Milwaukee, declined comment on the response to the auction for the 20-story 250 East building. The 250 East and First Financial buildings are connected via a skywalk, said Matson Holbrook, vice president of investment properties for Siegel-Gallagher. Also, First Financial has a standing lease for 75 parking spaces in the 250 East parking structure. “When you see two buildings like that, you can control the southern half of that full city block, and it’s kind of compelling,” Holbrook said. Tapped out A smaller, 40,000-square-foot office building in the former Pabst campus failed to attract any viable bids, continuing its history of being a tough sell. The building at 1037 W. McKinley Ave. is involved in a foreclosure lawsuit filed against a company led by Sonny Bando and brothers Mark and Matthew Chmura. That company renovated the building in 2008 and 2009, and secured a lease for about half of its space with Cardinal Stritch University. The building is now under the management of court-appointed receiver Michael Polsky. Polsky earlier this summer secured […]

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Office building near convention center to be converted to hotel

An older, underused office building near downtown Milwaukee’s convention center would be converted into a hotel under a new proposal. Jackson Street Acquisitions LLC, led by hotel developers Ed Carow and Mark Flaherty, is planning to invest $17 million on the purchase and conversion of the six-story Commerce Building, 744 N. 4th St., according to Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. records. Construction is to be completed in November 2015, the state agency said. Jackson Street Acquisitions is in final talks with the building owner, and preliminary talks with potential franchisers for the hotel brand, spokesman Evan Zeppos said Thursday. The location, just east of the Wisconsin Center convention facility, is “ideal” to tap into group business, Zeppos said. He declined comment on the number of rooms, and other plan details. Hotel plans have not yet been filed with the Department of City Development, said department spokesman Jeff Fleming. The 95,834-square-foot building, which includes 133 underground parking spaces, is operated by Zilber Property Group. It is tied to the city’s sky walk system, which also links to the Wisconsin Center. The Commerce Building is large enough to support around 125 to 135 rooms, said consultant Greg Hanis, who operates Hospitality Marketers Inc. The hotel proposal is among a series of Milwaukee-area projects that have received state historic preservation tax credits as part of their financing packages, according to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. State and federal tax credits are provided to compensate commercial building owners for part of their costs to preserve historic buildings. Gov. Scott Walker and the Legislature, with bipartisan support, last year increased the state credit from 5% of those eligible costs to 20%–the same level as the federal credit. WEDC has suspended the credit while it studies its impact on the state budget.The agency said 29 projects already have been approved, and are eligible for a potential $35 million in state tax credits. That’s nearly nine times the $4 million set aside for the program in the state budget for its first year. Those projects which have already received approval for the credit, and are not affected by the suspension, include the proposed downtown hotel. The hotel plan, unlike most of the Milwaukee area’s approved projects, hadn’t been previously reported. The Commerce Building was built in 1918, according to Zilber Property Group. The state credit for that project totals $3.4 million. Carow and Flaherty also operate Jackson Street Management LLC, which plans to develop a 200-room Westin Hotel near downtown Milwaukee’s lakefront. That site, about a half-block south of E. Michigan St., between N. Cass and N. Van Buren streets, is between the U.S. Bank Center’s galleria and that office tower’s parking structure north of E. Clybourn St. It would connect to the galleria. Jackson Street Management also operates the 160-room Aloft Hotel, 1230 N. Old World 3rd St., and the new 205-room Marriott Hotel, 323 E. Wisconsin Ave. Demand for Milwaukee hotel rooms increased 8.5% in 2013, while the city’s supply of hotel rooms increased 8%, according to Visit Milwaukee, which markets […]

Community Supporter – Tonit Calaway

Growing up on North 18th and West Vliet streets in Milwaukee, Tonit Calawaywanted to be an actress in a soap opera, but instead became a lawyer and is now the vice president of human resources at Harley-Davidson Inc. She didn’t see the last job coming, she said with a laugh. Calaway, 46, credits her success to growing up in a home where her parents — LaBelle and George Calaway — told her that her only option was to get good grades, attend college and work hard. They too valued education and hard work as her mom served as the principal at Henry W. Longfellow School in Milwaukee and her dad worked as a machinist at Falk Corp. Calaway remembers how her parents made sure she had gas and lunch money during the week so that she didn’t have to work while she was in school. “They told me my job was to get through school, and I would come home on the weekends and the money would be on the table,” she said. Over the years, Calaway also learned never to turn down opportunities. After working for a law firm, she landed her job 16 years ago as Harley-Davidson’s general corporation counsel. And when chief executive officer Keith Wandell tapped her to become the vice president of human resources, Wandell told her that he knew she could learn the job quickly. “I was humbled by the fact that he asked me, and I just knew he was someone I wanted to work with,” Calaway said. Part of Calaway’s role includes being the president of the Harley-Davidson Foundation, but she also serves on the board for the Hunger Task Force, Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee, Froedtert Health, Meta House and the National Minority Supplier Diversity Council. Hunger Task Force executive director Sherrie Tussler called Calaway “a tenacious advocate for low-income families.” “Under her leadership, the foundation has strategically targeted its investments into three core areas: health, education and the environment,” Tussler said. “In 2013, Tonit breathed new life and vision into The Hunger Task Force Farm to embody these three focal areas.” But when Calaway talks about her career and her work in the community, she speaks with humility in her voice. “I often don’t look at things as challenges,” she said. “There is always a way around the mountain, but I also know that I accomplish these things with a lot of help. So I didn’t do this alone, but I also wasn’t going to let anyone stop me.”