REAL ESTATE
26 n Capital Region Business Journal May 2008
BUILDINGS MATTER
steve apps
The transparency at the Zimbrick European
dealership on
South Rimrock
Road allows
sales representatives to see
customers in
the showroom
and on the lot.
Great expectations at Zimbrick European
Stylish building helps accelerate sales of high-end performance cars
W
hen you sell Mercedes, Audi,
and Porsche, everything has
to be just right, including the
building where people make
these investments in style
and quality.
Aaron Perkins, Zimbrick European’s
general manager, says expectations of carbuying are much higher today.
“You can’t sell cars in 2008 sitting on
cheap metal chairs next to the burnt-out
coffee pot,” he said.
A Beltline drive shows that Madison’s
dealerships have radically improved in five
years and Zimbrick’s 2006, 60,000-squarefoot project on South Rimrock Road in
Madison is a great example.
Each of their three car manufacturers has
tight specifications for the dealership buildings, for everything from floor materials to
wall colors to the sign details.
“Audi is the most stringent, specifying
even the angle of the lights in the show-
room,” says Perkins.
Zimbrick hired Kenneth F. Sullivan as the
design/builder to blend the manufacturers’
specs into a functional building on a difficult site.
Siting the building
Zimbrick was in two nondescript buildings on the north side of the Beltline at Rimrock for years; retrofitting wasn’t feasible.
But the new site wasn’t easy: Parts had
to be raised 10 feet to be visible and functional.
Customers can see all four sides of the
building, which posed the challenge of
making the service docks attractive. Getting
the building “sited” right is a mark of good
architecture.
The extensive interior windows around
the offices and workstations lets sales representatives see visitors both in the showroom and the lot. The transparency is both
comforting and helpful.
Derrick Van Mell
is principal of Van Mell Associates,
management consultants specializing in strategic facility decisions.
Steve Steinhoff
is executive director of the Neighborhood Design Center, helping
communities become great places.
Visibility
of signs
“You can’t have
enough signs, and
you can’t be without
signs even for a day,”
says Perkins.
Local codes dic-
tate the size and location of signs in each Service bays
zoning district. At Zimbrick, you can see the
There’s a 300-foot service corridor
creative use of pylon signs (Mercedes) and
through
the middle of building with winbuilding signs (Porsche and Audi).
dows
from
the customer areas and also into
You can also see the reinforcing sign and
the
service
bays.
brand messages everywhere inside. Of
“This
is
all
part of being fully transparent
course the best “signs” are the cars themselves. The author can report the mid-life
Please see ZIMBRICK, Page 28
temptations were intense.
REAL ESTATE
28 n Capital Region Business Journal May 2008
REAL ESTATE DIGEST
Design changes, weather
delay Hilldale project work
A harsh winter and changes to
the design of the project are forcing delays in the second phase of
construction at Hilldale Shopping
Center.
Officials with Joseph Freed &
Associates said the construction
of a Whole Foods grocery store, an
office and retail building and parking structure will not begin until
July and that construction on the
six story, 140-room Hotel Indigo
would be delayed until September
or October.
The Chicago company, which
in the fall began clearing the seven-acre site at Segoe Road and
University Avenue, had originally
planned to begin vertical construction earlier on land that had
been home to the Hilldale Theater and Humana Insurance.
The now $70 million project
originally called for two condominium towers but those plans
were scrapped last year due to a
softening market. The proposed
hotel moved from the west side of
the mall to where the theater had
been and one of the condominium towers was planned.
Officials with Freed were scheduled to meet with city officials
to discuss design changes to the
hotel, which include moving the
commons area more under the
hotel. Construction on the hotel is
expected to take about 16 months,
meaning it would likely not open
until early 2010.
The other component to Phase
2, a 55,000-square-foot Whole
Foods, 65,000-square-feet of retail,
office and a health club, and a 670stall parking structure is scheduled
to take about 12 months to build,
meaning the store would likely
open in the fall of 2009.
Wingra Shores project
delayed to 2009
Construction will be delayed
until next year for the 45-unit
Wingra Shores condominium
project planned for the 2600 block
of Monroe Street.
The project, including 4,000
square feet of commercial space
and 57 underground parking spaces, now will get started in July 2009,
said developer Jim Corcoran.
“We were working on just
tweaking some things like getting
more units towards the lake,” he
said. “It just got to the point where
I didn’t want to be rushed, and the
market’s a little sluggish, too.”
Corcoran said people have expressed interest in the project, but
he wants to construct an office
Send us your news
to: Capital Region Business Journal,
Box 8058, Madison, WI 53708
The Capital Region Business Journal
welcomes news of staff additions,
promotions and awards and honors.
We also welcome your calendar
items. To submit information, e-mail
bizjournal-news@madison.com or mail
Include the person’s name, job
title, whether the person is new or
promoted, and the company’s name
and address. Also include a contact
name and phone number.
Foreclosures rose in February in
Dane County and Wisconsin, according to a report issued by RealtyTrac, an online database for
foreclosure properties.
The county had 131 foreclosure
filings in February, including default notices, auction sales and repossessions, or one for every 1,545
households. The number was up
about 3 percent from 127 filings
in January and about 134 percent
higher than the 56 filings in February 2007.
Wisconsin’s 2,393 foreclosure
filings in February, one for every
1,044 households, were up 13.8
percent from January and 145.7
percent higher than a year ago.
New ‘accelerator’
building is planned
University Research Park will
construct a 60,000-square-foot
“accelerator” building for companies that have outgrown the MGE
Innovation Center and moved on
to the next level. The three-story
building, designed by the Strang
architectural firm, will sit south of
the Innovation Center along Research Park Boulevard.
Research Park director Mark
Bugher said it’s too soon to tell
how many companies the building
will house, and there are no commitments from tenants yet. “We’re
employing the ‘field of dreams’
strategy: If we build it, they will
come,” he said.
Dispute resolution clause
can save time and money
S
ome commercial leases
will contain a “relocation” clause that gives
the landlord the right
to relocate the tenant
to another space under certain
conditions and circumstances.
Landlords include such clauses
so they can accommodate tenants
who might want to expand into a
contiguous, but occupied, space.
The theory behind the clause is
that it will allow a landlord to accommodate one tenant and avoid
losing another in the process.
At first this clause might seem
like a negative for a potential tenant because if the landlord uses it,
the tenant is faced with moving
costs, changing phone and Internet service, changing business
cards and stationery, not to mention the probable business interruption losses.
However, potential tenants
don’t have to be wary of this provision. In fact, it can be used as leverage in lease rate negotiations.
A landlord might be more willing
to lower the rate in exchange for
leaving the provision in.
Just be sure before signing that
About six acres of a 10-acre
property owned by Madison
Turners on South Stoughton Road
are being sold for development of
a commercial building, Turners
chief executive officer Alice Soule
said.
Architect Jerry Bourquin and
developer Tim Neitzel applied to
Madison’s Urban Design Commission for review of a proposed
building that will be built south
of the existing Madison Turners building at 3001 S. Stoughton
Road. It will be designed with front
offices and rear storage areas for
multiple tenants, Bourquin wrote
the commission.
County, state foreclosure
numbers have increased
LEASING TIPS
By Ralph Kamps
Building proposed for
South Stoughton Road
and sales building near the site
this year that will be used to help
market the units.
the lease states that you will be
fully compensated for any economic impacts of relocating and
specifically spells out the terms of
the compensation.
If you do this, and the provision is never exercised, then you
end up with a lower rate. If it is
exercised, the monetary impact
of moving should be negligible
because of the compensation. It’s
a win-win situation for the tenant
and landlord. n
Ralph Kamps is publisher of commercial real estate listing service
Cirex/Property Drive.
BRIEFLY
Bunbury and Associates of
Madison has opened a full service
real estate office in the remodeled
Meigs community retail/service
complex at 1527 Highway 14 in
Construction of the $6 million to Black Earth. Meigs provides de$8 million building is expected to sign-build services for agricultural
begin in late spring or early sum- and residential building projects.
mer with occupancy by the sumSiegel-Gallagher, a Milwaukee
mer of 2009, Bugher said. Univercommercial
real estate firm with
sity Research Park owns 18 of the
a
Madison
office
at 301 N. Broom
35 buildings in the park.
St., has become a corporate member of the U.S. Green Building
Mansion Hill Inn sold to
Council.
Trek Hospitality
Trek Hospitality, a subsidiary of
the Trek Bicycle Corp. of Waterloo,
has purchased the historic Mansion Hill Inn, 424 N. Pinckney St.
The company, which bought the
11-suite inn from the Alexander
Co. of Madison, will renovate it,
said Trek spokesman Mark Joslyn.
Zimbrick
White Cap Real Estate of Madison and Appleton, which specializes
in real estate exchanges and investor
ownership of large developments,
has arranged to use Empire Securities of Universal City, Calif., as managing broker-dealer for the firm’s
syndicated offerings. n
for our customers,” says Perkins.
Zimbrick invested in an automated parts dispenser that allows the parts inventory to be on a
mezzanine, invisible to customers
and to provide speedy and clean
service.
showcase.
n Enterprise has a counter
in the service area (not for rentals, but to help them manage the
loaner fleet).
n A high quality “clinker” tile
paves the service lane floor for
strength and maintainability.
n The staff-only locker and
break rooms are nicely detailed,
so all 65 employees are inspired to
quality daily.
Detail in building
Lessons learned
The luxury cars shine because of
their attention to detail and that’s
also apparent in the building:
n The office doors have fingerprint-recognition locks.
n Waste oil is reused for heating.
n There’s a play area with a windowed work station for busy parents.
n Starbucks coffee is served
near the branded merchandise
Perkins reports that the new
facility has had a “substantial” effect on sales success. “I wouldn’t
change a thing.”
Every business sells something
and the customer visit is essential
to sales success.
Zimbrick European is a sophisticated, global example of the
importance of a building’s transparency, brand messaging, cleanliness, and attention to detail. n
Continued from Page 26